Of balloons and toilet papers: Bizarre central

Fashion designers are creating outfits made of unconventional materials.

KARACHI: If you thought the eccentricity in fashion started and ended with Lady Gaga’s meat dress you are probably not aware of half of the designers that are spreading utter madness in the international fashion industry. The desire to stand out seems to be almost innate in women — take the example of Cleopatra, who used donkey’s milk on her face in 69 BC — to the current practice of putting rings around one’s neck to become more attractive in the tribe of Padaung, Africa. Women have gone to extremes to look different irrespective of what age they were living in, and fashion designers are taking this yearning from level normal to level unusual.

Today, fashion is a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry and when consumers have cash to spend, producers will oblige. For those who want to stand out, there are those fashion designers who have started using materials like balloons, toilet paper, wood and even potato chips wrappers to create new outfits.

Vertical garden dress

Designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, this exotic dress transforms the wearer into a walking garden. If you are a Pakistani, chances are once in your life you have been given the age-old suggestion to wear leaves if you have nothing else to wear. Designer Gaultier, who is also very popular in the industry for his out-of-the-box perfume bottle designs, took Pakistani humour a bit too seriously and actually designed and presented a dress made completely out of leaves and botanical herbs. We are still wondering whether to call the dress an outcome of Gaultier’s sense of humour or absurdity.

Birdcage dress

The birdcage dress by Kasey McMahon is made out of wrangled brass and looks like a woman standing in a cage from afar. According to McMohan, the dress is “a flattering and practical dress that doubles as a functional bird cage.” Now we are yet to find someone who is that gung-ho on keeping their birds as close to them as their pants, but the dress makes us wonder what the newest adage on birds could be. Maybe something like a bird in your dress is worth two in the bush?

Chocolate dress

Famous spanish designer Paco Rabanne began his career in fashion by creating jewellery for Givenchy, Dior and Balenciaga and started his own fashion house in 1966. He used unconventional materials as metal, paper and plastic for his outlandish and flamboyant designs and the chocolate dress was one out nof the collection that left the Rabanne’s awe struck by his creativity.

As pleasing as this dress, made with planks of pure chocolate cut in different shapes and size, may look to the taste buds, no one wants to be stuck in it on a hot day — chances are you wouldn’t have anything to take back home and hang on a hanger.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2011.