While the recent media frenzy around the Vatican might have cooled off, fashion keeps returning to Catholic imagery, and perhaps that is no coincidence.

Dark Fashion

Elena Dawson is not a brand. It is a state of being, a phenomenon whose aura resists all attempts at categorization within fashion’s coordinate systems. Her creative work is a secluded sanctuary, a chapel on the outskirts of the industry. Here, a particular, deeply intimate romance is born : the romance of a soft gothic, devoid of vampiric pomp and grotesquery, yet imbued with Victorian melancholy and the stoic grace of decay.

The body disappears, distorts, expands. Not to become something else, but to escape being human at all.

Rooted in the echoes of Orthodox Christianity, Russian literature, and forgotten silhouettes of the early 20th century, the brand TCHUR constructs garments as fragments of an alternate reality : somewhere between ritual, memory, and dream. Drawing from the mystical meaning of “chur” as a boundary between worlds, each piece becomes a quiet incantation: a way to reveal what culture hides, and to dress the invisible.

Dissecting fashion's relationship with distorted, dark, and deformed imagery

What happens when fashion stops trying to please and starts to think? Between decay and emptiness, between Derrida and Rei Kawakubo, conceptual fashion can become a meditation: on truth, impermanence, and the self beneath appearance.

Want to smell like bloody birthday cake, chilly nights in London, and burnt blunt?

Exploring the use of bones and skeletons as imagery and motifs across avant-garde fashion and design

When perfection becomes propaganda, ugliness becomes resistance. Across the avant-garde, designers are weaponising distortion, decay, and discomfort to fracture the polished surface of contemporary fashion. Transforming the grotesque into a radical language of defiance.

Centuries before punk or avant-garde existed, German mercenaries were already slashing fabric, clashing colours, and defying social codes. The Landsknechts of the 15th century turned rebellion into style, and their fearless self-expression still echoes across today’s runways.

Futuristic

From transforming furniture into dresses to garments embedded with motors, lasers, and microchips, Hussein Chalayan revolutionized the relationship between fashion and technology. This article explores how the British-Cypriot designer became one of the earliest pioneers of wearable tech and conceptual fashion.

How directors like David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Denis Villeneuve envisioned Dune’s universe, and how it continues to inspire avant-garde fashion.

While the fashion industry has drawn inspiration from the internet for years, a new wave of digital-first aesthetics is accelerating the evolution of trends.

Blending video game design, CGI, and couture craftsmanship, Victor Clavelly transforms technology into poetry. His creations stretch the limits of the body, reimagining what fashion - and reality - can become.

Japanese Designers

Carl Jung’s archetypes offer a new lens to decode avant-garde fashion. From Browne’s Trickster to Yamamoto’s Hermit, each silhouette becomes a vessel of the collective unconscious. Proof that fashion, at its most radical, speaks the language of the soul.

Japanese designers redefined avant-garde by merging tradition, philosophy, and innovation. From deconstruction to minimalism, their influence reshaped Western fashion and continues to inspire a generation seeking authenticity over perfection.

“Avant-garde” gets thrown around a lot in fashion, but where does it come from, and what does it actually mean? From its radical roots to its presence in lifestyle and design, here is what truly sets avant-garde apart from passing trends.

Tracing avant-garde’s path from its revolutionary roots of Elsa Schiaparelli, Rei Kawakubo, and McQueen to today’s branches of gothic elegance.

Art

From transforming furniture into dresses to garments embedded with motors, lasers, and microchips, Hussein Chalayan revolutionized the relationship between fashion and technology. This article explores how the British-Cypriot designer became one of the earliest pioneers of wearable tech and conceptual fashion.

Known for her Oscar-winning costumes in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and her visionary work across film, theater, and fashion, Ishioka blended avant-garde artistry with wearable sculpture.

In light of recent exhibitions like Demna’s retrospective at the Kering headquarters and Rick Owens’ Temple of Love, we explore the tension between fashion as something to be worn and fashion as something to be preserved and exhibited.

We explore Elsa Schiaparelli’s relationship with Surrealism, from collaborations with artists like Dalí to how Daniel Roseberry’s recent collections reinterpret those codes for a contemporary audience.

How directors like David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Denis Villeneuve envisioned Dune’s universe, and how it continues to inspire avant-garde fashion.

