Alexander McQueen’s legacy of genre-bending continues to inspire artists to reimagine the norms — especially Central Saint Martins student Tina Gorjanc. The young designer has just pitched her plan to create a leather textile made from skin tissue grown from McQueen’s own DNA. Yes that’s right, soon, you will be able to wear the late designer’s flesh as a jacket.
These garments are at first blush creepy and startlingly reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs, but don’t just aim to shock. The intensely personalized pieces “address shortcomings concerning the protection of biological information and move the debate forward using current legal structures,” Gorjanc stated, according to Dezeen.
Gorjanc is using the DNA found in McQueen’s Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims collection; his own version of human-sourced fibers. This collection incorporated his hair into white silk, and her use of these hairs acts as an extension of both Jack The Ripper Stalks His Victims, and of McQueen himself. Gorjanc’s project, titled “Pure Human”, is a part of her Materials Future MA at Central Saint Martins, where McQueen was also a student.
Gorjanc has applied for a patent for her material creation process. Once approved, she will work with a laboratory to grow skin samples that will be tanned and processed into a human-like leather.
A few projections of “Pure Human” have been rendered, using pig skin as a placeholder for the genetic material that Gorjanc plans to create. Her designs feature a jacket, a backpack, and a tote bag, and show freckles dotted across them, alongside “tattoos” that mirror the same tattoos McQueen had on his chest and bicep.
Take a look at the fleshy fashion below.
Credits
Text Annie Armstrong
All images courtesy of the artist