Killer Clothes from Outer Space

Ana Belen Meroño blasts away her competition with out of this world designs

By Kirsten Kilponen
Published: March 22nd, 2009 | 12:00am

Quite possibly the most amazing fashion design prompt ever — “Urban Holograpahic: Retrofuturism, Refraction, and the Mirroring of Light” — was posed to top design students from universities around the UK. Any competition that requires students to use lunar flares, stardust, the moon, the years 1964-69, and 2001: A Space Odyssey as inspiration is asking for the incredible — and Nottingham Trent’s Ana Belen Meroño delivered.

The Spanish-born Meroño outshined her opponents with her Op Art and Blade Runner-inspired designs. The competition was sponsored by Fashion Awareness Direct (a London based charity program) for London’s Fashion Week, and amongst the judges were the Curator of the Space Age Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a UK delegate to the International Space Exploration Coordination group, and the Editor of Vogue.com, Dolly Jones, who raved that Meroño’s designs were the most “dazzling and galactic display.”

We caught up with Meroño to ask about her award-winning garments, the merits of kitsch, and what’s in her future — now that retrofuturism is in her past.

After winning the FAD (Fashion Awareness Direct) award, have you spent your time basking in the glory, or are you busy at work with new designs?

I enjoyed a bit of glory, but now I had this confidence on my designs, I could not resist running back to my sketchbook.

When you were first presented with the design prompt of “Urban Holographic: Retrofuturism, Refraction, and the Mirroring of Light,” was your head spinning with ideas?

My head was already full of these ideas. I am passionate of any topic about the future; I am a big fan of novels like Brave New World and films such as Blade Runner, but before the competition, I did some research for my final collection for the university.

Would you ever wear your designs, or are they meant to stay put on the runway or on outer space airhostesses?

You could see them translating into real life and perfect for the airhostesses in the future space trips.

Have you ever made anything such a radical design? Where does your inspiration usually come from?

I’m not really interested in fashion, so I can say that my inspiration comes from art, cinema, photography, music, [and] friends. I love to experiment and try to make things more interesting. My main point is the human figure in volume, prints, and experimenting [with] fabrics. I can say that my inspiration comes from ideas and emotions, [not] transcendent aesthetic values.

If you could pick any theme prompt your next design, what would it be?

I’d love to do something inspired in [medical] aesthetic, and reveal the taboos associated with physical deformities. [To] experiment with medical materials and supplies such as plaster bandages, steel, and band-aids.

If you could design for anyone famous (dead or alive) who would it be and why?

For the instant, [it] is quite difficult to me to put a face on my designs. I design for fun, and for this little bit of excitement I get when my ideas come true. One day I will think more seriously in [terms of] a customer, but now I don't think in money when I design.

I will love to design for someone as Bjork or Yelle, both love high and experimental fashion, I love their personalities and their sense of personal style. And the most important for me: [they’re] having fun with what they are wearing.

What advice would you give our readers when it comes to using extreme themes as fashion inspiration, but to also avoid looking too kitschy?

Even the most kitschy thing can be wearable [when] complementing something more "boring." Kitsch is not the same for everyone. The most important [thing] is that we need to find the style true to ourselves, there is nothing more obvious — then we can change a piece of fabric into something special or something kitschy.