Nerotica

Category: Apparel

My project ‘Nerotica’ is about finding the neurotic erotic. It conceptually looks at the bricolage nature of the obsessed artist—a phenomenon in which the everyday gets absorbed into obsession. A discomfort I feel is somewhat erotic. Hyung S. Kim’s ‘Haeyeo: Women of the Sea’ depicts women who carry the same vitality as the obsessed artist. Whilst their aesthetic realm differs from mine, the bricoleur nature of their material world has been the basis of the concept. The material world of the project uses the unloved materials from my playground. Designing in a city where bricoleur is found outside my doorstep. I design around Chapel Market in Angel, where discarded items become the backbone of ideas. In this world, umbrella cords become boning, bike chains are used as straps, and swim goggles transform into bras. I wanted to materialize this context with leather. This led me to the idea of mixing hard and soft materials, experimenting with various techniques, and different fastening options to create an inventive and sustainable textile. I created a ‘stretchy leather’ by sewing a scrap onto a thick elastic and cutting it into thin strips. However, being tight on money, I looked at the leather scraps from previous projects and tried to use those with the same technique, creating my ‘stretchy’ leather. Especially as this technique targets the issue of wastefulness around leather production, cowhides generate a significant amount of scrap material during the manufacturing process. I am honoured that both Alma Leather and Nosakhari CreateLabs, whose otherwise discarded leather scraps, make the foundation of this project. My work starts with the minute details (materials) before expanding to the bigger picture (silhouette). This allows the material to speak for its own capability to mold to its silhouette. The silhouette is taken from many archetypes, such as scuba fins and equestrian chaps, highlighting the calves. I hope to continue to improve this technique to finesse the wearability of my ‘stretchy leather’.