Teitä Ikävöiden / Missing You

In their BA graduate collection, Ilari Kokkola studies innocence and  identity, and the relation between  childhood and adulthood, in queer context.

My gayness as a child was once  

again interpreted through the lens  of the adult world.  

My queerness was evaluated  

according to adult norms and  

the imagery through which adults  perceive homosexuality and queer  culture. I felt how I was compared  to grown-ups and forced to face  

the discriminatory and damaging  

perceptions of their world, though  I was just a child. 

Ilari studied how being a gay child  in a heteronormative environment altered  their self-image and forced them to shield  themselves from the surrounding world.  In the collection Ilari has focused on  interpreting this imaginary shield of  identity to the context of fashion.  The concept of shielding and protection  is studied through tens of thousands of  handmade and/or applied metal rings,  feathers and pearls.

The designer wanted the materials  to represent the feel that bearing this  shield felt as a child. The materials are  heavy, hard, sharp or uncomfortable, but  there is still fragility and grace in each  one of them.

Merely every material in  the collection is hand-crafted. Creating materials on my own gave me more connection to the already very personal subject. Spending hundreds of hours with each material forced me to create a bond with my work. It wasn’t pleasure I felt, more of a trans-like state of frustration and anger.

In ‘Teitä ikävöiden’, fashion is seen as a form of play. In this never ending game of clothes, each garment has its own role in creating a new world or reality. In this game the norms of our reality are not only observed but turned into garments of mockery and overemphasis.

Contact:

ilari.kokkola@gmail.com

+358456327270

@ilarikokkola