My graduation collection started with an interest in synthetic biology, a field that has developed rapidly through advances in biotechnology within the past 15 years. Synthetic biologists not only aim at genetically redesigning existing forms of life but also at constructing completely novel biological entities. Living matter is increasingly conceived as programmable material and first inventions already start slipping out of the laboratories into our familiar environment. In its Turning Points 2014 theme, the New York Times ventures a view into our future in which aged body parts will be replaced by lab-grown organs and in which parents will design their children by choosing certain genetic characteristics.
This new branch of science makes proof of the human desire to transcend the limits that nature has imposed to us and reshape our bodies according to very own conceptions. Where may the possibilities of synthetic biology lead us? The collection "mutable core" is based on a speculative scenario where humans aspire to expand their body identity by means of transgenic modifications. An imagined hybrid of womankind and octopus became the inspiration for all designs, as the octopus has amazing abilities to change shape and move in a number of different ways. A master in the game of Hide and Seek, the octopus can confuse and disappear through colour and structure transformations. In my collection, garments serve as a metaphor for corporeality. The primary focus is on the material that interacts with the moving body and seems to unfold a life on its own. Volumes and drapery of the silhouettes shift according to movement, reveal or cover the body and irritate through the collision of striped surfaces.
Project supervised by: Prof. Marloes ten Bhömer, Prof. Dr. Ingeborg Harms, Mads Dinesen
// photos: SCHMOTT, www.schmott.co
// models: Julia Muggenthaler, Sarah Zinycs
// hair/make-up: Cara-Lena Schmidt