Silk designer Saz Mifsud has released a new collection titled Lacuna, featuring silk scarves, headbands, handbags and shawls.

Mifsud, who has been designing silk garments since 2013, was attracted to fashion out of a love of seeing colour on clothes she wore and translating artwork into clothing. All her fabrics are designed from scratch, resulting in very unique accessories.

This particular collection takes its inspiration from a dark time the designer went through.

“The present collection came after a very tough time in my life,” Mifsud confides.

She adds how it came at a time when she was reflecting a lot on the meaning of things: “what friendship is, what love is, what grief is, what loss is and how blurred the lines can be between one and the other”.

Indeed, reflection plays a key role in the collection.

“At times I would just walk and walk and walk,” the designer says, as she was “trying to form some semblance of clarity in [her] mind”.

Escaping to London and walking along new paths helped her find such clarity. She says she found it in the reflections on the water as she walked along Regent’s Canal. She photographed every reflection she saw, of buildings, trees, boats.

Lacuna was thus born. It is the Latin word for pond, also defined as an unfilled space, which is apt perhaps, as she experienced a time in her life in which she felt emptiness, uncertainty and chaos; but also excitement, as it left behind a space filled with possibility.

While Mifsud’s collection may have its origins in difficult times, it is also a testament to hope and aspiration. The myriad of autumnal shades, depicted through varied reflections thus come to mirror warmth and prospect, and to bring joy to all those who wear them.

Lacuna was launched at the Malta Society of Arts, Republic Street, Valletta, last Friday. The show is open until today from 10am until 7pm. Everyone is invited to attend. Visit www.sazmifsud.com for more information.