BOOM BAP UM KIKI. WELCOME TO THE SPORTMAX SOUNDSCAPE
Sound takes shape as Sportmax inspires LN-CC to create a physical embodiment of sound symbolism, enlisting set designer Paulina Piipponen to build a textural interpretation of serendipity and chaos.
Have you ever seen sound? Does language have a colour? Enter the Sportmax universe, where acid yellow satin and chequered tank tops partner with nonsense words. Statistically, less than 5% of us experience the blending of the senses where colour can be heard, sound can be felt, and touch can be seen, but there’s another sensory phenomenon that is more accessible.
A sort of onomatopoeic synaesthesia, bouba/kiki is the ‘correspondence between speech sounds and visual properties’. To translate The Royal Society, some words have matching shapes. There are big bulbous round words – a bouba, while others are sharp and spiky – a kiki.
You’ve looked in the mirror and wondered if you’re pig or rat, well Sportmax presents its latest collection and asks; bouba or kiki?
Kifkaf la le la le boumpbap.
A voluptuous bubble skirt with curling 3D flowers, bouba or kiki?
Sportmax spring/summer 23 juxtaposes the geometric and organic, the natural and artificial, and the ultra-casual against the extravagant. In pursuit of a real world and wearable balance between serendipity and chaos, geometric prints are stretched across flexible jersey tops and luminescent fabrics wrap around architectural structures, evoking an almost paranormal sensuality. Grigi grap sleen malumba.
Sportmax constructs its own experiment in the form of an alchemical collage of elements that discover their own balance while transcending the confines of any logical explanation.
- Sportmax
Credits Photography: Verity Smiley Jones, @veritysmileyjones Set: Paulina Piipponen, @paulina_piipponen Talent: Saffron, @nowheregirlonline H&MU: Keia Morrison, @keiatamsin Photography Assistant: Oran Eggerton, @oranegg Set Assistant: Cecilia Dumont, @ceciliadumont