The storytelling was on level in Abarna Kugathasan’s second present for her label Kitschy Couture. Final February, she confirmed off her extravagant items (primarily clothes on the time) in an impressive Tamil wedding ceremony ceremony during which the bride married herself. “Now this season is a honeymoon assortment—after marrying herself, the bride is occurring a honeymoon getaway to this synthetic paradise.” Fairly literal, the present that was imaginatively staged in Stadtbad Neukölln, a public pool, began with a scantily clad “bride” being despatched on a journey by two male fashions, that means she floated round on an enormous inflatable swan.
Synthetic Paradise was an apt title for the gathering, through which the designer as soon as once more addressed her household background and the fusion of two very totally different cultures. Kugathasan is the daughter of Tamil immigrants who moved to Germany from Sri Lanka within the mid-Nineteen Nineties. She grew up in a “very conservative Tamil family, however with a really western and really German surrounding,” as she says. When she began her label, she went again to her mother and father’ dwelling to do some image analysis. “If you have a look at footage of how they lived within the ’90s, you’ll see a extremely typical German lounge, however the subsequent second, you’ll discover issues like plastic lotus flowers within the cupboards and plastic banana bushes in all places. It’s nearly like you might be curing your homesickness by artificially recreating your former dwelling. I used to be born into this in between world and that’’s precisely what Kitschy Couture is about,” Kugathasan stated after the present.
Consistent with the holiday theme, the gathering featured swimwear within the type of adjustable maillots and bikinis with massive rose petals as ornament. There have been additionally lace babydoll clothes, embroidered satin sarong pants, ruffled pajamas, a turquoise wrap skirt with a prepare, and many playful lingerie-style items. For one look, classic bras have been even reworked into an asymmetrical high with suspenders. Kugathasan usually works with deadstock materials and was additionally supported with materials by British designer Simone Rocha, who’s Kugathasan’s mentor through Mentoring Issues, a worldwide mentoring scheme for candidates from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds.
The combined gender fashions, who walked across the pool, have been additionally adorned with dolphin or rose formed rhinestone physique tattoos and ocean-themed plastic earpieces, and carried dolphin formed baggage with airbrush prints. Is that this for everybody, every single day? No. However is that this inventive and particular, a welcome maximalist change to the various darkish and club-suitable collections in Berlin, and fully coherent in itself? Hell sure.
