MROKOKO 2019

SHADOW IS THE QUEEN OF COLOR Tomasz Armada, described as the “colorful bird of Polish fashion,” announces his next collection—one so colorful that it’s practically black. Colors like rainbow, pearl, and gasoline, through their kaleidoscopic blending and concentration, turn black due to their intensity. Black as clotted blood and other bodily fluids. Black as a war waged for survival. Until now, I have referred to my garments as “rags”; I believe the time has come to call them the venerable “robes.” The presented collection features designs inspired by liturgical vestments—sutanas, albs, humerals, and copes—as well as historical garments from Roman, Sarmatian, Japanese, and other patriarchal cultures fascinated by power and violence. The collection draws on the idealized notions of masculinity and brotherhood found in various male-dominated groups, such as nationalist organizations, the clergy, the military, and politics.

I breathe new life into and redesign classics such as the white shirt, jeans, suit, and uniform, presenting them in an extremely minimalist, austere style. The collection features my interpretations of elegance and fashion classics:

the little black dress blends into a cassock, and a streetwear T-shirt, through its oversized cut, becomes a flowing robe.

The collection primarily features natural materials such as cotton (in the form of canvas, denim, sweatshirt fabric, and linen), as well as nettle canvas—a material that returns to favor only during times of war, famine, and plague (it was used, among other things, to weave the striped prison uniforms at Auschwitz). Unconventional materials were also used, such as eco-leather stripped from a sofa, insulation made from shredded textile scraps covered with PVC film, and a sweater knitted from the dreadlocks of people from Udzy. All the designed garments were created without any cutting—no darts, no sleeve notches, no crotch seams—with great respect for the fabric, in such a way as to generate no fabric scraps and utilize the material in its entirety. The collection features decorative elements that are at times crude and showy—gasoline effects, holographic effects, and rainbow hues (the collection includes, among other pieces, a black denim uniform lined with rainbow organza that reveals itself only when the model moves), ribbons and trimmings straight from roadside shrines, as well as effects of blending and mixing colors to create black. Subtractive mixing of dyes and yarns to create black. Burning/charring/scratching and imprinting as finishing touches.

The collection premiered at the Designblok Festival in Prague in 2019.