In a single night of 1922, an empire and its certainties were undone, rank, faith, name, home, revoked at once. From that rupture the first wave of Russian emigration carried millions across borders into a life of not‑belonging. Khatz Daniel gathers this inheritance, his own by blood and by exile, and lets it settle onto the body as cloth.
Weight of Despair turns military tailoring against itself. After Robert Morris and his anti‑form, the garment is refused its imposed shape: the coat no longer builds the body but is dictated by it, the fabric allowed to fall under its own weight. What remains dresses the figure of the émigré, burdened, unhoused, carrying the furniture of a former life upon his back.
The garment would no longer form the body, the body would dictate the shape, and the fabric collapse under its own weight.
Research & Development
Every piece begins in the archive of exile. The research follows the first wave out of Crimea in 1919–1920: the crowded decks, the metal and burlap of Jannis Kounellis, the abundance of daily objects a body drags when a country is left behind. A chair is taken apart and rebuilt as a backpack; a coat learns to carry it. The cloth, stripped wool blends, heavy USSR military wool, washed cotton and laundered linen, is chosen for how it holds, and gives up, its shape.
Designer’s Note
“As an emigrant myself, I went into the history of Russian migration looking for the roots that connect our time to that past. Among stories of people leaving their country for a better future, I found the same feeling again and again, relief from oppression, and beneath it a constant uncertainty, a not‑belonging. No wave of immigration is the same, yet the emotional responses rhyme. Inspired by Robert Morris and his Anti‑form, letting go of pre‑imposed shape , I turned to deconstruction. I rethought men’s military garments so the body would dictate the shape, letting the fabric collapse under its own weight.”
Credits
Photography – Johann Kööp @kanaliha
Art direction – Anastasia Shulman @nnshulman
Set design – Owen Towler @towler_owen
Fashion design – Khatz Daniel @khatzdaniel
Models – Artem Spivak @temaspi, Anastasia Shulman @nnshulman, Liev Zebolotnyi @morbit.mp3, Khatz Daniel @khatzdaniel
Made with the support of “Under the roof” @under_the_roof