Rachel Riemersma

Final Masters Project — Vogue College of Fashion, MA CDFM

About the

ARCHIVE

Personal narratives in fashion image making — a participatory creative direction project.

Role

Creative direction, styling, art direction

Discipline

Fashion image making

Participants

Three

Year

2026

The Archive cover collage — cut-out lettering surrounded by collected ephemera, photographs, receipts and keepsakes
Figure 01 — The Archive, cover collage

The Archive is a participatory creative direction project exploring how personal narrative can be translated into fashion image making. The project moves away from beginning with a predetermined aesthetic, instead allowing the lived experiences, memories and everyday materials of each participant to shape the creative process.

Participants were invited to collect personally meaningful ephemera from their everyday lives — photographs, receipts, notes, tickets and other objects. These materials were then developed into individual handmade journals, creating a personal archive for each participant. Through conversations with the participants and interpretation of their collected material, each archive becomes the starting point for styling and portraiture that reflects aspects of their identity and experiences.

From object to image

This project documents that process — from participant pack and collected ephemera to journal making, creative development and final portraiture — bringing the individual narratives together as The Archive.

The
process

Seven stages

01

Pack

Each participant receives a project pack introducing the process and inviting them to collect materials that feel meaningful to their everyday life.

02

Collect

Participants gather personal ephemera — photographs, receipts, tickets, notes, labels and objects connected to their memories and routines.

03

Story

Participants handwrite the stories, memories and meanings behind each object, adding their own voice to the archive.

04

Journal

The ephemera and narratives are interpreted through a handmade journal, bringing together objects, imagery, text and material experimentation.

05

Translate

Recurring themes, memories, colours, textures and personal references within the archive inform the creative direction and styling of each portrait.

06

Portrait

Each process culminates in a styled portrait developed collaboratively from the participant's archive, translating personal narrative into fashion imagery.

07

The Archive

Packs, ephemera, journals, creative development and final portraits are brought together, documenting both the outcomes and the process behind them.

Process spread — from object to image, with the seven stages set in airmail-bordered cards
Figure 02 — From object to image

Collect

Ephemera
Collected ephemera — receipts, soft toys, books, clothing labels and travel documents arranged as a collage
Figure 03 — Collected ephemera collage, participant 003
Handmade participant journal spread with photographs, boarding passes, receipts and handwritten notes
Figure 04 — Participant journal, 002

Translate

Creative direction

Each archive is read for recurring themes — colour, texture, material, memory — which are developed into a styling direction: silhouette, colour and material, key details, and the styling tension that holds each look together.

Styling direction board for participant 001, showing silhouette, personal references, colour and material notes
Figure 05 — Styling direction, participant 001
Styling direction board for participant 002 — earthy muted palette, linen and washed denim, relaxed tailoring, with the styling tensions polished and worn, aspirational and familiar
Figure 06 — Styling direction, participant 002
Styling direction board for participant 003, showing silhouette, personal references, colour and material notes
Figure 07 — Styling direction, participant 003

Participants

001 — 003

001

Anandhi Amonkar

Warm, feminine look built from childhood fairies, playful colour, florals and treasured objects — friendship, family and home, translated through late 90s / Y2K boho styling.

002

Christopher Chua

Multiple sides of identity — music, travel, golf, work, relationships and home. Aspirational tailoring combined with familiar, worn and personally significant pieces, so the look reads as collected over time rather than built around a single aesthetic.

003

Alexa Cervo

A playful, feminine look shaped by the contrast between everyday routine and escape — supermarkets, receipts and London life set against travel, books and imagination.

Portraits

Final outcome — twelve frames
Participant 001 photographed full length in a graffitied alleyway, wearing a sheer red and white printed top layered over a black column skirt
Figure 08 — Portrait series, participant 001
Participant 001 among dense green foliage, hands drawn to the chest, sheer floral print top with lace trim and layered gold jewellery
Figure 09 — Portrait series, participant 001
Participant 001 in close portrait, sunglasses on and both hands raised to the face, sheer red and white printed top with stacked gold rings and bangles
Figure 10 — Portrait series, participant 001
Participant 001 with one arm raised into dense green foliage, the wide sheer printed sleeve falling back from the wrist
Figure 11 — Portrait series, participant 001
Participant 002 seated on stone steps with legs crossed, cream V-neck jumper, black wide-leg trousers and Doc Martens
Figure 12 — Portrait series, participant 002
Participant 002 holding a pale blue electric guitar in a lamplit room, cream jumper and dark trousers — the music reference from his archive
Figure 13 — Portrait series, participant 002
Participant 002 seated in a doorway on stone steps, cream V-neck jumper over a collared shirt, black trousers, hands clasped between the knees
Figure 14 — Portrait series, participant 002
Participant 002 from behind on stone steps beside green foliage, wearing a black and cream varsity jacket
Figure 15 — Portrait series, participant 002
Participant 003 standing in a blue painted doorway framed by ivy, white lace dress with a concho belt and a draped denim jacket
Figure 16 — Portrait series, participant 003
Participant 003 against a large painted wall mural, white lace dress, concho belt and brown cowboy boots
Figure 17 — Portrait series, participant 003
Participant 003 standing full length beside water at dusk, white lace dress with a draped wrap over one shoulder, concho belt and cowboy boots
Figure 18 — Portrait series, participant 003
Cropped street frame of participant 003 — brown cowboy boots and the hem of the white lace dress on a stone step, shopfronts behind
Figure 19 — Portrait series, participant 003