A style-swapping experiment in Singapore
© Qozop

Qozop’s Conceptual Photography Features Creative Clothes Swapping

If our eyes are the windows to our souls, are our clothes the curtains?

Clothes have always held a certain fascination.

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

While clothes don’t “make the person,” they are an important part of culture, giving clues to our identity and impacting how we feel about ourselves.

Chinese mother and daughter make a fashion statement.
© Qozop

Singapore photographer Qozop recognized some emerging truths about clothes and the generation gap in Asian society. His conceptual photography series, Spring/Autumn, tells the story.

Fashion Truths

As an astute student of fashion trends, Qozop observes, “While 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.”

With such an evident fashion gap, the idea for a visual experiment was born.

Indian grandfather and grandson set style to envy.
© Qozop

Generation Gap—Real or Imagined?

Qozop selected pairs of relatives—one from a younger generation and one from an older generation—and invited them to exchange outfits.

“It was easy to get the kids to agree to be photographed, but the older folks required a little coaxing,” Qozop explained.

How did he convince them?

“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 ‘comfort bubble’ of who they are.”

Chinese grandfather and grandson trade places for a moment in time.
© Qozop

Walking a Mile in Someone’s Clothes

Qozop’s photographs are mirrored “before” and “after” images. The body language and expressions are transferred along with the clothing. He places his subjects against textured backgrounds that add important context clues.

Although he humbly says, “There is nothing special about me. I am just an artist who has caught a picture-making sickness,” his compositions are mesmerizing.

A fashionable Indian grandmother and
granddaughter
© Qozop

The result is a mind-expanding transformation. Stereotypes explode. Identities change. New character traits emerge.

As for the elders, Qozop says, “they were often curious and amused to see themselves in their child’s or grandchild’s attire.”

Some took on the character of the younger person, walking with a new rhythm to their step. The best secret, he adds: “Some of them were so comfortable in the new get-up, they wanted to wear the clothes for the rest of the day.”

Malaysian mother and daughter make a comfortable swap.
© Qozop

Oh, I See

For Qozop, the defining “Oh, I See” moment was for the elders.

“Many of us grow up with the vague notion that as we get older, our wardrobe should be changing right there along with us,” he says. “We’re taught to dress our age, without knowing exactly what this even means.”

“I have always admired what is commonly known now as ‘advanced style’ folks—the ones who refuse to play by the rule that says to grow older is to fade into the shadows.”

Qozop’s project confirms his own personal belief: “People should be able to wear what they want and have fun with clothes regardless of their age.”

Happiness at any age
© Qozop

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.

She would be pleasantly surprised . . . and, more important, might be happy to know her participation may have inspired other grandparents in the world to defy the idea of a generation gap and reject conventional ideas about beauty and aging.

Find more of Qozop’s work on his website and on his Facebook page.  

Comment on this post, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.