“Conceptual art is an oxymoron. Concepts are articulations of fact or supposition, not attributes of quality.”
– Walter Darby Bannard
By Nazvi, 19 April, 2020
Harikrishnan, a NIFT Bengaluru student, had probably never expected such a response to his graduate show at London College of Fashion. All set to feature his work in two music videos already, he had never designed with the intent to sell them. Such are the design features of his work. What is it that is being talked about here? Inflatable latex trousers of balloon-like proportions.
In an interview with Vogue Harikrishnan mentioned that the idea for the exaggerated silhouettes first occurred to him when he was walking his dog, Kai. Imagining how he looked from his pug’s perspective, he started musing on distortion.
The designer had split the show into three sections – “craft, latex and tailoring” – with the concept of “familiarity versus unfamiliarity” at the heart of the edit. “People connect to the inflatable trousers because they are unfamiliar,” he explains. His star creations started as a clay model. For the final product thirty individual panels were made from three meters of Supatex. After being stuck together by hand, they left room for a seven millimeter- wide inflation valve at the bottom. Harikrishnan, had blown up the trial pairs himself but used a pump for the show.
From the eyes of Kai to the London College of Fashion. These pants have surely travelled a long way and they don’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
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