When we say mix and match, we mean faux fur jacket with red leather trousers, but for Stéphanie Baechler this means a lot more than that. When the pure line between fashion and art is crossed, we can find ourselves in another dimension where everything that seemed familiar takes a place of unfamiliar. The young Swiss designer’s inspiration comes from structural and surface properties of rocks and gems and she turns it into a collection of architectural pieces worn by bony models.
Having taken a thick, loden wool fabric as a base for the collection, she creates, literally transforms stone into fabric and the whole perceptions of the clothes are changed. Rough and tough nature of a stone is now fluid and smooth as the piece covers body. In her own words: “Modelled to follow the body while it is moving and to turn the figure into sculpture as soon as it comes to rest”. The single thought of this idea makes us shiver a little and question if it is even possible. Well, for Baechler it is nowhere near that. Many layers remark clusters found in quartz and the banded lines of agate while incorporated in the fabric. Multi-dimensional, 3D effect takes us right in to the author’s mind and we all can now fully understand the concept. Even points of quartz can be smooth if you help them a little.
Photos: http://stephaniebaechler.com
