In Roman times men believed in a genius which was seen as a personal guardian angel. People believed that creativity was not seen as a talent of an artist but as a gift from a deity. In the Renaissance the genius disappeared and the man himself was seen as a genius. From that moment the responsibility was in our own hands.

My concept is about the battle with the mental disorder caused by the restrictions within the fashion system where pressure plays a major role. With reference to the marionette “a person who’s in service of someone else”, I want to mock this.

For my collection I used elements of the carnival. Mihkail Bakhtin describes carnival as an event in which the standards and equality between people are being lifted. The grotesque body also plays a role and is related to the caricature which body parts are enlarged and removed from the classical ideal of beauty.

The translation to my collection is a bombastic use of color. Warm tones combined with bright accents and pastels are inspired by the colors of organs. The strained strings stand for the restriction and the folding reflects the humor where some parts of the body are being blown up. Also by playing with the different placements of the limbs from the marionette it’s being taken out of context. The use of neoprene gives a fleshy effect and refers to how artist Folkert de Jong calls it: “gebakken lucht”, which means “nonsense”. The use of cardboard and brads are inspired by the paper doll, which gives the collection that handcrafted feeling that I was looking for.

Photographer: Denise Boomkens

Make-up: Anita Jolles