Art studio Bob Basset presents MUTABOR, the brand’s first full-scale fashion collection since 2015.

The collection brings together iconic art objects from the studio’s archive, recreated using new technologies, with new costumes — including a leather jacket composed of 350 individual elements.

At the heart of the collection is the idea of transformation: a person becomes another creature, the studio’s iconic masks evolve into full-body looks, and Bob Basset itself enters a new stage of development.

More than ever before, the studio combines traditional leather craftsmanship with contemporary technologies and the ability to reproduce at scale objects that were once considered possible only through manual work.

The collection marks Arina Petrova’s debut as Creative Director of Bob Basset, with production led by co-founder Serhii Petrov and Gerd B.

The name MUTABOR comes from the Latin mutabor — “I will change” or “I will transform” — and refers to Wilhelm Hauff’s well-known fairy tale The Caliph Stork, in which the magical word allowed people to transform into animals and back into human beings.

In the new Bob Basset collection, the idea of transformation operates on three levels at once.

MUTABOR explores not only the physical transformation of the person wearing the costume, but also the transformation of Bob Basset itself — from reinterpreting its own archive to developing new ways of creating and scaling its work.

“Creating visual beauty is the creator’s primary task. But creating visual beauty that you can reproduce — that is the next level,” says Serhii Petrov, co-founder of Bob Basset.

In developing MUTABOR, Arina was responsible for more than just the concept. She sculpted the forms in clay and worked on 3D models of the new elements, while Serhii Petrov developed the technological solutions that allowed these forms to be transferred into production.

The result brings together archive and new vision, craftsmanship and contemporary technology, the experience of Bob Basset’s founder and the perspective of a new generation.

Three of the MUTABOR looks are built around Bob Basset’s signature masks. The team developed new hand and leg accessories for them, along with fetish-inspired garments that extend the anatomy of the masks across the entire body — nine pieces in total.

The performance presentation was accompanied by a specially created live composition performed by Ukrainian cellist and composer Kyurtash (Polina Shatriuk) and French pianist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Alix Casale. Their sound combined cello, keyboards, electronics, samplers, and live looping.