Saturday

I met a lovely jewellerer / textile designer... - Grace Du Prez

On the weekend of 11/12/13th March the Southbank Centre hosted the amazing WOW (Women of the World) festival, celebrating the work and contribution of women on various sectors/issues with a series of fabulous free and paid events, talks, workshops, discussions etc. Unfortunately I was working all 3 days and could not attend all the events I would have like to - :-( - but I DO work part-time at the Southbank Centre and so I was lucky to experience the brilliant vibe during the weekend and roam about during my breaks meeting a few lovely people. One of these happy encounters was with Grace Du Prez, who had a stall on the Level 2 foyer of the Royal Festival Hall - next to a pop-up hair cutting service provided by the very talented Zara-Alexis Toppin who works at Taylor Taylor (! go and have your hair cut by her before she gets too busy with super fame !) and hosted by the very charming and always impressively styled Gemma Rolls-Bentley (to whom I owe this encounter!). Grace is a constructed textiles designer who finished her Masters from the Royal College of Art in 2010 and creates both jewellery pieces and larger wearable body pieces. Her work does not only look stunning - shame for my bad photos below...do visit her webiste instead! - but also explores issues about conventional/unconventional beauty and body abnormalities by using various materials - a lot of hair! - in an experimental way.You can find Grace's work in Kiss The Frog Again, Guts for Garters and Mint. Such a pleasure to meet her!
Grace wearing one of her pieces


All photos taken by Maria Papadimitriou