Take a have a look at Daisy Collingridge’s oddly shaped, barely off-kilter forms blowing a kiss to the camera or striking a pose, hands on hip and you simply might wonder what exactly you’re gazing at. Collingridge’s costumes show different parts of the body, resembling boobs, big stomachs or muscular systems, through quilted textiles. At first, chances are you’ll not even ensure that there’s an actual person under all those layers, but that’s what makes her pieces all of the more surreal. 

Unconventional and thought-provoking , the London-based textile artist specialises in squishy, wearable costumes, done up in unusual pastel colors, with bulbous overlapped forms and shapes. Each bit is a novel vision and a press release on the complex aesthetics of the body. Collingridge got her inspiration for the bizarre forms from the shapely muscles of bodybuilders and an exhibition she saw during her childhood called Body World, which contained dissected human bodies, animals, and other anatomical structures that were preserved through the technique of plastination developed by Gunther von Hagens. She also credits a family filled with doctors, nurses and medical employees as key inspiration for her obsession with the bodily form.

Collingridge studied fashion design at Central Saint Martins and was inspired to create her first costume after graduating in 2016, for the ‘World of Wearable Arts’ competition in Recent Zealand. It’s no surprise that her creation, which she now considers the prototype for her collection of bizarre creatures, won the competition. “I often say my work is kind of impulsive,” she explains. “The squishy idea definitely got here from my graduate collection, which was all free machine quilted, but all done with really fat wadding. It wasn’t really your traditional patchwork quilt.”

Björk saw her work shortly after she graduated and took interest around the identical time. In 2016, the artist got an email from the singer’s office manager and thought it was a scam. “I principally met Björk in a hotel in London, the summer after graduating, brought a few of my graduate collection and she or he picked out elements that she liked from different dresses,” she recalls. The resulting dress that the long-lasting singer wore ended up being a mixture of two of her graduate dresses put together – a thick, neon yellow quilted midi dress that incorporated various graph-like patterns and shapes on the underside of the skirt, courtesy of Collingridge quilting techniques.

Since then, Collingridge has put a full concentrate on her collection of anatomy-inspired costumes, creating a complete family. “I’d wish to say I used to be really planned in doing this, but I’m not, I never have been,” she says. First, she decides on a color palette and hand-mixes the paints. Then she makes all the interior parts, most sewn by hand due to the innate thickness of the quilting.“It becomes far more sculptural and lots less about dressmaking.”

Each bit has a reputation and certain character traits. There’s Burt, Dave, Hilary, Clive, and Lippy, each with different forms, colors and personalities.“Clive is the happiest one,” she says. “He’s got a smirk on him. There’s just something really funny about Burt because he’s got these strange repeated bits by his eyes. Dave is made specifically for my dad who is named Dave, and he’s officially obsessive about him. He’s consistently out in our house.”

“I used to be designing, attempting to work out the right way to make the concept of sandwiching layers and layers of material together to create these big reliefs within the stitched and unstitched part,” says Collingridge of her process. “Everyone I’ve made, I’ve made the with the pinnacle first,” she says. “That sort of suggests who they’re and their character after which I’ll go on to make the remaining of them. I make the pinnacle and so they can watch me make the remaining of the body.”

Whether it’s Collingridge wearing the costume to do a self-portrait session, or her dad wearing Dave as a part of an exhibition, putting one among these pieces on has quite the transformational effect. “For me, I develop into more confident,” says Collingridge. “But unlike my dad, I haven’t really worn them when there’s other people around. I work a lot by myself. When my dad was performing, there was like loads of individuals around and my dad is kind of an introvert. Then he puts the thing on and becomes another person. It’s actually quite scary, however it is the proper example of being liberated. You’re suddenly someone completely different.”

Though Collingridge is using textiles to create highly squishy rolls and blobs that recontextualise the concept of what the human body is, she assures that the effect of fixing body ideals and perceptions is just intrinsic to her work. “It’s really fascinating because as much as I can tell people what they mean or why I make these costumes, everyone comes at it with such a distinct view,” she says. “Everyone’s different. Some people fell apart laughing, there’s definitely elements of comedy in there, but I didn’t realise it was that openly funny. Some people obviously really hate them.” She pauses for a minute before declaring, “It’s about pushing quilting to absolutely the extreme.”

“Burt and the family are impulsive creations,” she adds. “They’re reflective of the human form with elements of fantasy. They neither promote or demote one body type. The thought there’s an ‘ideal body’ is ridiculous. We’re all so different, my work is more concerning the ‘ideal’ method to inhabit a body. To be joyous. They bring about me joy to create and I hope that’s reflected.”