Flora Inez Poprádi, Nicaraguan-Hungarian fashion designer from Budapest
It is quite difficult to describe the emotional rollercoaster I went through the past 4 months. I know it was a challenging time for the entire world so I feel like I shouldn’t be complaining about how my life went from living in Paris and interning at Marine Serre, to living in my childhood room in Hungary. The first few weeks I spent my days mostly in my bed mourning the life I could have had in Paris. Isn’t it ironic how a few months ago I was working on a SWAROVSKI mask and now I actually have to wear a mask to leave the house?
After finally getting over the grieving stage of acceptance I have started creating things that I never had the time for. When you have been doing something for 7 years you just simply get to the stage where you forget why you have even started doing it in the first place. I have been slowly losing touch with myself and realized I needed time to figure out what I want to do with my life. I craved a sense of liberation and I relieved my anxiety by creating. I used a visual diary to help me process all the things happening around me. My graduate collection was based on one of my previous journals so I was already familiar with this medium. The quarantine diary is an honest and raw extension of my isolated self, full of vulnerability and doubts about the future, but also reflecting my playful and childlike personality.
Since the days were filled with ups and downs. I noted the things that made me happy such as when my dad surprised me with my favourite cake. Now reading it back, it seems so far away, as I’m sitting in the sunny park surrounded by people and running children as if nothing has happened in the past few months.
But I can feel the wind of change … or maybe it’s just windy in Budapest.