December 2.2022
Over the last decades, conversations in the fashion industry have increasingly focused on the need to dismantle ideas of what a “perfect” body looks like but still today women from all over the world worry every time they check their weight on the scale. But fashion is just one of many aspects that frame how we view and relate to our physical selves. A Brazilian designer living in London decided to celebrate those areas that we are almost told to hide.
“I want to celebrate those areas that we are almost told to hide – bulges, back rolls, excesses of flesh under the armpits and at the side of the waist; the ones we tend to feel most self-conscious about,” says Karoline Vitto. “I want to make clothes that people can relate to, as well.” She had the idea when visiting Hampstead Heath during the lockdown. It was here that she observed women being the most comfortable in their bodies while enjoying the water on a summer’s day. Utilizing knitwear for the first time, Vitto teamed up then with another designer she met at the RCA, Khanh Brice Nguyen, and the pair began to develop ideas.
Thereafter Vitto was also inspired by the work of fashion photographer David Seidner. “He photographed one of my muses, Brazillian model Betty Lago,” she says. “He photographed her reflected in broken mirrors, and this is what we tried to mimic in the clothes.” Working with materials that compress and constrict, such as elastics, or structural elements including metal, pieces are formed in such a way that the folds of the body protrude through cutouts – almost becoming a part of the clothing itself. “I think that my work challenges industry beauty standards, and I also wanted to contradict the sense of what beauty is. The two may be different, but they’re still ways of encouraging women to look a certain way. Ultimately, I just really wanted to create clothes that I could wear.
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Photo courtesy Karoline Vitto
