These Models' Pixelated Faces Address Political Surveillance
Fashion

These Models' Pixelated Faces Address Political Surveillance

At his Fall 2020 menswear show, designer Xander Zhou sent out some covetable looks like puffer jackets with zig-zag edges and colorful shirts spliced in different tones. But it was a series of pixelated clothes, underwear and makeup that had the biggest impact, telling an unsettling tale about surveillance and post-humanism.

Zhou approached this collection with a quantum, mechanical way of thinking. According to his release, which was translated into several different languages, a "many worlds" interpretation of the universe resulted in the name of this collection: Homo Multiversalis.

The pixelated looks in particular tell a harrowing story about the many people who are captured by surveillance systems every day by governments. Blown up proportions and multiplied faces decorate jackets and button-downs, and even underwear gets the pixeled treatment. In a reality in the not too distant future, our movements could be detected in real time by anyone, anywhere.

Photos via Getty