Contact Point
Some thoughts about how we move in the world and our connection to ourselves
When working on my Spring/Summer collection 2011, I gave myself freedom. Freedom to follow the heart, aesthetic ambitions and inspirations. I took my prolonged preoccupation with avant-garde on step forward, especially when it comes to examining the connection between body and fabric.
My trips around the world, as well as my stay in Japan, exposed me to different perceptions when it comes to the connection we feel toward the fabrics that cover us. I saw fascinating interpretations to elegant, classic looks and a completely different approach toward fabric; one which allows it to distance from the body, touching it without touching it and mainly, liberate it.
This process resulted in the mini collection “Sphere”, aims at re-examining out interrelations with the garments surrounding us. This line is led by the video art Minimal Form, which conveys visually the entering and existing experience of our clothes. While positing the female body in the center of this creation, I tried to maintain the minimalism that characterizes my signature as a designer and at the same time to take a step away from figurativeness in order to analyze the way in which we move in the world.
Our connection to our body is always complex, confusing at times. More than once we find ourselves chained to social conventions that do not suit us; or to looks which cannot convey adequately what goes on inside. My little call for independence starts exactly at that place – in the everlasting attempt to accept what you do have and what you lack. Each and every one of us needs to find the way to feel contempt in regards to our body, weight and look. The garment creates the first impression we give to the world, but it’s pretty clear to us all that the real work starts from within. 
In this collection, I found that loose figured create a sense of liberation. You find your way back to your body, in a realm of privacy which creates intimacy facing the world. Thus, you make it clear that there is much more to be discovered and to me, this is a much more quintessential feminine approach; one that always begins at self-acceptance. True, it’s always easier to feel comfortable in a body of a 20 something year old, but this is exactly where our work as women begins – in eyes wide open and self-observance and in manifesting a continuous process of knowing ourselves.
As a woman, I aspire, day to day, to conduct myself in the world as someone who knows exactly who she is. I accept myself, my advantages and disadvantages, when faced with a constant mirror which is Maya Negri fashion house; which is me in 100 percent. If I find that I immersed with something from the outside which does not suit me or affected my mood, it’s much easier for me to solve the confusion, to not panic or react emotionally.
I try to detach myself from the endless flux of reactions we receive from the outside in regards to our choices and remind myself this is my true power – as a woman, a designer, a human being in the world.