"Statue" A theme of MARRKNULL Spring/Summer 2023 at London Fashion Week

MARRKNULL Spring/Summer 2023 tries to explore the relationship between god statues and people. According to the Bible, God created man in his own image; While in reality, people create statuses for Gods in their own image. Statue, as a link connecting God and man, has a strong symbolic meaning.

Designers apply the concept of statue into the design expression of the whole series. They combine graffiti with statue to “remove sanctification” for god statues, so as to get balance between solemnity and banter, classicality and rebellion, and build the female image with a sense of statue in the post-modern context.

Keeping the signature deconstructive design concept of MARRKNULL, design methods of cross dislocation and 3D composition dislocation are used in this season to question the “rationality” of clothing. They uses three-dimensional composition design to expand the structural space of clothing with folding. Just as people can view statues from different sides, the three-dimensional outline also brings a brand new viewing dimension for the style. In terms of fabric, the designer uses the manual crochet craft for the first time, as well as clothing technologies like leather polishing, aging and destroying to simulate the sense of dilapidation of statues after years of erosion. Hot fix rhinestone technology is used for design details.

This season, the collection is embellished with Swarovski crystals , outlining the graffiti lines of the statues with tiny shining crystals, and creating a sense of conflict between dilapidation and brilliance.

MARRKNULL’s county cultural aesthetics also continues to deepen in the design of this season’s products, with the purpose to emphasize the dialogue and collision between Eastern and Western cultures. The modeling style of Angel representing the Western gods and the modeling style of Guanyin representing the Eastern religions appear at the same time, making the theme more universal.

MARRKNULL SS23 bag series has been upgraded based on the classic hanger bags. Sculptural wrinkle effect is made on sheepskin material through pure manual embossing technology. The coat hanger handle made of distressed materials brings a retro and thick texture. The shoes in the new season are jointly launched with GRAPE, which imitate the shape and texture of statues in the design, making the shoes a part of statues while ensuring their practical functions, so as to improve the overall artistic expression.

Inspired by the visual illusion of anti physical laws, the accessories series jointly launched with YVMIN breaks the boundaries between static and dynamic, individual and overall, and makes the hard solid materials have fluidity, so as to add the interest of absurdity to the style.

When Nietzsche called out “God is dead” through Zarathustra, people began to fall into the irredeemable emptiness. But when you look closely at the faces of the statues on the temples, you will find that perhaps the Gods worshiped by man are actually human beings themselves.

In MARRKNULL 2023 Spring & Summer show, the images of Gods have gone, which are replaced by 12 models like statues. They, instead of the images of Gods, stand on the statue platform and become exhibits in the museum, which eliminates the difference between Gods and human, makes the gods retreat and endows saints to ordinary people in this way.

“All fixed and rigid relationships and the concepts and opinions that are always worshiped compatible to them have been eliminated, all that is solid and fixed melts into air, and all that is holy is blasphemed.” In this era that the statues have been ruined and theology has been disenchanted, who is the savior of the world? Each individual has to find the answer for himself.