Many of the lingerie brands we know today cater for the male gaze or to women looking sexy for anyone but themselves. Michaela Stark, known for body morphing, has disrupted the status quo by transforming her own flesh into a canvas. She models lingerie made for women by women for the world to see.
Her fashion project-turned-Instagram phenomenon all started when Stark was living alone in Paris in the midst of the pandemic. “I was a seamstress at the time for Parisian brands and it kind of hit me that I didn’t actually make my own clothes,” says the designer. What she describes as a therapeutic experience pushed her into corset making while developing unique sewing techniques on her curves to make art out of it.
Coming from a family of engineers, Stark is neither an alumnus of a European fashion school nor part of the industry’s cool clique. But with almost 200,000 Instagram followers, she believes that social media helps open wide the doors of the fashion industry. Her one worry was image censorship in regards to the female body: “Instagram has also been detrimental to my practice due to the constant censoring, which has almost made it fearful for me to actually post,” she says.
The Australian-born artist isn’t afraid of being labelled a social media sensation and remains keen to prove she belongs in the industry. Her work, which doesn’t tick the conventional boxes of fashion or art, has led to ongoing conversations and stirred strong opinions. One particular s.