DeRousse opens up about the role clothes play in our sense of identity, her use of exaggerated proportions, and why the fashion industry takes itself too seriously.
Paparazzi have photographed movie stars and models and sold images to the highest bidding publication since the ‘50s. The process led to a sometimes mutually beneficial, sometimes fraught relationships to develop between both parties, which have come to shape our understanding of pop culture and fashion alike. Fashion designer and School of the Arts Institute of Chicago student Caterina DeRousse explores this relationship in her eye-catching and exaggerated fashion collection, “NO PICTURES!!!!!!!!!”.
“Fashion is all about people. Making people into the people they want to be,” explains DeRousse in an interview with Mission. For “NO PICTURES!!!!!!!!!” DeRousse focused on transforming her models into the celebrity caricatures we envy. Her inspiration was famous photographers like Ron Galella, Bruno Mouron, and Pascal Rostain, known for photographing the rich and famous (Kate Moss and Jackie O’Nassis are notable examples) in a way that fueled their growth in the public eye. DeRousse examined the lengths paparazzi would go to snap the perfect picture, “all of them were obsessed with their work, they tore through the trashcans of their celebrity victims, followed them onto airplanes, and faced restraining orders.” However, these high risks were often met with high rewards, with valuable photos of big-name celebrities often valued at tens of thousands of dollars.
DeRousse took great interest in celebrities’ response to the paparazzi and “began drawing some of the poses celebrities struck when pretending not to notice a camera.” Through illustrations and journaling, DeRousse created a portfolio of characters, playing with the shape and proportions of famous figures. She drew six fictional ‘celebrity mascots,’ with their own stories and scandals. With bulging bright pink shoulders, small waists, and hands the size of an entire torso, the dramatic measurements made of foam are far from true to life. DeRousse elaborates, “I felt like the word mascot fit the collection because mascots are more a symbol than anything else. They aren’t human, they are supposed to represent something, and that’s what celebrities are too… I also used the word mascot because many of the techniques and materials I used in this collection are utilized in mascot production.”
One of the most prominent elements of DeRousse’s designs is humor, a philosophy demonstrated by the brown yarn ‘body hair’ that drapes from her mascots’ fleece skin, and the way in which the they exaggerate staged poses caught by cameramen. “I think the fashion world can take itself a little too seriously. I want my work to always challenge that,” she asserts.
Images courtesy of Caterina DeRousse
