The vulnerability paradox: coping with trauma explored through ‘Titane’ inspired fashion project by photographer Martin Kuyvenhoven and DJ Laure Croft.

Alexia, a girl traumatised in her childhood by having a car accident, suddenly feels like the material titanium. She develops an attraction towards cars and machinery and slowly evolves into a ruthless woman who kills and torments in her search for love to protect herself and understand the world around her.

Titane (2022) may sound like the pinnacle of absurdity to most of us, but photographer Martijn Kuyvenhoven recognized that the essence concerns all of us. The gore-induced movie magnifes the coping mechanisms we establish for trauma. Exuberance, success, and social presence belong to those who have high self-esteem and live without fear. While actually behind the scenes the latter is true: vulnerability, pain and doubt are at the core of their inner world, playing an essential role in their lives.

A message DJ Laure Croft strongly finds herself in. As a person coming from a diffcult childhood and experiencing severe trauma, she came eye to eye with herself multiple times. This resulted in her harsh attitude towards the outer world as a harness to protect her emotional and sensitive self. Like many, she finds her healing in creativity and music. This is her ‘machinery’. Martijn has always struggled to find belonging during his youth as his profound thinking wasn’t encouraged by his environment. After years of trial and error, he found a connection with his inner self within his craft as a photographer. This is his ‘machinery’.

Together they created a synthetic world where the psychological masks of confidence are shown in their many layers, aiming to raise awareness for the ‘machinery’ that everyone can find within themselves.