“As someone who does not have a standard body, I carry around a lot of social shame. I feel I have to hide my body before I can leave my home, and there are social situations where I do not feel comfortable.” With a deeply personal collection, Julie LundgaardChristophersen wants to overcome social stigma and uses her work to open up and create a space in fashion that addresses the connections between body and shame. While there is an increased focus on body diversity in fashion, the National Academy of the Arts Oslo graduate maintains the inclusion concerns mostly size, ignoring other elements of body shame. The all-white crafted collection is modelled on various psychological aspects of body shame and diseases, such as ‘Sickly Overeating’ and ‘Depression and Anxiety’. The colour white not only conveys purity and fragility, but Christophersen is also reclaiming the colour, as she was always told not to wear white, because of its lack of slimming properties. The process of writing and croquis drawing of the designer’s own body reflected in a mirror served as the base for the development of a highly crafted, layered, mixed material collection of fives dress shapes tiered with rolls, padding and drapery that encapsulate different bodies, shapes and lines.
