Pain of Isolation: Inspired by a GPP patient named Christina who could not even hold her baby after delivery because of the pain caused by the disease. This was also experienced by Malaysian patient and mother of five (including a set of twins) Yuzlina Che Yaacob. Hess shares that this piece also has mirrors incorporated into the design to represent how society sees GPP patients. — Photos: Boehringer Ingelheim
IT’S not often that one sees avant-garde dresses being displayed at a medical conference, but that was certainly the case during the recent 25th World Congress of Dermatology in Singapore.
Scattered throughout the conference venue at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre were the four dresses of The Unwearable Collection created by Dutch fashion designer Bart Hess last year (2022).
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Pain of Isolation: Inspired by a GPP patient named Christina who could not even hold her baby after delivery because of the pain caused by the disease. This was also experienced by Malaysian patient and mother of five (including a set of twins) Yuzlina Che Yaacob. Hess shares that this piece also has mirrors incorporated into the design to represent how society sees GPP patients. — Photos: Boehringer Ingelheim
Flare Intensity: Inspired by how a GPP flare can start as just one or two blisters, then spread like wildfire all over the body. Hess says that it is meant to reflect how you can be going about your day normally (the grey outfit) when a flare can suddenly occur and ‘explode’ across the body.
Life-Threatening: Made out of knives, this dress is inspired by patient experiences of feeling like they are being stabbed while just taking a shower, and the feeling that the disease is like a snake encircling them. Hess shares that he had accidentally stabbed himself with a knife while creating this dress, and while complaining, realised that this was just a small part of the pain that GPP patients live with every day during a flare.
Physical Pain: Mainly inspired by a GPP patient named Brandon who likened his pain to having 10,000 paper cuts all at once all over his body. For Hess, the choice of material (paper) for this piece was obvious, and he tried to emulate the stabbing and cutting motion through the positioning of the paper shards. He also shares that this was one piece that he would work on, then destroy and start over many times.
Hess (left) and Ferraro (right) watch as Trapped by Uncertainty is revealed to the media during the 25th World Congress of Dermatology. Ferraro shared that his students and lecturers also created an exhibition, including a marketing and advertising campaign, around the collection, which will be shown at the FIT museum in New York from Sept 14 to Oct 15 (2023). — TAN SHIOW CHIN/The Star
Hess not only thought about the dresses, but also utilised the hands of the mannequin to convey the pain and distress a GPP patients feels. — TAN SHIOW CHIN/The Star
