Natasha Zinko ‘PLASTIC’ | SS25

“You’re messing with nature.”
“Well, nature messed with me.”

The opening dialogue of the soundscape at the Natasha Zinko SS25 runway show slices through the room like a scalpel, introducing the crowd to the collection’s ethos: if plastic is everywhere, why do we try so hard to hide it?

This season, the Ukrainian-born, London-based designer offers an antidote to the culture of secrecy that surrounds modern beauty standards, and the lengths people are willing to go to achieve them. The collection, aptly titled ‘PLASTIC’, lifts the curtain on the world of unattainable beauty, bringing the oft unspoken into the limelight by presenting 47 plastic surgery-adjacent looks. The collection marks a bold, more cynical direction for Zinko, as she translates her playful optimism into ‘clinical bleakness’, with each look chipping away at our ability to look the other way, and inviting us to bask in the pervasiveness of our own need to aesthetically alter our healthy bodies.

It takes the crowd a moment to register that the first look is being sent down an outdoor runway, parallel to the allocated space indoors, visible through a large window running the full length of East London’s Oval Space. The model, dressed in a white playsuit, knee-high compression stockings and carrying a plastic bag full of gauze, stops briefly to examine her own reflection. The showcase’s opening looks include a stream of all-white medical attire, some complete with plastic sleeves and shoe coverings intended to mimic those worn during surgery. We also see sheer medical gowns, complete with open backs and adjustable straps so patients can more easily maintain their sex appeal throughout recovery.

A little later, Zinko rids us of any lingering doubt as to what she is trying to convey with graphic prints reading ‘INSERT TITS HERE’ and ‘WHO’S YOUR SURGEON?’ adorned on jersey dresses and t-shirts. Another key feature of this collection are 3-D printed ‘implants’, spilling out of tiny bra tops, skimpy jeans, and denim mini skirts for all the world to see. Towards the back half of the collection, we see more dark, almost theatrical makeup. Fresh off their turns at Zinko’s transcendental surgery clinic, the models look almost puffy and bruised – not the London Fashion Week norm by a long shot. Elsewhere, Zinko plays with shapes, superimposing hoodies, constricting arm movement, and tacking trouser legs onto other trouser legs. Her signature men’s boxer briefs are also present throughout the collection in the form of bags, hoodie pockets, and, surprisingly, a black organza dress.

The full collection confronts the audience a final time during the finale, as the models gather side-by-side behind the window. It almost feels like they’re telling us, ‘you’re all part of this club too, so act like it’. Behind the window, the models stare back at us – or their reflections, it’s hard to tell – before the lights go black. I think back to the dialogue uttered during the opening moments of the show: “You can’t just randomly start changing your features because you wouldn’t look, you know, human.”