The Drape and Shape of Trauma, According to DZHUS
In a requiem for an unembodied existential projection, Ukrainian designer Irina Dzhus translates ‘patterns into patterns’, converting grief into avant-garde for the “ABSOLUTE” collection.
Having previously escaped the war and a family abuse experience, she has stumbled upon a seemingly safe personal life situation that turned into a macabre rendezvous with her most sacred fears. Forced to turn on the familiar survival mode, the artist behind DZHUS exploited her creative power as an urgent coping mechanism.
Brand: DZHUS
Direction, styling, photo editing, soundtrack: Irina Dzhus
Location and beauty partner: Jaga Hupało Space of Creation
Hair and makeup: Jaga Hupało , Aga Kaszyńska, Antonia Wolff , Alicja Smoniewska
Photo: Julia Jaracz - Konewka Studio
Video: Patryk Patynowski
Interior objects: chair by Zieta Studio, cube by Jaga Hupało x Anna Drozd-Tutaj, chandelier by Organic Lighting
Ethical footwear: House Martin
Models: Asia Dyrkacz @ MORE @moremodels.com.pl, Maggy Words Modlibowska @ B.OLD @b.oldmodels, Polie Nimaeva, Lena Shtyk, PURL
Backstage assistance: Kolas Vodonovsky
“I admire MERDE’s rebellious approach to inclusivity and destigmatisation of ‘the dark side’. We share the same values, and our development vectors intersect, so I feel privileged with a chance to introduce DZHUS to the magazine’s outstanding audience.”
Premiered at Berlin Fashion Week, the “ABSOLUTE” act is now placed at the conceptual Jaga Hupało Space of Creation in Warsaw and attributed with objects by local design visionaries, Zieta Studio, Anna Drozd-Tutaj, and Organic Lighting.
At the centre stage, framed with a cube construction, stands a chair, as a starting point for a profound insight. Instead of music, Irina Dzhus tells her story. Link by link, she unveils a sequence of events, dialogues and sensations that have led her to the agonising animation of unexperienced absolute happiness.
The silhouettes are naïvely structured as Irina Dzhus refers to modernist comics and spiritualistic motifs. She freezes her memories within transformable outfits, replaying them in a loop mode. Focused on accessories as an eloquent medium in the true events, Irina shapes her sculptural apparel from pre-owned headpieces and scarves. Alongside the upcycling kintsugi homage, anatomical metaphors reflect on fetishes and phobias. The imagery includes mouths, either smoking or ritualistically stitched, a hybrid of a deconstructed male face and an aged female corpus, and a garment wearable as long as 2 giant gloves hold each other. A men’s coat with an inbuilt embracing figure portrays Irina Dzhus’ obsessive correlation with the protagonist. This semi-supernatural, blindingly luminous outline became indivisible from the artist’s identity. A mirroring indicator of her very existence, both a euphoric dream and a paralysing dystopia.
The “ABSOLUTE” project turned out to be life-determining for Irina Dzhus. This rebellious explosion of ideas on the ground of sorrow and helplessness has vividly shown her she would never lose [get rid of] her creative force, no matter how tragic circumstances. Realisation of this ‘blessing-slash-doom’ foundation of her very personality, imprisoning her within a duty, made the artist question the freedom of choice, not just in terms of strategies, but life itself. Materialised back in early 2024, the collection has established DZHUS’ cathartic creativity vector. Since, the brand has been developing a declarative audiovisual campaign that it now unveils.
