‘AREN’T WE ALL SAINTS?’ BATUHAN DEMIR TURNS DEVOTION INTO DRESS
words by VERONICA TLAPANCO SZABÓ
Aren’t we all saints? If divinity is evenly distributed, why does survival feel so unevenly assigned? Batuhan Demir stages his answer inside a casino, a place that is conveniently seductive and deliberately timeless. A place where hope is cheap and illusion is the house’s most reliable currency. For Demir, the casino becomes a small-scale replica of society itself where power circulates in the most covert of ways. Starring at the emotional heart of the collection, is the lived experience of a single mother from an immigrant background. She is resilient, exhausted, proud, fractured — sometimes all at once.
all images courtesy of DEMIR
Being stripped of place, language, and familiarity creates fractures in a person, it multiplies you. That fragmentation is made strikingly literal in a look developed with artist Esmay Wagemans, where additional arms emerge from the body. It remains unclear whether the figure is being restrained or desperately trying to hold herself together?
Each character in Demir’s universe exists in their own emotional bubble, framed by liminal, almost unreal backdrops. Though gathered in the same space, they remain isolated, speaking endlessly to drown out thought, mistaking anger for authority unable to escape the weight of their pasts.
“In this house of cheap miracles, no one is holy, yet all of us are divine.”
Corsetry throughout the collection, crafted by Marloes Dadswell, grounds these ideas in the body. For it becomes a site of tension, between control and release. Completed with sharp shapes that extend outwards like barbed wire to protect one’s self from all the cruelty that circulates.
Then there’s the purple dress, marked repeatedly with the word shame. Something learned and repeated until it wraps itself tightly around the body. Visually framed by curtains each figure feels caught mid-confession which reveals a tenderness in each character. Demir doesn’t aestheticise their suffering, he honours endurance that comes along with it. If survival requires masks, armor, performance, then perhaps that, too, is a form of sanctity.
You know what they say the house always wins, but for a moment, under the lights, everyone gets to be seen.
TEAM CREDITS:
models KAROLIINA VELLESTE at Brooks Modeling Agency, CHIARA PONTIER at Brooks Modeling Agency, FATO SUNA, THUNDER SHEILS at Vein Agency, MIERIJN BLOKZIJL at Scala Management, WINNY NZEYIMANA at Solid Model Management and SEM MEENHUIS at New Generation Models
creative direction and designer BATUHAN DEMIR
art direction and visual designer ÜLKÜHAN AKGÜL
photography DION BAL
makeup BEAU PIJPSTRA and ROOS TADEMA
hair LARA SCHEPERS and MATHIEU BRONCKHORST
production KAAN HICYILMAZ
set design KLAAR STRAATMAN
photography assistance EUGENE BERKOVSKI
dop GIO ISENIA
assistant dop HENDLEY DA CRUZ
gaffer DAAN DERKSEN
assistant camera HARVEY VAN DER GANG
atelier FRANSIZKA MINNEMA, MARLOES DADSWELL and PABLO SALVADOR WILLEMARS
collaborations ESMAY WAGEMANS and XAM VAN KEMPEN
partners SKUA STUDIO and DARKAI LAB
all around assistance ISABELL KRISTIANSEN
styling assistance MARTINA VOJTEKOVÁ
set assistance JELENA BONDT
