Xenolith’s collection ‘Discordia’ inspired by Greek mythology communicates the conflicts which are often the result of an over-saturated and manipulative marketed society which has the power to cause chaos within the minds of women. In understanding that conflict, the collection is a discordant interference within the construction of a visual identity which releases the wearer from the anxieties of harmonising with a dictatorial and conservative society.
 


Inspired by Theodore Roethke’s poem ‘Epidermal Macabre’ Xenolith began slashing leather skins with precision to communicate a controlled self-mutilation and destruction. Taking the skins into three-dimensional, combining influence from George Condo’s ‘Mental States’ painting, the shapes became fluid and multi-functional communicating a double-layered personality as well as the consequences of losing touch with one’s physical presence. The shapes were draped in multiple variations from a corseted base which both follows the natural contours of the body but also acts as a restrictive force when boning is inserted into a natural material.

 
 
 
 

The approach to design takes an anamorphic form, influenced by both surrealist and expressionist art movements to visually communicate the subjective dimensions to identity through a route to escapism and the imaginary. The silhouettes will move through a disembodied journey of the mind to a more comfortable, but dynamic space. Intricate, hand craft processes are informed by the designers process as both therapeutic expression and escapist anguish.
 
 



 
 
 
 
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