HOUSE STATEMENT

According to papyrus (which is a UK suicide prevention charity) suicide is currently the leading cause of death of young people under the age of 35 in the UK alone. To reiterate, this means people under the age of 35 in the United Kingdom are more likely to die from suicide than in car accidents, trips and falls, cancer or in fact any other cause or illness. 

From lack of government support and funding to stigmatization and a lack of education. The suicide epidemic seems to be (in detriment to young lifes) getting swept under the carpet. 

However with the right support and treatment suicide, is completely avoidable. 

 

As a fashion graduate I had the idea to incorporate part of a solution into my designs. 

 

First and foremostly, the house is really a creative outlet exploring my experiences with my mental health and the things I have encountered and gone through. Using this as inspiration for design. Inspired by the style of Macabre, there is an element of darkness in the overall aesthetics, which is leaned in to rather than avoided. 

   

Temporary Malfunktion is an independent fashion house which is structured around breaking the stigma on mental health. 

Creating thought provoking designs that ignite interest in context paired with educational contextual articles breaking down things like anxiety disorders and mental health research. 

With bold obscurity, distressed embroidery, neon's and distorted graphics the house draws inspiration from the concept of a computer glitch which is defined as a temporary malfunction or fault within a computer system and relates to how the mind behaves and how it might look if we could see inside it. Offering cyber punk aesthetics whilst drawing inspiration from British lower and middle class culture. Clashing tribal fashions to create new concepts that generate conversation. 

In order to break stigma on mental health and push for important changes in government we have to talk about it more. Temporary Malfunktion utilises fashion designs' conversational nature to spread awareness. 

This concept has expanded from t-shirt designs to full digital/physical runway collections/showcases. Which include New York fashion week with Digitalax, New York fashion week with digital fashion week New York, decentral Miami NFT con at Miami art week, Phoebe Hess projections Germany, holy art London, clique Glasgow, Edinburgh and Fife. 

                                                                     

The main goal being to bring mental health into the discussion in the creative industries and beyond. Mental health, the mind, the faculty of all consciousness and being, it's all so interesting and it's really fun to use as inspiration for design.  

If we can use darkness as a creative catalyst to fuel positivity the end of the conversation changes for the better. 

 

Disclosure -

As a designer I do not have any qualifications within mental health, however I have experienced my own struggles, mainly with anxiety and so have those close to me. Thus apart from personal insight and creative representation, the facts and information provided is from reliable sources only which have included Harvard, Very Well Mind and mental health charities where support available is promoted.