FIT Unveils New Addition to The Unwearable Collection
Fashioning empathy: What would the uncertainty of living with a rare skin disorder look like through the lens of fashion?
Pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim tasked students from the Fashion Institute of Technology’s DTech innovation lab to answer the question with their addition to The Unwearable Collection, a line of conceptual garments made in collaboration with Dutch artist Bart Hess in 2022 to raise awareness for generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP).
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The new design, titled “Trapped by Uncertainty,” was unveiled Tuesday evening at a private ceremony inside FIT’s Katie Murphy Ampitheatre and takes its inspiration from firsthand accounts of GPP patients.
“Flares are episodic, but the disease never goes away,” said Claudia Beqaj, executive director of dermatology, sales and marketing at Boehringer Ingelheim during opening remarks. “These patients live in fear and uncertainty of when that next flare could potentially occur.”
Along with mentorship from Hess, students worked under the supervision of FIT faculty members such as DTech Lab executive director Michael Ferraro to spin this feeling into couture. “We started the creative direction by focusing on the ethereal and diaphanous nature of uncertainty,” he said, before outlining the thoughtful decisions behind each detail of the garment.
GPP, which causes severe bouts of anxiety and depression, led the students to work exclusively in a somber palette of grays and blue-greens. Clouds of gazar mesh sprout up from the base evoking what Ferraro described as a “psychological fog,” while swaths of Lycra are tightly wound around the mannequin constraining the arms like a mummy to signify a loss of control. Finally, crystals dotted throughout the exterior of the garment represent pustules, nodding to the individual beauty of those experiencing the disease as well.
“Trapped by Uncertainty” will be permanently added to Hess’ four original designs — “Pain of Isolation,” “Physical Pain,” “Life-Threatening” and “Flair Intensity,” which the artist described as being more about physical pain, adding, “the fifth piece is more emotional and I think that’s beautiful.”
“My background isn’t in fashion, I’m a product designer, but [the students] really have the skills of working with fabric, which was amazing to see how different their minds are and how they can create shapes and tell stories,” he continued.
The Unwearable Collection will travel to Singapore for the GPP Forum and World Congress of Dermatology in July before returning to New York where it will be displayed at FIT from Sept. 14 to Oct. 15.
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