Nocturne

A KALTBLUT exclusive. ‘Nocturne’ is a collaboration between photographer Kris Micallef, Couturier Luke Azzopardi and model Tiffany Pisani, inspired by late Victorian studio photographs, which through their unsettling qualities became a way of commemorating the dead and channelling grief into visions of life, death & decay. This particular collaboration serves as an investigation of whimsical beauty and an exploration of the idea of ruins, as has become a staple interest of Luke Azzopardi and Kris Micallef.

The starting point of the garments used in this photo series is the Nibbia Chapel (the now destroyed Chapel of Bones) which was in Valletta, Malta, and which celebrated beauty within the funerary. The interior treatment of the architecture within the crypt of the chapel was overwhelming, in its integration of human remains to honour the sacred. Translated into the garments as a series of exoskeletons and externally buttressed corsets, the references are brought to life as if they are organic bodily transformations.

Ultimately, this surfaces as an investigation of beauty, within a method of transposition between established literature and contemporary fashions. The collaboration revisits the nostalgia with which ornamentation was applied within the space and how destined to celebrate darkness this particular space was. Whilst it is known that the chapel was lost through the bombings of the Second World War, the exact location of the crypt remains unknown, and similarly the nature of its state of ruin. This is, therefore, a nod to the legend of that crypt, in its state of liminality within collective memory. It is similarly a cathartic exhibition that delivers artefacts of particularly personal nostalgia to the public arena. Artisanal design and couture is here the instrument within a self-sustainable local industry, that uses concept-based fashion to embrace beauty.

Photography by Kris Micallef / www.krismicallef.com / Instagram: @krismicallefphoto
Model is Tiffany Pisani signed at island talent agency / Instagram: @islandtalentagency
Makeup by Justin Brincat / @justinbrincat
Hair by Jade Handford / @beautifulsinnershair
Couture by Luke Azzopardi / www.lukeazzopardi.com / Instagram: @lukeazzopardi.studio