Xyla Suzuki’s personal gender transition served as a main inspiration for her project, with the thoughts and feelings expressed during the start of her journey being the main thematic narrative of this body of work. The strong sexually positive imagery present in Suzuki’s collection serves as a commentary on the negative and damaging portrayal of trans women as sexual demons. These images satire this subject through reclamation of sexual expression, highlighting the ever so relevant sex positivity movement to make a statement about sexual and gender identity liberation.

Key inspirations include the works of Pierre Molinier and his sexually repressed, grotesque, dark and graphic images, with his experimentation on hyper femininity and sexuality being the main point of focus. Alongside this, Madonna’s 1992 ‘Sex’ book also inspired the themes of liberation, in which post feminist ideals allows for this project to act as a performative character, in the vein of Cindy Sherman. Here alike these inspirations Suzuki aims to transform the body and elevate to escapist territory. Suzuki also used her half Japanese heritage and culture as an informative for the collection, using the shape and style of the kimono for foundations for several garments. The strong influence of anime and manga is also showcased through the visual atmosphere of the collection.

Suzuki used gothic subtleties such as sharply cut hemlines, pointy edges and fabric draped in the shape of what could be wings of a demonic entity. This being credited heavily to her fascination with Gustave Dore’s ominous illustrations for ‘Paradise Lost’. This contrasts such things as the soft draped fabrics, light blues and purples creating a familiar but possibly unsettling or intimidating effect on viewers. The amalgamation also creates a possible monstrous or even alien like image, ones that could exist in a distant dimension or planet.