A style-swapping experiment in Singapore
\u00a9 Qozop<\/p><\/div>\n

Qozop’s Conceptual Photography\u00a0Features Creative Clothes Swapping<\/h2>\n

If our eyes are the windows to our souls, are our clothes the curtains?<\/em><\/p>\n

Clothes have always held a certain fascination.<\/p>\n

\n
• Children love to dress up in grown-up outfits.<\/li>\n
• Fans flock to the red carpets of the world for a glimpse of glamour and the answer to the inevitable designer question: \u201cWho are you wearing?\u201d<\/li>\n
• Halloween costumes release the inner actor that lurks in all of us.<\/li>\n
• Fashion Week in trend-setting cities influences the future of style and color.<\/li>\n
• Cultural traditions are revealed through clothes of the past and present.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  While clothes don\u2019t \u201cmake the person,\u201d they are an important part of culture, giving clues to our identity and impacting how we feel about ourselves.<\/p>\n

  

  Chinese mother and daughter make a fashion statement.
  \u00a9 Qozop<\/p><\/div>\n

  Singapore photographer Qozop recognized some emerging truths about clothes\u00a0and the generation gap in Asian society. His conceptual photography series, Spring\/Autumn,\u00a0tells the story.<\/p>\n

  Fashion Truths<\/h4>\n

  As an astute student of fashion trends, Qozop observes, \u201cWhile Asia is increasingly becoming more westernized, with youngsters favoring Western styles, older generations often still dress in ethnic attire. It is possible to witness generational and cultural divides through the clothes that we wear.\u201d<\/p>\n

  With such an evident fashion gap, the idea for a visual experiment was born.<\/p>\n

  

  Indian grandfather and grandson set style to envy.
  \u00a9 Qozop<\/p><\/div>\n

  Generation Gap\u2014Real or Imagined?<\/h4>\n

  Qozop selected pairs of relatives—one from a younger generation and one from an older generation—and invited them to exchange outfits.<\/p>\n

  \u201cIt was easy to get the kids to agree to be photographed, but the older folks required a little coaxing,\u201d Qozop explained.<\/p>\n

  How did he convince them?<\/p>\n

  “I would tell them it’s very likely that up until that moment, they have never been in clothes other than their own, so it would be a good chance to break away from the \u2018comfort bubble\u2019 of who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

  

  Chinese grandfather and grandson trade places for a moment in time.
  \u00a9 Qozop<\/p><\/div>\n

  Walking a Mile in Someone\u2019s Clothes<\/h4>\n

  Qozop\u2019s photographs are mirrored \u201cbefore\u201d and \u201cafter\u201d images. The body language and expressions are transferred along with the clothing. He places his subjects against textured backgrounds that add important context clues.<\/p>\n

  Although he\u00a0humbly\u00a0says, “There is nothing special about me.\u00a0I am just an artist who has caught a picture-making sickness,” his compositions are\u00a0mesmerizing.<\/p>\n

  

  A fashionable Indian grandmother and
  granddaughter
  \u00a9 Qozop<\/p><\/div>\n

  The result is a mind-expanding transformation. Stereotypes explode. Identities change. New character traits emerge.<\/p>\n

  As for the elders, Qozop says, \u201cthey were often curious and amused to see themselves in their child\u2019s or grandchild\u2019s attire.\u201d<\/p>\n

  Some took on the character of the younger person, walking with a new rhythm to their step. The best secret, he adds: \u201cSome of them were so comfortable in the new get-up, they wanted to wear the clothes for the rest of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

  

  Malaysian mother and daughter make a comfortable swap.
  \u00a9 Qozop<\/p><\/div>\n

  Oh, I See<\/h4>\n

  For Qozop, the defining \u201cOh, I See\u201d moment<\/strong> was for the elders.<\/p>\n

  “Many of us grow up with the vague notion that as we get older, our wardrobe should be changing right there along with us,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re taught to dress our age, without knowing exactly what this even means.\u201d<\/p>\n

  \u201cI have always admired what is commonly known now as \u2018advanced style\u2019 folks\u2014the ones who refuse to play by the rule that says to grow older is to fade into the shadows.”<\/p>\n

  Qozop\u2019s project confirms his own personal belief: \u201cPeople should be able to wear what they want and have fun with clothes regardless of their age.\u201d<\/p>\n

  

  Happiness at any age
  \u00a9 Qozop<\/p><\/div>\n

  Even his conservative grandmother joined the fun and exchanged clothes with him for this conceptual photography series. However, Qozop says, she refuses to this day to look at the photo.<\/p>\n

  She would be pleasantly surprised . . . and, more important, might be happy to know her participation\u00a0may have inspired other grandparents in the world to defy the idea of a generation gap and reject\u00a0conventional ideas about beauty and aging.<\/p>\n

  Find more of Qozop\u2019s work on his website<\/a> and on his Facebook page. <\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

  Comment<\/a>\u00a0on this post, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,252,125,171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ideas-creative","category-singapore-mappoints","category-stereotypes-culture","category-photography-creative"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40170,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20964\/revisions\/40170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}