AW21 OBSCURE look book

1950s, Hungary. Famine and oppression tints a war-torn land, as the unsung persecution of the kulaks - the land-owning peasantry - commences. Villages are shook by the fear of imprisonment and the harrowing “attic sweeping” practices of the communist collectors. 300,000 peasants are forced to leave their lands – lands they cultivated for centuries. Thus ends the resistance of the Hungarian peasantry in a decade of terror.

OBSCURE, the AW21 collection carries echoes of both the horror and the beauty of the Hungarian kulaks’ silent history. The loosely enveloping, blanket-like silhouettes and angular shapes trace the figure of a kulak boy. Quilted coats and patched fabrics mirror divided lands depicting disintegration and plunder. Prints designed in collaboration with tattoo artist Dimen Áron are a take on anti-kulak propaganda posters of the period. Striped motif prints are applied on shirts and t-shirts with a patterned paint roller originally used for painting the walls

Resembling barbed wires, the rare pattern emits a dim haze of oppression and anxiety. Gesture-like strokes of paint brushed on by hand give muddy textures to fabrics and adorn the backs of vests reminiscent of the traditional Hungarian “bekecs” coat. Small, well-thought-out details, like snap-buttoned inner pockets and triangle shapes, further elaborate on the distinctive characteristics of peasant clothing.

The REMADE collection is a narrative of decomposition with the charred black, russet,wheat beige and green hued colour palette of decay. Each coat is crafted from seven, decades-old velvet headkerchiefs originating from different rural homes, thus combining the remnants of the past into the legacy of the future.

Memories of an obscure past fade quickly into the land, leaving only marks behind - but the marks are there to remember by. 

Inhale the past, exhale the future.

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photo _ Peter Lestar
hair _ Matyas Lukacs
MUA _ Bori Illenyi-Hazi
model _ Balazs _ Icon Model Management
creative concept _ Finecut
creative writing _ Krisztina Tar