Pauline van Dongen was born in Amsterdam in 1986 and had a childhood filled with art and music attending an arts conservatory at 15.
In 2008 Pauline graduated with a BA in Fashion Design from the renowned Artez, Academy of the Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands. It was there that she first developed
an interest in the French method of pattern drafting called “moulage” (which literally translated means ‘mold’).  As she explored surfaces and textures, she began
screen printing silk jersey with puff ink applying heat to the fabric. During this process, she discovered that the ink expanded and pulled the fabric into a resilient and
flexible plissé. Draping the lucious material onto the body, voluminous shapes began to emerge. Her graduation collection, Sibylle, was inspired by body language and
resulted in clothes communicating through form and feeling.

Later that year she went on to the Masters Program at the Fashion Institute of Arnhem. During a shoe design course there, she discovered a love for product design and also
further developed her personal signature that has been described as “organic science”. In January 2010 Pauline won the Sacha Golden Heel Award with her shoe design ‘Vertigo’.
She decided to continue designing shoes with her womenswear collection to present a complete image. Her graduation collection ‘Morphogenesis’ is founded in a fascination with
the relation between human and their surroundings. She researched the space that is the closest to the body; the void between a body and a garment. The result stood out because
of it’s minimalistic and clean look and her experimental approach. Pauline sees her work as “a proposal for the future”. She likes innovation because “it advances our concept of
what fashion is or could be.” Her 3D printed shoes underline this idea. The technique of 3D printing gave her the opportunity to translate the sculptural feel of her garments into a rigid form.
The polyamide creations maintained the organic lines of her work with fabric. The outcome are these striking shoes that lend a futuristic look and feel to her overall collection.

The 3D printed Morphogenesis shoes were made with the support of Dutch 3D printing company Freedom of Creation. Her graduation collection Morphogenesis was awarded
‘most creative collection’ by the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana at Mittelmoda – the Fashion Awards in Italy and she was selected as one of ten finalists at the Belgian
fashion competition Fashion Weekend. Pauline’s work focuses on the surface, she uses fabric as a starting point. Working with unconventional or new materials triggers her to
explore and research the processing and finishing in a garment and allows her to work like a researcher. Tactility, texture and no-frills modernity are the essence of her work.