Four top priority EDGE species have been highlighted in a unique fashion collection, Simply Rare, which features the long-beaked echidna, slender loris, saiga antelope, and long-eared jerboa.
Student Rachel Browne designed the pieces as part of her final collection for her degree at the Arts University College Bournemouth.
Rachel wanted to highlight the plight of these animals through her work, saying “I didn’t realise just how many of these animals I had never seen before… hopefully through my chosen medium this will show how we are endangering these unique creatures lives, and in turn gain support.”
In Rachel’s words:
Simply Rare is a six outfit collection inspired by the vast number of unknown endangered species that span our natural world. The aim of this collection is to show the plight of four of these unique creatures before they disappear forever, silently and in the shadows. It is important to portray this issue to a wider audience so others become aware of the situation and see just how special these animals truly are. To produce this vision a variety of nine individual prints have been beautifully created with a mixture of hand crafted and digital processes to create a quirky, one of a kind collection.
Rachel has already achieved her aim of raising awareness – her saiga antelope terrence skirt was featured in the Sunday Express fashion supplement on May 30th and on the Express website.
We wish Rachel the best of luck for tomorrow when she will be showing the collection at Graduate Fashion Week.
To support EDGE conservation projects for forgotten species, please donate here.
