There are Diamonds on Uranus

Oliza is a Womenswear designer specialising in knitwear, her work explores stories that never happened- Narratives that follow characters dissatisfied and seeking escape. These Figures navigate disillusionment, reflecting anxiety and uncertainties of the world around us. The degradation of mental health is catalyst of her material world, focusing her practice as an ephemeral medium—designed to degrade, to return to the earth. Garments become symbols of fragility and impermanence, echoing the struggles of the self, through Natural dye and materials. Her Graduate Collection is titled “There are Diamonds on Uranus” and explores the planet Uranus as allegory for current depression caused by late-stage capitalism. “There are Diamonds on Uranus Delves into the transfixion surrounding this distant planet—its eighty-four-year journey around the Sun, half of it spent in darkness—I found myself drawn to this cold, wet, windy planet. It beckoned me, offering a solace from the malaise of Earth. This planet, and the fragmented histories linked to it, inspired me—just as the temporal nature of transsexual existence. The slow movement of Uranus gives us time: time to observe the shifting shorelines, the weathered mountains, the world that shapes us. The wind tightens our clothes, revealing our weathered bodies—bodies that are changing, too. I would rather be there than here. It rains diamonds, don’t you know? And yet, on a planet where diamonds fall from the sky, once rare objects lose their value. To live here in isolation may initially offer solace, this isolation too is hostile. While the desire to escape current capitalist systems is necessary, is individual escapism truly the answer? So—will you escape with me?”