Aleksandra Hellberg

The fashion industry has long been criticised for almost exclusively showcasing garments on thin, young bodies. Discussions of bodily diversity often focus on representation in imagery, runway casting, and sizing. While these are important issues, the return of trompe l’oeil body prints made Hellberg question whether bodily idealisation begins earlier, before the fashion image is created, within the garments themselves. "The project is motivated by and partly informed by my own experience of moving through the world as a woman under pressure to appear polished, youthful, thin, and desirable. In line with the feminist understanding that the personal is political, I acknowledge that my decision to investigate bodily representation in fashion is not detached from lived experience." Drawing on visual analysis of trompe-l’œil body prints, anatomically moulded garments, and shapewear, Hellberg investigates how garments reshape, smooth, and discipline the body into a controlled form. By shifting attention from fashion imagery to garment construction, the collection contributes to discussions of body politics in fashion through design practice. Hellberg approaches the topic through critical design, exposing and challenging these embedded norms. Plastic surgery “before and after” imagery serves as an archive of what contemporary culture defines as bodily problems. These images make visible which features are targeted for correction, and I translate them into textures, structures, and silhouettes. "My design strategy throughout the garments of this collection was to reverse the logic of concealment and correction." Using knitwear, felted wool, and tailoring, Hellberg develops garments that reintroduce features typically erased or corrected: softness, rolls, asymmetry, wrinkles, and signs of ageing. The design process is iterative and body-based, with the designer’s own body as a site for testing, moulding, and placement.