Based in Vienna, Austria, Friederike Filler is a textile artist and fashion designer whose work explores the intersections of body, identity, and power structures. Her recent fashion collection examines the influence of patriarchal systems on lived experience, with hair serving as both material and message.
In this body of work, hair functions as a communicator. The collection delves into the symbolic weight hair carries and the ways in which societal norms around hair are used to regulate behavior, enforce conformity, and shape perceptions of identity. At the same time, it explores how hair can be reclaimed as a source of agency, resistance, and self-expression.
Rooted in personal experience, the project reflects a deeply felt connection to the subject matter. Due to the volume of hair required, synthetic hair was also used, highlighting the tension between authenticity and artifice within beauty standards and fashion itself.
Through this collection, she challenges viewers to consider how something as personal and bodily as hair can be both politicized and liberating.