CH•SOM

Shades Of infinity is the premier collection from CH•SOM, A saturated attempt to be whole, That was the thought behind the collection of Nigerian born -Amsterdam based designer Chisom Ogundu.The collections concept was born of personal trauma that caused a disconnect in perception. “I realised there were layers to the mind and subconscious that I couldn't seem to reach, but I was suddenly aware was there, and this unreachable feeling gnawed at me”. Thinking about the Japanese philosophy Kintsugi that celebrates trauma/ damage to an object as part of its history rather than something to hide or disguise, and the quote from Psychologist K. Jonas, “The mind is a beautiful thing, in its simplicity lies its complexity” became the starting point for this collection. Charged in this headspace, His was to understand how various layers of the mind come together seemingly simply but yet so complex, questions of what makes a thing simple and what makes it complex began to brew and so was the thirst to translate this to the physical. Using simple techniques of cutting, cut outs of unorthodox emotive shapes, forming new and interesting silhouettes, layering with a delicate and complex craftsmanship for simple silhouettes and exploring the use of Colour as Therapy for the psyche, was the balanced required for this collection. Whole items, with just enough missing elements,layers, references the idea behind it all. A simplistic vision of a complex experience, the protagonist of this story is a broken man, longing to be whole again.