L’amour 2014

“This collection is presented in Amsterdam at Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week, Amber Ambrose Aurèle explores new ways of losing herself and falling in love.

Her Happiness Is Never Her Own is a story inspired by Hamlet’s young Ophelia reaching madness and her struggle of being truly happy without the influence of others. She is drowning in pain but still stays feminine and strong while being stuck between two different worlds.

Inspired by the reflection of water, its form was translated into the use of mirror-porcelain and Plexiglas to represent the two sides of Ophelia and her search for happiness. Dark romance is suggested through the use of embossed latex and ponytails.

In current psychiatry, Ophelia syndrome is a psychic disorder where one does not have the ability to separate themself from the desires and wills of others. Shakespeare’s Ophelia suffers from a form of erotomania where her happiness depends on other people. This can be interpreted in two ways: the loss of her own identity, or higher awareness of her own identity in which the psychosis is an explanation. Her madness is arguably both positive and negative. Amber was inspired by how some feminists argue that Ophelia gains her identity back by taking her own life: by withdrawing from influences of men.

Her Happiness Is Never Her Own is a story inspired by the young Ophelia and her struggle of being truly happy without the influence of others. She is drowning in pain but still stays feminine and strong while being stuck between two different worlds. Inspired by the reflection of water its form was translated into the use of mirror- porcelain and Plexiglas to represent the two sides of Ophelia and her search for happiness. Ophelia reaching madness once she lost two men in her life inspires the collection.“