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Dazed: TTSWTRS IS THE EASTERN EUROPEAN DESIGNER CREATING WEARABLE TATTOOED SKINS

Dazed: TTSWTRS IS THE EASTERN EUROPEAN DESIGNER CREATING WEARABLE TATTOOED SKINS

TTSWTRS pieces are like a form of body modification: You can't tell where the clothing ends and begins. The designer Anna Osmekhina, a former costume designer and stylist based in Ukraine, works with emerging and established tattoo artists, transforming their designs into cotton pants, viscose blouses and denim blazers, structured shirts, lace wedding dresses and even cycling shorts. The result ends up looking like a body covered in tattoos – an extension of the clothing and skin.

“The concept of TTSWTRS was created by a strange incident that got me involved in this exciting subculture,” explains Osmekhina. “My friend was in a relationship with a tattoo master who had his whole body covered in tattoos and was acting like he saved the world. I was so thrilled with his energy that very soon I created a capsule of sweatshirts with a working title ‘tattoosweaters’.” Since its first iteration in 2013, the line launched at Colette in Paris and has now been sold at boutiques around the world.

“Searching for a tattoo master is always the most difficult moment in the process of creating a collection,” she explains. Thus far, one of the biggest collaborations she’s fostered with a tattoo artist has been with Kiev-based artist @edtattooer, who has added his own touch to many of her designs. “Very often great tattoo works on clothing look like prints, and we spend lots of time working with our web designer when testing tattoos on our naked clothing pieces. @edtattooer is most well-known for his really simple but stark black linework designs. His style is a combination of naive art techniques, references to specific works from the history of the art world (from the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo to the Dance of Matisse), elements of mysticism and optical illusions.”

As for the designer herself, she currently has just one small tattoo, a tiny red heart in honour of her granny, but she believes as she turns sixty, she’ll slowly begin covering her entire body with tattoos. Here, Osmekhina shares the inspiration behind six different tattoo clothing pieces.

 

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