by PIA PETERSON
“I want to challenge your perception of your own body and allow you to see your perceived flaws as beautiful. I want you to see your body, flaws and all, as just as intricate, fragile, and delicate as the garments that I create.”
Michaela Stark, an Australian couturier and artist who moved to London during the pandemic, has accomplished career goals that some of us might only dream of — she worked as a tailor for Beyoncé, for example. A self-trained couturier who spent years studying fashion, she creates clothes that are meant to emphasize the parts of the body that we are made to be ashamed of. The fat rolls, the round stomachs, cellulite, body hair, uneven breasts — these are the parts of the body that, as women, we are often told are shameful or even ugly.
“I work very closely with the body to make clothes that accentuate and enhance these, using techniques that couturiers have used in the past. I use the same tools that were used to hide, to accentuate,” Stark said.
Her work can shock people — and that is part of the point. Her work intends to challenge beauty standards in Western culture, and to create beautiful work that takes part of the body that women might not love about themselves and make that sexy.
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