Central Saint Martins Student Sends Transforming Balloon Dresses Down the Runway

Every once in a while, a runway design captures the entire internet's attention for its lavishness, quirkiness, or even ridiculousness. But last night, a Central Saint Martins graduate student debuted a collection that made all of our jaws drop for its never-before-seen innovation.

Fredrik Tjaerandsen, a Norwegian grad student, presented a collection of shape-shifting balloon dress designs at the college's annual BA Fashion show. What began as giant colorful balloons quickly transformed into rubber dresses and two-piece top and skirt sets. The videos, which have unsurprisingly taken over Instagram, are completely mesmerizing and mind-blowing to watch.

Tjaerandsen's avant-garde designs took home the L’Oréal Professionnel Young Talent Award last night, the highest award Central Saint Martins' design students can receive.

In an interview with Love Magazine, the design student revealed how the inflatable balloon garments work. “I have constructed these pieces with an air pressure system that lets the wearer control the air-flow," he said. "Whenever the wearer wants to deflate it, they open a latch inside to release the inverted bubble part and then that dives out of the deflating bubble."

Done in an array of bright colors, models demonstrated how the designs work in real-time on the runway. As they walked, they activated the latch inside the balloon to transform the piece into a wearable rubber dress.

At the end of the show, the designer posed with his looks on the runway upon receiving his award. And given the fact that this is just the beginning of his career, we can bet this is only the first we'll see of Tjaerandsen's work in fashion.

You can watch the full BA Fashion Show below:

Lauren Alexis Fisher is the Senior Editor at Cosmopolitan, overseeing digital content across fashion, lifestyle, beauty, sex, and culture. Previously, she was the Market Editor at Harper’s BAZAAR and has written for publications including WWD, Bustle, and W Magazine. When she’s not busy taste-testing her way through every dirty martini in New York, you can follow her on Instagram for bad jokes, good outfits, and annoying vacation pics. 

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