Carl Jung’s archetypes offer a new lens to decode avant-garde fashion. From Browne’s Trickster to Yamamoto’s Hermit, each silhouette becomes a vessel of the collective unconscious. Proof that fashion, at its most radical, speaks the language of the soul.

Mia Gosset continually rethinks what jewellery and objects can be. Here, she shares her process, inspirations, and the vision behind her practice, uncovering what truly makes Mia Gosset, Mia Gosset.

For those stepping into the avant-garde realm of fashion, Carol Christian Poell is an essential figure. Though now retired, his legacy endures. Through radical construction, cryptic processes, and garments that confront both the body and time, his influence continues to shape the fashion world.

While the recent media frenzy around the Vatican might have cooled off, fashion keeps returning to Catholic imagery, and perhaps that is no coincidence.

Emerging Designers

Dissecting fashion's relationship with distorted, dark, and deformed imagery

The Swedish designer presented her first London Fashion Week collection as an independent brand at Studio Smithfield.

Isabelle Taylor is a beautifully unconventional surrealist fashion designer specialising in fish leather, a sustainable material made from the byproducts of smoked salmon, which she uses to create garments through her brand, Skinned Potential.

Mia Gosset continually rethinks what jewellery and objects can be. Here, she shares her process, inspirations, and the vision behind her practice, uncovering what truly makes Mia Gosset, Mia Gosset.

Womenswear designer Antonio Femia looks to the hometown forests in Belgium for his graduate collection at Central Saint Martins. Bridget Devine discovers more about his ritualistic design universe...

Designing the Unwearable Inside an Inhospitable World...

While the fashion industry has drawn inspiration from the internet for years, a new wave of digital-first aesthetics is accelerating the evolution of trends.

Anonymous fashion is quietly reshaping the industry. Inspired by the legacy of Martin Margiela and embodied by designers like Carol Christian Poell and Aleksandr Manamïs, this movement rejects celebrity culture and returns focus to craftsmanship, material, and form.

Fashion Theory

From transforming furniture into dresses to garments embedded with motors, lasers, and microchips, Hussein Chalayan revolutionized the relationship between fashion and technology. This article explores how the British-Cypriot designer became one of the earliest pioneers of wearable tech and conceptual fashion.

Elena Dawson is not a brand. It is a state of being, a phenomenon whose aura resists all attempts at categorization within fashion’s coordinate systems. Her creative work is a secluded sanctuary, a chapel on the outskirts of the industry. Here, a particular, deeply intimate romance is born : the romance of a soft gothic, devoid of vampiric pomp and grotesquery, yet imbued with Victorian melancholy and the stoic grace of decay.

Known for her Oscar-winning costumes in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and her visionary work across film, theater, and fashion, Ishioka blended avant-garde artistry with wearable sculpture.

As she releases her Retrospective book, we chart the Eurythmics vocalist's looks across different musical eras, and how they shaped fashion, gender representation, and the visual vocabulary of pop.

In light of recent exhibitions like Demna’s retrospective at the Kering headquarters and Rick Owens’ Temple of Love, we explore the tension between fashion as something to be worn and fashion as something to be preserved and exhibited.

The body disappears, distorts, expands. Not to become something else, but to escape being human at all.

We explore Elsa Schiaparelli’s relationship with Surrealism, from collaborations with artists like Dalí to how Daniel Roseberry’s recent collections reinterpret those codes for a contemporary audience.

Dissecting fashion's relationship with distorted, dark, and deformed imagery

The Swedish designer presented her first London Fashion Week collection as an independent brand at Studio Smithfield.

What happens when fashion stops trying to please and starts to think? Between decay and emptiness, between Derrida and Rei Kawakubo, conceptual fashion can become a meditation: on truth, impermanence, and the self beneath appearance.

Interviews

Isabelle Taylor is a beautifully unconventional surrealist fashion designer specialising in fish leather, a sustainable material made from the byproducts of smoked salmon, which she uses to create garments through her brand, Skinned Potential.

Mia Gosset continually rethinks what jewellery and objects can be. Here, she shares her process, inspirations, and the vision behind her practice, uncovering what truly makes Mia Gosset, Mia Gosset.

Womenswear designer Antonio Femia looks to the hometown forests in Belgium for his graduate collection at Central Saint Martins. Bridget Devine discovers more about his ritualistic design universe...

What if beauty wasn’t preserved, but allowed to rust? Justin Matringe turns decay into design, crafting garments that corrode the very idea of fashion itself.

