Designer Watch: Alice Auaa

Eccentric, gothic and beautiful Alice Auaa  is without a doubt one of my favourite designers. His infusion of haunting features and fairytale-like characteristics is like seeing a Tim Burton movie come to life on the runway. Born in Kobe City and first launching Alice Auaa in 1995 his designs are described as a 'duality between light and shadow, beauty and ugliness, a decadent and surreal filter based on the colour black'.

Whatever runway it may be, you can be sure that it'll linger with an eerie Victorian vibe whenever Auaa takes over. Chilling performance art such as flashing lights, smoke and haunting music creates a discomforting hair raising atmosphere, a perfect environment to display his collections. The lighting can create a slight sense of disorientation and isolation, causing the watcher to be intimidated by the dark figure walking down the runway, often to be only recognizable when up close which enhances the edgy fear of the unknown. Soundtracks are eerie, haunting and contain spine chilling sound effects which create the illusion that the figure walking down the runway has ideas as sinister as the clothes it's wearing. Alice Auaa's shows transport the watcher into a piece of dark art, taking a trip down a twisted rabbit hole.

Auaa's collections are often highly theatrical, the excessive use of frills, corsets and lace creates a historic victorian vibe while materials such as leather and structured knits feel modern and allow the possibility of transitioning well into daily life. Auaa has the ability to remodel the human figure through the use of exaggerated features, some of the techniques used include structured cages, oversized accessories, loose fabric and undergarment panels. This can create the illusion of the wearer to be inhuman, often resembling features of those to bugs. Models commonly look like they've just strutted out of the morgue, sporting long white wispy hair, harshly arched eyebrows, white skin and cool-toned makeup. It is without a doubt that Auaa's collections ooze avant-grande with the intention to shock, he is the master of injecting garments with dark twists and I look forward to seeing him turn the runway into a gothic wonderland once again.

  Polyvore outfit inspiration:

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