Bump and Mind. U:phoria architecture+design pays tribute to Comme des Garcons’ 1997 idiosyncratic collection

Our studio embarked on an exploratory journey to study the parallel practices in fashion and architecture, with inspiration drawn from Comme des Garcons’ Spring/Summer 1997 “Bump & Mind” Collection.

This quirky and surrealistic collection featured models wearing gowns attached with bumps that seemingly challenges the conventions of garment cladded forms. In this collection, “Comme des Garcons (CDG) does not attempt to show what is supposed to be the ‘natural’, but instead, to enable the wearer to approximate the ‘actual’.

In these dresses, individuals feel that they are weird but perceive that the clothing does not represent the ‘natural’ and, by extension, themselves” – Artforum International, Dec 1996.

Though conceived 12 years ago, this collection with engorged garments is still being perceived as futuristic. In architectural sense, the relevance is even more so with the current liberation & proliferation of technologies that allow building forms to go beyond the convention of post and beam with amorphous forms.

As a tribute to this ground breaking creation of CDG, a series of forms or objects are explored and devised to specifically co-relate the ephemeral qualities of that collection with the permanence of structured forms. These forms are contorted and misshaped with protruded skin elements to emulate the unusual garments conceived for the collection. Enveloping frames free the interior of column structures and thus allowing for a greater fluidity of space within.

Whether as building elements or sculptures, this study attempts to draw closer the disciplines of architecture and fashion, and just as important, to provide a befitting context and background for the co-existence of CDG’s garments.