Blending video game design, CGI, and couture craftsmanship, Victor Clavelly transforms technology into poetry. His creations stretch the limits of the body, reimagining what fashion - and reality - can become.

Eco Fashion

Elena Dawson is not a brand. It is a state of being, a phenomenon whose aura resists all attempts at categorization within fashion’s coordinate systems. Her creative work is a secluded sanctuary, a chapel on the outskirts of the industry. Here, a particular, deeply intimate romance is born : the romance of a soft gothic, devoid of vampiric pomp and grotesquery, yet imbued with Victorian melancholy and the stoic grace of decay.

From transforming furniture into dresses to garments embedded with motors, lasers, and microchips, Hussein Chalayan revolutionized the relationship between fashion and technology. This article explores how the British-Cypriot designer became one of the earliest pioneers of wearable tech and conceptual fashion.

Isabelle Taylor is a beautifully unconventional surrealist fashion designer specialising in fish leather, a sustainable material made from the byproducts of smoked salmon, which she uses to create garments through her brand, Skinned Potential.

Womenswear designer Antonio Femia looks to the hometown forests in Belgium for his graduate collection at Central Saint Martins. Bridget Devine discovers more about his ritualistic design universe...

What if beauty wasn’t preserved, but allowed to rust? Justin Matringe turns decay into design, crafting garments that corrode the very idea of fashion itself.

Grotesque Beauty

The body disappears, distorts, expands. Not to become something else, but to escape being human at all.

Dissecting fashion's relationship with distorted, dark, and deformed imagery

Exploring the use of bones and skeletons as imagery and motifs across avant-garde fashion and design

When perfection becomes propaganda, ugliness becomes resistance. Across the avant-garde, designers are weaponising distortion, decay, and discomfort to fracture the polished surface of contemporary fashion. Transforming the grotesque into a radical language of defiance.

Centuries before punk or avant-garde existed, German mercenaries were already slashing fabric, clashing colours, and defying social codes. The Landsknechts of the 15th century turned rebellion into style, and their fearless self-expression still echoes across today’s runways.

To mark the release of The Shrouds, we revisit six moments when Cronenberg’s grotesque genius oozed into the world of fashion.

Why the Fashion World is Exploring Hair… Down There

For those stepping into the avant-garde realm of fashion, Carol Christian Poell is an essential figure. Though now retired, his legacy endures. Through radical construction, cryptic processes, and garments that confront both the body and time, his influence continues to shape the fashion world.

A retrospective look at Alexander McQueen’s ‘Voss’ Collection.

Accessories

Why the Fashion World is Exploring Hair… Down There

Mia Gosset continually rethinks what jewellery and objects can be. Here, she shares her process, inspirations, and the vision behind her practice, uncovering what truly makes Mia Gosset, Mia Gosset.

Editorial

Rooted in the echoes of Orthodox Christianity, Russian literature, and forgotten silhouettes of the early 20th century, the brand TCHUR constructs garments as fragments of an alternate reality : somewhere between ritual, memory, and dream. Drawing from the mystical meaning of “chur” as a boundary between worlds, each piece becomes a quiet incantation: a way to reveal what culture hides, and to dress the invisible.

Soft Goth

Elena Dawson is not a brand. It is a state of being, a phenomenon whose aura resists all attempts at categorization within fashion’s coordinate systems. Her creative work is a secluded sanctuary, a chapel on the outskirts of the industry. Here, a particular, deeply intimate romance is born : the romance of a soft gothic, devoid of vampiric pomp and grotesquery, yet imbued with Victorian melancholy and the stoic grace of decay.

Want to smell like bloody birthday cake, chilly nights in London, and burnt blunt?

In revisiting some of the most thought-provoking moments from recent seasons, Rokh’s Autumn/Winter 2025 show stands out as a masterclass in sculptural tailoring and conceptual storytelling.

Cinema

As she releases her Retrospective book, we chart the Eurythmics vocalist's looks across different musical eras, and how they shaped fashion, gender representation, and the visual vocabulary of pop.

To mark the release of The Shrouds, we revisit six moments when Cronenberg’s grotesque genius oozed into the world of fashion.

How directors like David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Denis Villeneuve envisioned Dune’s universe, and how it continues to inspire avant-garde fashion.

Medieval core

While the recent media frenzy around the Vatican might have cooled off, fashion keeps returning to Catholic imagery, and perhaps that is no coincidence.

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