Inside the Making of One Björk’s Otherworldly Costumes

For the last 17 years, the design team of Threeasfour, has quietly worked alongside Björk not only producing numerous stage costumes but as trusted companions. With fond memories of traveling to Iceland for visits and riding bicycles in the Lower East Side, it was only fitting for designers, Gabriel Asfour, Ange Donhauser, and Adi Gil, to take on the challenge of Björk’s creation for W‘s November cover.

“Just like Björk, the image on the cover feels very solitary, and it was a perfect fit between Threeasfour’s silicone coral dress, James Merry—who created the beautiful silicone mask—and her own spirit!“ the team told W.

In collaboration with Cristina Cabada, a recent Parsons School of Design alum who specializes in the medium of motion, the team set to work on a a surreal 3D dress made of silicone broccoli shapes. With over 100 silicone molds, the forms took on an aquatic feeling—sea creatures in a brilliant shade of peach, though finding the correct peach was not an easy task, Gil said. “She’s very specific about color and this album was all about peach,” he said. The merging of peach and coral hues in scales resembles what the designer fondly refers to as “a skin disease.” Although strange, the organic shapes create a vivid texture and conjures a confusion that inspires the onlooker to think a bit deeper about the garment and silhouette.

Threeasfour, a label founded in 2005 that always sought to blend technology and art, prides itself on taking its own course in the fashion cycle. Fostering special projects and new talent such as the emerging Cabada, the team is much like Björk in that both are well known for their support of young and up-and-coming artists. In an increasingly commercial world that prides sales and convention, “Björk dares to dream” said Gil.

“Bjork is a unique being,” the team continued. “Over the years we’ve known each other, we find it fascinating to find many parallels inspirations. It feels like she is our ideal natural collaborator, we’ve been so blessed to find each other in this lifetime.”

As Björk moves into a tour in promotion of her new album, Utopia, Threeasfour is working with her to create the costumes for the Icelandic flute artists that are slated to perform alongside the main act. Gil said that the pieces will all be quite feminine, a trait Björk feels strongly about, if W’s November cover as well as her recently released “Blissing Me” video, both shot by Tim Walker, is any indication.