“I want you to go mad, have a breakdown, die — and be reborn.”
— Alexander McQueen
Third-year Fashion Design student at the Academy of Art in Szczecin, inspired by Alexander McQueen’s “Voss” (2001)
The starting point for Abnormalized was Voss—Alexander McQueen’s groundbreaking 2001 runway show. In this iconic performance, McQueen confined his models within a glass box, turning the catwalk into a clinical experiment in beauty, madness, and voyeurism.
It was not only violent and raw, but also disturbingly intimate. As a result, it disrupted and redefined our understanding of fashion, the body, and the act of looking.
Inspired by this radical vision, Jakub Bocianowski set out to create a collection of erotic jewelry that, similarly, explores themes of control, physicality, and the shifting boundaries between desire and domination. Specifically, he focused on objects that are designed to restrain the body—such as the straitjacket, gag, handcuffs, and Hannibal Lecter’s mask. These objects were then reinterpreted as sculptural, wearable forms, simultaneously evoking vulnerability and power.
Moreover, Bocianowski layered his concept with references to organic structures: tangled vines, creeping forms, and the imperfect geometries of anatomy. Through this lens, imperfection became not a flaw, but a design principle—a new kind of beauty. Each piece was carefully hand-carved in wax and cast in alpaca, under the guidance of Artur Rozen, founder of the Warsaw-based jewelry brand Robien Jewellery.
In essence, Abnormalized is not traditional jewelry. Rather, it functions as an emotional artifact. It challenges the wearer—and the viewer—to reconsider beauty as something stripped of comfort, and intimacy as something charged with tension. Ultimately, these pieces are not meant to simply adorn the body.
They are made to bind to it.
Check Jakub Bocianowski on instagram.
More works of Jakub Bocianowski here.
Team Credits:
Designer: @jakubbocianowskiofficial
Preorder our latest edition here featuring Jella Haase on the cover.
