Inflatable fashion: Would you wear these pants, and why they could be here to stay

The silhouette-shattering ideas behind this trend offer a wholly fresh perspective on fashion.

Would you wear pants that made you look like a rather eccentric court jester? You might, if you knew the ideas behind them.

Inflatable fashion is having a moment, on fashion institute ramps in London. Now, these are ramps accustomed to the bizarre — other recent collections have included, for instance, morgue-inspired wear for the living (truly, what and why?).

But the inflatable apparel has been going viral consistently, and prompting murmurs of interest from within the fashion fraternity, for the fresh new look it offers, and the silhouette-shattering ideas behind them.

Indian menswear designer, Harikrishnan (who goes by only one name), had models walk the runway in cropped jackets paired with brightly coloured, striped pants that fit at the waist and cuffs but balloon absurdly in between. This was for his graduation show at the London College of Fashion about three weeks ago.

Last May, Fredrik Tjærandsen, a fashion student at London’s Central Saint Martins, had models enclosed in gigantic rubber spheres that enveloped their bodies and heads and could be deflated to form jelly-like inflatable dresses.

For University of Westminster fashion student San Kim’s 2019 graduation show in June, models wore air-filled garments embellished with inflated, colourful bin bags, paired with denim jeans.

Shifting perspective

“Design is taking a whole new turn with Gen Z showcasing their talent using a more maximalist approach,” says Narresh Kukreja, creative director at the Indian design house, Shivan & Narresh. “They are bringing a fresh perspective to the industry.”

Harikrishnan told the media that his goal was to get people to question the relevance of the proportions we are accustomed to seeing every day, and play with familiarity and unfamiliarity to challenge “stereotypical, pre-determined notions of the human perspective”.

He said he was inspired while playing with his dog; the thought struck him of how different people must look from that perspective — all ballooning out and almost unrecognisable.

Kim has said his collection was inspired by Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychosexual development — and so he sought to pair contrasting ideas such as child and adult, playfulness and seriousness, clumsiness and sophistication.

Stepping off the runway

In a time of body neutrality and body positivity — which are based in the ideas that the body ought not to be judged and evaluated at all — these designs challenge the standard shapes adhered to by most of the fashion industry, says Shivan Bhatiya, head designer at Shivan & Narresh. “These designs erase the preconceived notions of physical standards due to their inflated shape.”

Could the trend ever step off the runways and into the real world? Elements could, Kukreja believes. Particularly among an experimental generation that is using fashion to express their personality in bold new ways.

How it’s done

Harikrishnan used latex for his collection because it stretches and has the ability to exaggerate the creations, bringing his vision to life.

Tjærandsen made his collection from natural rubber and inflated each dress with thousands of litres of oxygen. The largest bubble in his collection took about an hour to inflate before the show.

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