Fashion: Joel Janse van Vuuren Chaos by Design

Joel Janse van Vuuren [South Africa]

[Image credit: Joel Janse van Vuuren, Spring/Summer 2011 – SDR Photo]

Looking for a way to create garments that would be creative right from the beginning of the design process, South African designer Joel Janse van Vuuren purposely chose to move away from the methods of his formal fashion design teachings, using instead the ‘chaos’ of randomly spilt paint on paper to influence his fashion designs, and then giving order and structure to the blots by creating fashion illustrations from the shapes revealed. This is a method he calls ‘Chaos by Design’. Random and non-restrictive, Joel’s method of ‘Chaos by Design’ was inspired by his initial research, which had led him to Rorschach’s Inkblots. (Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychiatrist whose research and methods later led to personality analysis tools based on an unrelated technique he had developed using inkblots). Based in Johannesburg, Joel comes from a creative family; and prior to launching his own label worked with some of South Africa’s leading designers. Using different mediums including gouache, acrylic paint and ink, Joel transformed the resulting paint-blot illustrations into the designs for his collections which feature highly colourful and free-flowing garments, as vivid colours bleed into each other across sensual floaty silhouettes.

[Image credits: Joel Janse van Vuuren, clockwise from top left, Autumn/Winter 2012;
bottom right, Spring/Summer 2011 – SDR Photo]

Now onto his third collection, I must say his latest Spring/Summer 2012 has not grabbed me as much as the previous ones, which I fell for as soon as I saw them. I adore bright jewel-toned colours and there are some gorgeous eye-catching gowns to be had. Joel has also used his ‘Chaos by Design’ technique to create more casual daywear styles like the cute billowing tunic-style dress below. Offering a bespoke design service, Joel’s design services include wedding dresses.