WEAVE: SKEUOMIMICRY R.I.P.

 SKEUOMIMICRY R.I.P.

Maharishi celebrates the 20th anniversary by creating a revolutionary AW14 collection called  “Skeuomimicry RIP” – camouflage and mimicry in the natural and digital worlds. The title refers to the declining use of skeuomorphism, a design practice in which new technologies are visually explained by symbols of their analog/physical world versions. As we grow more accustomed to a life integrated with digital technology, these comparisons become less relevant, and new modes are adopted.

“Skeuomimicry RIP” collection is inspired by Polish, Czech, Serbian and US military materials and garments being reworked and reshaped. Maharishi is working brilliantly by recycling old military costumes and bringing them to life. That is what the war is all about by trying to reduce products and materials being thrown away to decay and giving them a second or 100th purpose to live again. As with all pieces from maharishi’s recycled program, the source garments are ceremonially blessed, washed in saffron water and smudged with incense, symbolically disassociating each piece from its negative military past before being repurposed. By these processes, they are given a new and extended life, with a more positive purpose and a reduced environmental cost.

The decor of every piece is embellished  by the pixellated camouflage pattern “DPM: Pixel Bonsai Forest“, a pixellated version of the Bonsai Forest pattern, offered in two colourways, Night and Woodland. . In addition to that Maharishi uses  other patterns from nature such as the striped markings of tigers and the ‘rosette’ details on leopards. These appear in disrupted and abstracted forms, infiltrated with pixellation. Tibetan tiger rugs are referenced also, again pixellated, taking inspiration from the heavily abstracted designs seen in many authentic Tibetan rugs.