Inspired by one of my favorite characters of all time, Major Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, the Motoko Dress was the first piece ever designed for ARK/8 as a standalone brand outside of collaborations and therefore a truly important milestone for me as a creative director.
A core pillar of making the dress was to pick a very structured and resistant fabric that would scream futurism and sci-fi while not veering into cosplay.
We ended up selecting Technical Duchesse from luxurious fabric maker LIMONTA in Italy.
It felt like the perfect balance between robustness and elegance, rugged in a way but also expressing a beautiful, infinitely morphing sheen.
You have to see it in real life to really appreciate how it interacts with light. Doubling down on Italian quality, we added a thick LAMPO zipper to reinforce the military feel. The bright lining is adorned by our “maze” pattern, and is made of a satin base for maximum comfort.
The result is a future-proof dress that we are very proud of. We hope it does justice to the legendary Major, while being true to our brand’s DNA of creating timeless, empowering pieces inspired by the things we love the most.
As always, we would love to hear your feedback too. Because we are not only building the brand of my dreams, we want to build the brand of our dreams as the most passionate, engaged and caring community in the world.
