Dissolve into bliss

Questioning how body and clothing are actually connected, makes internalized boundaries visible to which the collective mind has gotten used to: boundaries, like the divisions in gender, the clear separations in between materials or the classic division into tops and bottoms.

With my thesis, I dare trying to undermine the prevailing categorization of fashion by deconstructing marked femininity. How can the viewer's expectations of the body be thwarted so that a sensual awareness is awakened to perceive clothing as more than a covering for the skin?
Using styling on my own body and adopting poses with art-historical female connotations, I examined my body feeling and these newly created shapes and forms. Wrapped in fabric, exchanging volumes, revealing a different silhouette depending on the view. This resulted in photographs, which I subsequently painted over intuitively. I investigated the tension that opens up when a pose is translated as part of the silhouette and thus a piece of clothing takes its place. The blurring of boundaries between body and design is underlined by merging different materials and fabrics.

By alienating traditional pattern making, which tries to bring the body into perfect symmetry, an aesthetic appears that is not primarily composed of regularity and harmony. Alienation also takes place in the processing of the materials; for example, the structure of knit is transferred to the leather by embossing. For the ruffled dress I developed a system of smocked fabric ribbons that can be connected with metal rings.

"Dissolve into bliss" dissolves the patriarchal norms of society and expands the concept of beauty.

credits:
headscarf: Elisabeth Fuchs