CULTURE

Kim Kardashian, Chrissy Teigen, and Tan France Temporarily Mutate Themselves for Fashion

The latest accessories trend: body horror.


 Tan France and Kim Kardashian wearing pieces from A.Human collection in a two-part collage

Body horror—i’s not just for David Cronenberg anymore. It’s fashion, baby.

Over the past 24 hours, Kim Kardashian, Chrissy Teigen, and Queer Eye’s Tan France have all taken to Instagram to show off their latest accessories, which just so happen look like they’re abnormal growths sprouting from their skin. Kardashian wore a choker necklace that looked as if it has been embedded into her skin (it even glowed in the dark), a strong choice for a woman who won’t even get a tattoo because, as she’s famously said, “You don’t put a bumper sticker on a Bentley.” Teigen, meanwhile, appeared to have angel wings sprouting out of her chest, and France wore a gill-like collar around his neck with quartz crystals growing out of it.

What in body modification is going on?

No, some X-Men-like comic book drama is not playing out in the Hollywood Hills. Nor are the modifications permanent. Rather, it’s all for fashion and art.

As it turns out, the celebrity Instagram spree is to promote an upcoming exhibit titled “A. Human.” Dreamed up by PR exec Simon Huck, according to Vogue it’s a futuristic take on what body modification may look like in years to come when tattoo ink and piercing suddenly become passé and DNA editing and implants may become all the rage.

“When you think of the future, you think dark, dystopian—there are all these images that come to mind. I didn’t want to create a utopian world, but I definitely wanted to create a world that was optimistic or, at the bare minimum, neutral,” Huck told Vogue. “We wanted to use the future of fashion, and the future of self-expression, as a way to look at the future. That is how the ethos of ‘A. Human’ formed.”

Theatrical director Michael Counts, makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench, and creative director Nicola Formichetti (former stylist for Lady Gaga, who has experimented with temporary body modifications before) are all part of the team.

While it doesn’t appear you’ll be able to purchase any of these pieces for yourself, you can check out the exhibit when it opens in New York City, at 8 Mercer Street, on September 5.