Clothes That Vanish After One Wear

At Paris Fashion Week this past March, singer Tyla appeared on the street wearing what looked like a snakeskin jacket. Look closer and there is no jacket. It was a temporary tattoo applied directly onto her skin. The creator behind this "tattoo garment" is Simon Carle, a German designer based in Paris. He studied fashion in Berlin, attended ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands, and worked as a creative lead designer at Yeezy. He later joined the couture team at Maison Margiela, working from John Galliano's 2024 Artisanal collection through to the Glenn Martens era.

Simon Carle's Tattoo Garments series transfers the form of clothing onto the skin. The trompe l'oeil sensibility honed at Margiela now unfolds on the body itself. Beyond the snakeskin jacket Tyla wore, he has developed a range of designs including animal prints, leopard patterns, and abstract textures. Each piece adheres to the skin and reads as real clothing, yet there is not a single thread. Only an illusion drawn on skin remains.

These garments cannot be worn again. Once applied, that is it. Remove them and they vanish. Fashion that is not permanent erases the concept of ownership. You cannot store it in a collection or resell it as vintage. It only holds meaning in the moment it exists on the body. That very impermanence leaves a more powerful impression.

Tattoo Garments find their purpose on stages designed for single moments: fashion shows, editorial shoots, red carpets. Through this series, Simon Carle continues his experiment in erasing the materiality of clothes and leaving only the image. For you, is clothing something to be owned, or something to be worn only in the moment?