Ohad Caspi

Category: Footwear

Competitions: Fashion Competition 2026

BRIDLE TO BE – Footwear This shoe is part of BRIDLE TO BE, a collection exploring the loss of intimacy in the modern era through metaphors of domestication, control, and desire. The sculpted hoof-shaped toe transforms the wearer into the image of a domesticated animal. Inspired by equestrian culture, the design incorporates reclaimed English saddle stirrups and a horse bit, recontextualizing functional riding equipment as symbols of emotional restraint. Traditionally associated with guidance and control, these elements become metaphors for the invisible systems that shape contemporary relationships. The project reflects on how digital culture increasingly mediates intimacy, encouraging performance, endless choice, and emotional distance. Just as horses are guided through bridles and saddles, people often accept subtle forms of control that influence how they seek, experience, and maintain human connection. The shoe blurs the boundary between rider and ridden, suggesting that the pursuit of intimacy can itself become an act of self-domestication. Crafted from reclaimed English saddle stirrups, a TPU sole and Lambskin, the shoe combines traditional leather craftsmanship with sculptural construction. The structural connector between the shoe and the stirrup heel was hand-cast from reclaimed aluminum salvaged from discarded workshop material, extending the project’s approach of transforming overlooked resources into functional design elements. Techniques include wet molding, hand finishing, leather painting, hand stitching, and aluminum casting. By giving existing equestrian elements and reclaimed materials a renewed purpose, the design transforms objects once associated with physical control into a reflection on the emotional constraints of contemporary life.

Category: Apparel

Competitions: Fashion Competition 2026

BRIDLE TO BE: The Loss of Intimacy in the Modern Era BRIDLE TO BE explores the erosion of intimacy in contemporary society, where digital platforms and shifting social dynamics increasingly transform human connection into pursuit, performance, and control. Inspired by the symbolism of hunting, horsemanship, and Gothic aesthetics, the project examines the tension between the desire for genuine closeness and the forces that domesticate vulnerability. The collection draws a parallel between humans and wild animals in search of love. The hunter represents the relentless pursuit of affection, while bridles, saddles, and harnesses become metaphors for intimacy shaped by power and restraint. The Gothic bride embodies longing, fragility, and isolation, suspended between hope and disappointment. The ensemble consists of three interconnected garments: a tailored jacket inspired by nineteenth-century British hunting dress, a leather corset functioning as a symbolic saddle, and a silk-and-lace skirt representing the Gothic bride. Each piece can be detached and reconfigured, reflecting the fluid and evolving nature of identity and relationships. Crafted from natural wool, Portuguese Burel wool, vegetable-tanned leather, and pure silk, the project celebrates traditional craftsmanship through hand-dyeing raw wool, hand-finishing and wet molding vegetable-tanned leather, and the integration of reclaimed equestrian elements, including horse stirrups and a horse bit, giving existing materials a renewed purpose within a contemporary narrative. Rather than offering answers, BRIDLE TO BE invites reflection on how modern culture reshapes intimacy, asking whether our pursuit of connection has become another form of domestication.

Category: Apparel

Competitions: Fashion Competition 2026

Anima in Animus – Apparel Statement Anima in Animus explores the transformation of traditional masculinity through historical dress, military symbolism, and contemporary identity. Drawing inspiration from fifteenth-century Gothic aesthetics, military uniforms, and Donatello’s androgynous David, the collection proposes a vision of masculinity that embraces vulnerability, fluidity, and emotional openness. The tailored jacket serves as the structural foundation of the look. Constructed from natural cool wool, it references the commanding silhouettes of military generals through its high break line and architectural shoulders. Delicate pleats reinterpret military shoulder insignia, while leather straps emerging directly from the jacket’s seams extend toward the head, transforming functional construction lines into symbolic elements of authority and restraint. Beneath the jacket, the lambskin leather jumpsuit reinterprets the fifteenth-century hose and the military protective pouch. Historical references are translated into a sculptural garment that frames rather than conceals the body, challenging conventional masculine archetypes through sensuality, exposure, and vulnerability. Across the torso, geometric forms inspired by fifteenth-century dagging reconstruct the idealized male body, while pointed metal piercings echo the elongated proportions of Gothic architecture. The sculptural handbag, created through digital modeling, leather wet molding, and hand finishing, references the triangular masculine physique while simultaneously recalling the inverted pink triangle, transforming a symbol of persecution into one of sensitivity and resilience. The heeled footwear combines fifteenth-century pointed shoes with feminine pumps and military lacing, dissolving the boundaries between masculine and feminine codes. Constructed entirely from natural materials—including wool, lambskin leather, vegetable-tanned leather, and silk—the collection ultimately proposes masculinity not as a fixed identity, but as a fluid condition in which authority can coexist with tenderness, fragility, and emotional depth.