Harikrishnan's inflatable latex trousers

For his graduation show at the London College of Fashion, emerging designer Harikrishnan unveiled a peculiar collection of inflatable latex trousers. Matching them with cropped tailored jackets, the young designer has what it takes to become one of the biggest names in the future of fashion. 

Especially in fashion, I see the same images and similar proportions everywhere. I want to create visual imagery that's as far away as possible from neutrality, to make people question the relevance of the proportions we see every day.

This was just the starting point of Harikrishnan. The designer, with his futuristic design, has drawn attention on his latest latex trousers. The concept is original yet simple: his trousers are made of 30 individual latex panels that - once they're worn - are literally inflated like a balloon via a seven millimetre-wide inflation valve at the bottom. Their fit is regular on the waist, while it grows around the thighs and then tape in again towards the ankles. At first sight, they may seem a little Genie in a bottle-inspired, but the choice of the material and the match with tailored tops gently gain them balance. 

"I got the idea when I was playing with my dog and I started thinking about how exaggerated objects must look from such a low angle" - explained the designer. The choice of the colours, which are either plain white or in contrasting colour-blocking, also answered this need of disfiguration.

Beyond those futuristic pants, Harikrishnan unveiled a collection of tank tops and shorts that are strung together from hand-carved wooden beads. To learn how to model the wood, he spent a month in an artisan community in Channapatna, in India. "This project is about contrasting realities, visuals, materials and approaches", he said. "Both Channapatna and latex have a very distinctive appeal. Nobody expects wearable pieces from Channapatna, as the craft is generally applied to toys and similar products. By reinterpreting it through fashion I wanted to make the material dynamic, flexible and more relevant to a luxury market."

It's not the first time that balloons catwalk the runway. Back in May 2019 another fashion graduate, Fredrik Tjærandsen, for his graduation at Central Saint Martin made his models catwalk inside giant rubber balloons that deflated to form dresses and skirts. 

The collection was presented alongside 19 others as part of the London College of Fashion's MA20 fashion show, celebrating 20 years of postgraduate fashion courses at the university.