I have to say I am gobsmacked by these Shiva Skull Bags, haute couture man-purses in the shape of a tweedy skull with zippered lips. These scary and extremely cool skulls are the work of Brazilian born Aitor Throup -- who received an MA in Mens Fashion from the Royal School of Art in England. He has designed for English football teams, including designing kits for The World Soccer Cup and won multiple awards for his men's clothing. Here's a bit from his biography on If It's Hip, It's Here (where more photos of his work can be seen):
"Aitor is fascinated with anatomy and his main interest is drawing. His hand drawn characters become the primary tool in the exploration of his ‘justified design philosophy’, which highlights the necessity of a reason or function behind all design features. Aitor's design process is centered around innovative methods of design and construction, in particular a construction process which utilises his own sculptures of the human body as a system for blocking garments."
It's not just the skulls Aitor constructs, but the male forms on which he displays his skull bag -- when seen together they resemble an art installation of everyone's imagined bone-collecting, Baba Yaga fence-posting, animated skeleton on the prowl. I am reminded of the African folktale "The Perfect Gentleman" retold in Amos Tutola's The Palm Wine Drunkard, where a young woman smitten with a handsome man follows him into the bush only to discover as he returns all of the handsome -- but borrowed body parts -- that he is nothing but a terrifying skull and she is compelled to marry it. Aitor's skulls have both the tweed and twill of a "perfect gentleman" but stretched over the frame of the skull -- which is carried by itself.
You can see more of Aitor's fascinating daily sketch books here, read an interview here, and watch the film below which shows Aitor and crew setting up the fashion installation for his new Shiva Skull Bags.
