Finders Keepers

“This is not about nostalgia—it’s about what stays with us after we’ve been left behind.”
In their BA graduate collection, Tilda Wallius explores themes of abandonment, value,
and transformation through intuitive, materially driven processes. The collection draws
inspiration from the act of dumpster diving—reclaiming what others have
discarded—and expresses this through sculptural garments that are layered, wrapped,
or encased in new form.

Using a method Wallius describes as “coating,” each piece conceals or preserves a
former structure beneath the surface. A trash bag becomes a dress lined with gold silk
and reinforced with a hidden corset. A top is constructed from hundreds of pistachio
shells, hand-attached to create organic armour. A graffiti-coated denim skirt floats away
from the body with tension in the knees Every garment employs its own system of
tension, support, or collapse, echoing the emotional labour of carrying memory, class,
and survival in the body.

“I work intuitively—shapes and meanings often emerge from the act of making, not from
planning.”

Wallius works almost entirely by hand, favouring slowness, emotional precision, and
material presence over industrial finish. Garments often begin as found or discarded
objects—transformed through sculptural intuition rather than conventional
patternmaking. This approach avoids literal interpretations of upcycling, instead offering
garments that hold poetic weight, tension, and quiet resistance.

“Beauty is present, but cracked. Structures sag, hold, or hover.”

The visual language of the collection references class differences through intentional
contrasts in shape and material. Some garments mimic bourgeois codes—structured
silhouettes, pearl embellishments, velvet, and organza—while others deliberately evoke
trash bags, insulation wrap, and makeshift solutions. These contrasts embody the
tension between aspiration and abandonment, questioning what is considered tasteful,
elegant, or worthy. In this world, bougie meets trashy—creating a hybrid space where
new values emerge.

Finders Keepers asks: what is left behind—and what is still worth carrying?

Tilda Wallius
tilda.wallius@aalto.fi

+358 503750908
@tildawallius