UNWEARABLE : What does it mean to wear something?

To wear something means more than practicality, warmth or to avoid being nude - it has symbolic reasons. These reasons are revealed when you look at seemingly absurd un-wearable garments because at this extreme of fashion only conceptual remains.

To illustrate that choice of fashion is a statement or an expression of something using a garment I have conducted an investigation into unwearable garments by Fashion Designer Bea Szenfeld.

Bea Szenfeld:

Polish-born / Stockholm Based

Paper-based fashion designer

“I never ever work at a computer,” she says. “Everything’s done by hand. The actual handiwork is fundamental and crucial to everything I do. The creativity is in the hands.” - Bea Szenfield (Inspire Magazine)

For Bea Szenfeld, practicality is not the purpose of her fashion designs, it is the expression of her vision. The fact that these garments are impractical has not stopped people wearing them (see below Lady Gaga). Bea creates the garments to express her passion and creativity and the people who choose to wear them are also wanting to make a statement by wearing these unique garments. 

Lady Gaga wears Bea Szenfeld

The choice to wear one of Bea's creations is a bold statement that shocks the audience and perhaps gets them to think about the materiality of there clothes, or the craftsmanship or even the waste and cost on animals and the environment. 

Q: So, what does it mean to wear something?
A: It means expression. Expression of the wearers self. 

Looking at unwearables has removed the argument of wearing for practicality because they are anything but practical. They are an expression. They are the closest thing to art in fashion. But how does this transcend to general clothing that you and I wear every day - do the same rules apply? Yes, the choices we make each day of what to wear are more than practicality - they too are a statement. A more subtle and subconscious one in many cases but yet they tell the world who we are or who we want to be at least. 

Wanna know more about Bea Szenfeld? - check out the next post in this series.