Kristin Wood

Kristin is a womenswear designer, specialising in tailoring. Her work focuses on queer women and queer bodies seeking to gain a more thoughtful and inclusive outcome of design. Ever inspired by those around her, she uses her creative mediums as a language to translate and reflect her identity and community, as a way to give back to her friends and support system.

Her Muses were at the focal point of this collection, designing with each model in mind. It was important for Kristin to consider each models form of presentation and that they felt best represented in her clothes. Kristin’s design process was very conversation and interview led with the focus on what each models felt was a reflection of their own identity within lesbian culture. It was important for Kristin, that [Of] Perverted Decadence was not only a visual conversation of queer identities, but also was inclusive of different body shapes and sizes. As a plus size women, she felt it was her way of representing herself within this collection, fighting for the cause that plus size women should also be designed for at the forefront of fashion as opposed to an after thought.

This work seeks to experiment with expectations of conformity within Lesbian fashion, using design, construction and colour to subvert the contexts of traditional dress. Kristin prioritised comfort over restriction in her lingerie based garments so to create a corset  and bra that was not in any way restrictive which draws parallels to the way women’s clothing is designed in a heteronormative context. She wanted to experiment with how women can feel sexy and attractive in alternative ways than what you may expect and how that differs between people dependant on how they may present.

‘Perverted Decadence’ is a playful statement referencing an article by James Douglas in 1928, at the reception of Lesbian Fashion and dress at the birth of modern Lesbian culture. Lesbian history is rich with fashion and art motifs that transcend language and this collection looks at the ways that now 100 years following this journalists remark, Lesbians are still fighting and creating their own narratives surrounding beauty, sexuality and identity.