EnPeeSee
Childhood imagination – strangled dead from this codified, mundane and despairing task of appropriating (dressing) ourselves – was revived.
All image credits: Ben Shelley
A person can never truly leave their childhood behind. Gentle friend or grief stricken wound, it accompanies our whole life, often trying to pursue us, usually catching up with us. This path begins on the steep ascent of adolescence and the formation of the adult whereby the person becomes belonging to a group, a community, a place by adopting the right codes, image and uniforms which manifests itself with a desperate eagerness to the ego. Ben Shelley’s debut fashion collection was necromancy at work. Childhood imagination – strangled dead from this codified, mundane and despairing task of appropriating (dressing) ourselves – was revived.
The collection consisted of a series of neo-soft toys brought to life in the form of trousers, jackets, shirts and various accessories. Models wore plush headwear and each carried a soft toy while walking, which either characterised or complimented the looks. In an ode to Comme and the reification of the absent body, asymmetrical pockets and extended sleeves were prominent in many of the garments. Both the enigmatic symbols such as circles, squares, swirls and polka dots were puffed up and found in many of the accessories and constant references to animalistic forms seen in headdress, bags, scarves, ties and other pieces spoke to the fundamentally folkish quality that imagination contains. “The headpieces” as Ben recounted, “naturally formed themselves out of me.”
The accompanying soundtrack was a lurid, off-beat amalgamation of sound recordings, old-timey ragtime and spoken work. The effect it provided was palpable, the awkwardness of the music reflected the atmosphere at the beginning of the show. The music was not loud enough to rid the space of its silent and weird intimacy. But this did not detract from the overall impression of the show. In fact the opposite was true. As the first look came into view and everyone in the room started to grin, a couple people even giggled. The attitude shifted as people came to understand the show as something not to be intimidated by, but to relate to wholeheartedly.
Unlike many of the other subversions of fashion and fashion spectacle seen from the current ilk of ironic and ‘silly’ fashion designers yearning for a childhood lost in the fruitless endeavour of reality. I spent my childhood outside of the reality which appeared dull to me, too codified, too transparent, this too is what BEAST also achieves. Ben’s collection plays with menswear not to expose some collective false consciousness within the fashion world obsessed with archetypes and its own history of garments, but simply shows garments as if they were born from some imagination. His approach, which could either be the figure of bricoleur or saboteur, seeks out the imaginative traces hidden in everyday dressing.
Text by Finn McGrath