Model: Alena Kovaleva, Photography: Katerina Ternovskaya, Venue: Moscow, Boxing club 'BoxeoGym'
Rational
My dad was a boxer, my grandfather was a boxer — I never became a boxer, but boxing taught me to fight. Boxing taught me to be strong even if people consider you weak. For me boxing was about strong will in the fragile body.
My research starting point was simply a boxing glove, because it was the strongest memory I had about my boxing experience. Putting on gloves at that time was equal to turning into a boxer immediately. My gloves were made of black leather, were cumbersome and heavy, and you did feel powerful having them on. In this project I used a pattern of one type of gloves and enlarged it 2.5 times. I applied the principle used in gloves manufacturing — sewing parts together, slightly exaggerating the effect of riffles.
References to boxing equipment are also present in the garment — the punching bag pattern is used for one part of the trouser which is further randomly laced. I also borrowed some elements from the boxing outfit: boxing trunks made in satin fabric with its numerous rows of elastic on the waistband.
In the design development process I started from manipulating with shapes created by the sewed together boxing glove pattern, at some point introducing several layers of boxing jerseys along with trunks. Finally the jersey shirts turned into laser-cut top and a satin shirt finished with the technic applied for trunk manufacturing. In the design development process I aimed at the silhouette with accents on shoulders to emphasize power and the waist to signify femininity and fragility. It was also important to fix the waistline because in boxing it is the line under which it is forbidden to punch the opponent. The bottom part in terms of the silhouette reference boxing trunks and actually represents the manipulated punching bag merged into short shorts.
in the design development process I aimed at the silhouette with accents on the shoulders to emphasize power and
The fabric choice reference both boxing outfit for exhibitions and training: satin and jersey respectively, while PVC leather is used for boxing gloves and some equipment.
