Fashion Design for the Dead
July 11, 2011 | In: Information
Now it is not just for the living, fashion design has carved out a niche for itself for the dead as well. Though death is one experience which is very dark and gloomy, fashion design has managed to embrace it. Now dead bodies are being wrapped in designer clothes and shrouds. Pia Interlandi is one such designer who decided on this fashion design venture while she was at her grandfather's funeral.
She does not make fancy gold suits for people to get buried in. but this fashion design venture uses materials that are environmentally friendly because one cannot use plastics that are non degradable. According to her, "Fashion design of this kind is about covering the body but also making sure the garment is beautiful and matches the person that is getting buried." Interlandi took quite some time before starting this new venture in the field of fashion design. She is now working on materials that melt away with the body; materials that are befitting the person and will decompose with the body.
She is testing her garments on pigs; she buried 21 pigs. Soon enough i.e. within a year, only the embroidery and the bones remained. She could not use humans because all dead human bodies go for medical research. And there is a perceived disgust in this kind of fashion design but funerals are becoming more individualized and people are letting this idea grow into them. She hopes to launch her collection in the last leg of 2012.