Lea Ontari - Hochschule Macromedia Berlin-Hamburg

PERFORMING PRETTY – Hochschule Macromedia Berlin-Hamburg

Between Sweetness and Staging 

The collection PERFORMING PRETTY explores fashion as a tool with which we stage our identity every single day – somewhere between collective group movements, the runway, and social media. The core idea: Our identity is not fixed or „authentic,“ but a role that we continuously recreate through our clothing and behavior. Clothes act as the stage on which we make ourselves visible to an audience. 

At the center of the collection is the deliberate exaggeration of hyper-feminine clichés. Elements like massive bows, extreme volume, glossy surfaces, and a sugary-sweet color palette are intensely overstated. As a result, the aesthetic moves along a fine line between total attraction and conscious disruption, highlighting just how artificial modern ideals of femininity truly are. 

A key feature is the exploration of global youth and online cultures, such as the Y2K aesthetic or historical Japanese street styles. The focus lies entirely on the phenomenon of group movements: it is about thebigger picture and the question of how people worldwide use collective visual codes to demonstrate belonging, a sense of community, and a shared identity. Typical characteristics like decorative overload aredetached from their original context and reassembled as freely circulating style fragments. Identity is thus presented as something fragmented – a larger whole built from different puzzle pieces of pop culture toexpress exactly who you want to be from within. 

The designs translate this idea through extreme layering, intense gathering, and additive constructions. The silhouettes move away from functional, everyday clothing and take on a costume-like character. Here, fashion becomes a prop for a role that only comes alive the moment it is worn. 

A central element is absurdity: Overproportioned details, unexpected material combinations, and a look that deliberately oscillates between „too much“ and „too artificial“ break traditional norms. Especially on digital platforms, it is often no longer the physical wearing that matters, but only the perfect image. In a hyper-visual world, PERFORMING PRETTY shows how we use fashion not just to dress up, but to constantlyreinvent ourselves from scratch. 

For me, fashion is not a tool for blending in, but a way to express identity and individuality. Stepping away from the mainstream, I look for ways to break down the familiar and give clothing a deeper, personal meaning. A key part of my work is sustainability: I love reinventing old garments and materials through purposeful upcycling. Giving something old a new, unexpected life is what drives my creative process. 

My design philosophy thrives on the unexpected. Every piece is meant to stand out and carry its own distinct visual signature. I like to break the traditional rules of fashion design by experimenting with fabrics and mixing fashion with completely untypical, everyday objects. Whether playing with extreme, sculptural volume like countless bows or using playful details: my aesthetic is unusual, experimental, and non-conformist. I design for people who use fashion as a statement of their own, uncopyable identity.