Part 1 – Agnus Dei is the first solo collection from Designer Rory William Docherty.
“I’m a hopeless romantic. Sketching began in a workbook I received on Valentine’s day 2013. I wanted to create something personal and new, but still beautiful, unapologetically so, relatable but not of the moment, like a lingering dream.”
Inspiration came from diverse fascinations; austere Catholic priests swathed in lavish embroideries, the contrasting symbolism of the lamb depicted with John the Baptist and the sacrificial lamb, Francis Bacon’s confrontational works Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope and Figure with Meat, and a love of wild nasturtiums.
“Initially I avoided designing garments, focusing on the creative process, but my drawings evolved into paper maquettes, enlarged into life size distorted shapes, and in spite of myself I began draping fluid and sculptural forms.”
Thousands of glass beads pour from the sleeves of an Italian wool jacket, which took over fifty hours to create the degradé fringing. A length of black silk moiré purchased 15 years ago in London, which then was already 30 years old, is realised in an undulating swing jacket, with a suitably vintage feel.
The nasturtium silk print is based on a pencil and watercolour work, which took a year to complete, and is draped and folded from a single piece of fabric into a floor length dress.
The aesthetic is simultaneously familiar and remote, a calculated romanticism, an aspirational beauty both sensitive and severe.
