AUTUMN / WINTER
2016

ZDDZ AW16 collection Synthetic Overture explores the impact of digital technology on identity, the body, sexuality and the way we interact with each other.

We live at the dawn of the brave new world. For the emerging generation online is a very natural state of being: having anything at the tips of your fingers; always being alert to midnight notifications; expressing emotions in gifs and 15 second videos.

But have you ever asked yourself, are you human? Can you tell the digital from the physical? Are you ever offline?

In Synthetic Overture designer Dasha Selyanova continues her work with slogans. C10MPUTER, MACHINE, ARE YOU HUMAN?, UNAVAILABLE are immediate messages of alienation, codes of the new digital reality inserted into clothing. The collection features the label’s signature straight, elongated silhouettes in rough hard fabrics and voluminous shapes — only this time it’s not just classic bombers but also puffer jackets. ZDDZ clothing continues to be a perfect uniform providing protection and the feeling of security in the urban environment.

In AW16 Selyanova takes it one step further extending online anonymity into the real world through burka-style headpieces that simultaneously tap into a world of terrorism paranoia. Military jackets, baggy trousers, red vinyl coats could have easily been worn by the pioneer hackers of the 90s yet the collection’s title Synthetic Overture hints that this is just the beginning, that our complicated relationship with technology is yet to unfold.

“The inspiration for this collection came from my personal experience: I lost my last two boyfriends to computers. One was a graphic designer, another a hacker with a day job as a 3D-animator, and both spent almost all their time in front of the screen. The laptop inevitably ended up the third wheel in our relationship. I got a bit of resentment against it and decided to work these feelings into the collection. The title Synthetic Overture comes from Synthetic Aperture, a filter in Adobe After Effects. The word MACHINE which appears on a few garments was inspired by the hacker’s affectionate nickname for his computer. UNAVAILABLE is like a Skype status, but also reflects the current emotional state of my peers. Technology is supposed to bring us together but in reality we spend most of the time in our rooms looking at screens, with nothing but the illusion of communication. Are we still human? Can we still be intimate? Are we in touch with ourselves or more so with our machines?”

— Dasha Selyanova, ZDDZ Designer