The Gentle Frame, by Hannah Smith
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 2025
Artist: Hannah Smith
Dimensions:
Pencil drawings: 295 × 420 mm (29.5 × 42 cm)
Exhibition book: 207 × 295 mm (20.7 × 29.5 cm)
Medium: Pencil and paper
Object number: FA.2026.36.CC.1-4
Description
1. First pencil drawing
2. Second pencil drawing
3. Digital portfolio
4. Exhibition book
Four objects relating to 'The Gentle Frame' BA Fashion Womenswear graduate collection by Hannah Smith: two pencil drawings tracing a seated self-styling session, a digital portfolio documenting the collection's development and making techniques, and a book produced for an exhibition of two looks in Maastricht, Netherlands, November 2025.
Description by the maker:
Growing up alongside my brother, who lived with neurofibromatosis type 2, gave me a perspective on fashion’s frequent exclusion of disabled people. This collection challenges stigmatising narratives and instead celebrates corporeal deviance with pride and reverence. Medical aids are treated as meaningful extensions of the body – worthy of the same design sensitivity as clothing. It’s a tribute to the duality of disabled identity: organic and mechanical, tender and fortified. Through material juxtapositions, I seek harmony between softness and structure.
A central motif is wrought iron gates – symbols of restriction and protection – reimagined through soft, sheer materials like silk organza and tulle. Airbrushed prints mimic the crimson shadows of shedding antlers. Machine embroidery creates floating lines across transparent surfaces, while loose threads I’ve collected over the years are layered and trapped between sheers in intricate, ironwork-like forms. I also sculpted fringe-cut leather into delicate motifs, offering a second skin of softened security. Every technique serves to balance strength and vulnerability.
The original pencil sketches are tracings from an experimental styling session I had with myself in my room. I used old toiles and clothes that I own, and dressed myself in different ways while seated. I especially wanted to play with proportions and traditional Victorian dress. I wanted to relocate the exaggerated curves of the body to make sense for the seated frame – moving a bustle to the knees, and a corset that defines the curve of a seated torso.
This book was created to go alongside an exhibition in Maastricht, Netherlands in November 2025 where two of my collection looks were shown. The book includes images from my portfolio for my collection ‘The Gentle Frame’, alongside words from myself and Karma Casto.
2. Second pencil drawing
3. Digital portfolio
4. Exhibition book
Four objects relating to 'The Gentle Frame' BA Fashion Womenswear graduate collection by Hannah Smith: two pencil drawings tracing a seated self-styling session, a digital portfolio documenting the collection's development and making techniques, and a book produced for an exhibition of two looks in Maastricht, Netherlands, November 2025.
Description by the maker:
Growing up alongside my brother, who lived with neurofibromatosis type 2, gave me a perspective on fashion’s frequent exclusion of disabled people. This collection challenges stigmatising narratives and instead celebrates corporeal deviance with pride and reverence. Medical aids are treated as meaningful extensions of the body – worthy of the same design sensitivity as clothing. It’s a tribute to the duality of disabled identity: organic and mechanical, tender and fortified. Through material juxtapositions, I seek harmony between softness and structure.
A central motif is wrought iron gates – symbols of restriction and protection – reimagined through soft, sheer materials like silk organza and tulle. Airbrushed prints mimic the crimson shadows of shedding antlers. Machine embroidery creates floating lines across transparent surfaces, while loose threads I’ve collected over the years are layered and trapped between sheers in intricate, ironwork-like forms. I also sculpted fringe-cut leather into delicate motifs, offering a second skin of softened security. Every technique serves to balance strength and vulnerability.
The original pencil sketches are tracings from an experimental styling session I had with myself in my room. I used old toiles and clothes that I own, and dressed myself in different ways while seated. I especially wanted to play with proportions and traditional Victorian dress. I wanted to relocate the exaggerated curves of the body to make sense for the seated frame – moving a bustle to the knees, and a corset that defines the curve of a seated torso.
This book was created to go alongside an exhibition in Maastricht, Netherlands in November 2025 where two of my collection looks were shown. The book includes images from my portfolio for my collection ‘The Gentle Frame’, alongside words from myself and Karma Casto.