London-based textile artist Daisy Collingridge graduated from Central Saint Martins with a degree in fashion design, though her textile creations aren’t what you’d typically see worn on the streets. Rather, her practice revolves around fabric manipulation and crosses into the realms of sculpture and performance.

Her quilted body suits are reminiscent of plush children’s toys or fictional characters, with exaggerated, bulbous forms. The creations take lead from real human anatomy, with Collingridge then extending body parts such as boobs, stomach, and muscle systems into overlapping, squishy shapes.

The wearable costumes are photographed or performed striking confident, carefree poses, such as blowing a kiss to the camera, languidly lying around, dancing or jumping on trampolines. The fact that the cartoon-ish forms move around with the ease and ability of a person is surreal and almost off-putting, at the same time as being straight up entertaining.

Underlying Collingridge’s humour and cheek, however, is a mission to challenge conventional body ideals, and examine the complexities of body image. The artist was inspired by the over-the-top aesthetics of body building, as well as an exhibition she saw during childhood called ‘Body World’; anatomical structures preserved in plastic, dissected human bodies and animals were displayed. The artist comes from a family of doctors and nurses, which she also credits with her bodily obsession.

Collingridge refers to her quilted collection as a ‘family’, and each costume has a name such as Nigella, Hillary, and Clive. Each also has a personality, with Collingridge making the head first to determine the rest of the form. For example, Clive is the funny one, with a smirk stitched into his face. She begins by selecting a colour palette for the costume, with each sticking to a palette of pinks and nudes. Then, she mixes paints and hand sews each ‘body part’ together.

After graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2016, Collingridge created her first quilted piece for the New Zealand ‘World of Wearable Arts’ competition, which she won. Shortly after this, she was commissioned by singer Björk to create a graphic, neon yellow quilted midi-dress, which remains a career highlight. Collingridge is part of the 62 Group, which aims to challenge the boundaries of textiles practise.

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