hiyaa everyone!! i hope everyone is good and well rested :)) lowkey i don’t know if like a sickness is going around right now in my area but everyone i basically know is a sick victorian child (me included). BUT DON’T FRET GUYS CUZ SUMMER IS COMING! yesterday i felt the sun on my shoulder and i swear i could feel my pale ass skin falter !! ok now we shall get on with this week's piece from cassie on the history of a certain kind of fashion category!

╰┈➤ˎˊ˗ Trompe l’oeil, or deceive the eye, is the art of illusion. It toys with our senses of expectation, often reassembling our perspective on what defines fashion. The fashion technique specialises in bringing 2D to life, delivering the element of surprise, and encouraging questioning on our perspective and thinking. Common categories include details to apparel–such as embroidered pockets and buttons–graphic design, deconstructing clothing forms, and realistic patterns and images. Trompe l’oeil is used for self expression, humour, or simply just to defy normality by embracing unconventionality. Below are several designers that weave this technique into their brands.

Elsa Schiaparelli, a surrealist fashion designer, is considered the ‘inventor’ of trompe l’oeil in fashion. In 1927, she created a sweater with a knitted bow design called the ‘Bow Knot’ sweater. It included realistic ribbons that seemed almost third dimensional, meant to surprise and confuse the public. Using the 2D bow, Schiaparelli advocated the question of the functionality of garments and whether it serves a purpose or acts as a mere decorative device. The Bow Knot sweater became an iconic and timeless symbol of trompe l’oeil, often being featured in designs, such as in Gucci’s 2015 summer collection under Alessandro Michele.

John Galliano also enjoyed utilising trompe l’oeil in his work. In 2000, for Dior, he played with silk fabrics to create an illusive collage of denim prints. Then, Galliano used patterns and materials to shape proportions for Maison Margiela’s 2024 Artisanal collection. He applied several categories of trompe-l’oeil in his designs, such as body-image prints, digital prints, and deconstructed silhouette structures. The products presented nude torsos printed on fabric, a protest against societal norms where naturality is shamed. Galliano was incredibly successful in using the trickery of trompe l’oeil to rewrite the expectations of fashion.

Other brands like Acne Studios also specialise in trompe l’oeil elements, often using the surreal technique to create 2D illusions that give a semblance of reality. Jonny Johansson of Acne Studios is especially fond of this trippy method of design, as his projects frequently incorporate graphic prints that seem almost physical. Their trompe l’oeil-style jeans, cotton with printed wrinkles and folds resembling denim, displays a combination of printed chains, hoops, gemstones, pearls, and other accessories. Johansson’s deliberate attention to detail, especially on the personality of denim, truly demonstrates the power trompe l’oeil holds over our perceptions and expectations.

Using paint and embroidery, a designer can form a phantasmagoric scene the eye may miss. Shadows, creases, patterns, and folds embellish fabrics to help alter them into a completely new identity. However, behind the hallucinatory appearance and meticulous details, trompe l’oeil conveys a deeper meaning–to challenge our perception and be wary of deceit. Especially now, in a world where artificial intelligence grows ubiquitous and difficult to tell apart, deepfakes are bound to happen. Audiences hypothesize that designers are alerting us through fashion to question the media we consume, as things may not always be how we perceive them. Trompe l’oeil is a message of how illusions deceive the incautious eye, a warning to be aware of fabricated reality, and a reminder that ignorance will become ordinary if we are not attentive.