Photo: Niall McInerney
This week, you’ve most likely seen larger-than-life balloon garments deflating across your Instagram feed. Despite watching time and time again, I don’t seem to get bored with observing the models effortlessly emerge from the top shortly before yanking the rubber object down around their shoulders or waist. The inflated clothing items were designed by Fredrik Tjærandsen, a Norwegian designer who recently won the L’Oreal Professionel Young Talent Award for his 2019 BFA fashion presentation at Central Saint Martins in London. Not only are the dresses performative, they are also rewearable. After the bubble has gone flat, it can either be reinflated or simply worn as a deflated dress.
Initially Tjærandsen wanted to study sculpture during his BFA. His pieces, which he refers to as “bubbles,” reflect this initial interest in sculpture, and additionally have a conceptually tie to his childhood. “I was inspired by my own early childhood memories. I wanted to recreate the fogginess and the ‘mist’ of the memories themselves,” Tjærandsen told Vogue. “The inflated bubbles are about being able to wear an unclear memory. When the bubble emerges onto the catwalk, it’s the dream. The deflation of the bubble visualizes the moment when we realize we have a consciousness.”
You can take a peek at more of Tjærandsen’s rubbery designs on Instagram.
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https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2019/06/performative-rubber-garments/