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| Photography by Magdalena Golembiewska |
Suspended and completely still at Vauxhall Fashion Scout,
seems to be a collection of objects belonging to a stereotypical British
businessman. A black umbrella with a wooden handle, a bowler hat, a boxy
briefcase – but there is something unnerving about them. I stand there a little
bewildered. The umbrella’s handle twists like a pig’s tail until it sprouts
long strands of dark horse hair. Bowler hats carry a veil of the horsehair and
a fierce briefcase sported a covering of curved spikes. Are they sculptures?
Designer, Oliver Ruuger calls them ‘Sculptural Products.’
Oliver doesn’t like the idea of a concept. Instead he tries
to create pieces that carry a certain emotion. ‘I was I hoping to produce
objects that have a feeling of fear or uncomfortableness – something you don’t
normally associate with a product,’ says Oliver. The hair blankets hanging from
the bowler hats are about hiding vision and the face. Many ideas can be
attached to this but Oliver says, ‘it’s not specific to me to spell that out as
such.’
For this collection he began to look at materials like the
exotic woods, horsehair and leather. He describes these elements as sources of
power, ones that evoke some kind of an opinion and carry a lot of information.
As a platform for emerging designers and innovation, Oliver
hopes showing at Vauxhall Fashion Scout will create some opportunities to
utilise his method and to get his way of working with objects noticed. His
collection is definitely not fast fashion: he produces every single component
and every material is chosen carefully. Several hundred hours of work is spent
on every product.
‘I think it’s time for that kind of luxury product to come
back on the market and for people to appreciate that kind of product a bit
more.’
Text: Rosanna Cole