The New Normal

While natives of the famously idiosyncratic city of Austin espouse the motto, "Keep Austin Weird," it's a bit more difficult to imagine the locals of Istanbul adopting the same mantra for their city. Nonetheless, Turkish designer Hande Cokrank seems to have taken the job upon herself with her collection Maid In Love. For Spring 2014, she presents the "Ship of Weirdos" collection, inspired by an imagined meeting of weirdos trapped on a small ship together, where abnormal is the new normal. The cast of characters include a teddy bear wearing KISS facepaint, a forlorn looking giant bunny rabbit, and a family of flying eyeballs, all hand drawn by Hande herself, and incorporated into the season's prints. The trippy and sometimes downright hallucinogenic results have prompted people to ask Hande if she designs while high, which seems to puzzle her; apparently these weirdos are merely conjured from a very active imagination, no substances required. Maybe the rest of us will follow her irreverent lead and her "life is too short to wear boring clothes" philosophy. After all, the flying eyeball print dress should be on everyone's wishlist for spring.

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-Tiffany