NXSIA

Nxsia is a multidisciplinary fashion designer and Willem de Kooning Academy graduate (2022–2026), working across physical and digital mediums. Her practice combines fashion, storytelling, and worldbuilding, drawing inspiration from cinema, literature, philosophy, and theoretical research. Influenced by the surrealist worlds of Yorgos Lanthimos and David Lynch, she approaches fashion as a holistic practice, integrating garment design, character development, photography, and set design to bring conceptual narratives to life.

Of Cages and Feathers (2026)

Inspired by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of becoming-animalin their book “A Thousand Plateaus”, this fashion collection explores how the body can escape the fixed identities and social roles imposed by capitalism. Rather than viewing identity as something stable and clearly defined, the project investigates transformation as a way of resisting categorisation and control. Through the idea of becoming a creature, the collection imagines a body that moves beyond the boundaries of the human, embracing a more fluid form of existence. Visual references to animal textures, prints, and shapes inform the garments, creating sculptural silhouettes that evoke a non-human presence without directly imitating specific animals. Each design explores a different stage in the process of becoming, moving from structured and recognisable forms towards increasingly fragmented and creature-like bodies. The collection presents becoming-animal as a form of escape: a release from imposed identity and an exploration of new ways of existing beyond the structures that define us.

Credits
CREDITS
Photography: Pavlo Knyzhytsky
Models: Anya Sharma, Ruben Honer, Ayoub Essadiki,Dante Alejandra, Pedro Nascimento, Erida Tsouri, Aman Sewradj
Garments: Nasia Papaliou
Creative direction: Nasia Papaliou, Pavlo Knyzhytsky