On the last day of London Fashion Week, we went to see a live performance of THE BODY IS ART with FKA twigs and On, which celebrated their latest campaign together.
The multifaceted artist, singer and dancer’s live music and movement performance explored the relationship between strength and fragility within the body, transforming traditional ways of movement and training, and celebrating this medium of personal self-expression, while also performing some new, unreleased music.
The Swiss sportswear label’s FW24 campaign and twigs’ performance were both inspired by her manifesto of the body being “art”, abstractly exploring the beauty of our bodies in motion. “‘The Body Is Art’ means to be able to treat one’s body with consideration, with love, with respect, and with wonder – in the way that we do art, and in the way that we do expression,” twigs tells Culted.
The performance and twigs’ newly launched campaign present the FW24 training collection, which offers a selection of womenswear and menswear specifically designed to support a wide range of training activities and types of movement beyond running, think yoga, pilates and dance. The collection includes sportswear such as joggers, bras and tops as well as On’s Cloudnova X and Cloud X 4 sneakers.
This project highlights the importance and the beauty of moving our bodies and keeping active. “Training is so important to me, not only to my body but also to my mental health,” twigs says. “It’s been a huge part of me, ever since I was a child.” She adds: “It’s never too late to explore our bodies and to find out what feels good and what doesn’t. I honestly think that there’s a movement for everybody – you just have to spend time to find out what it is.”
With her background in dance (she started out her career as a dancer, and only later pivoted to music and other artforms), twigs always embeds different means of movement within her work – see her sword wielding techniques in her music video for “sad day”, her pole dancing skills in “Fukk Sleep” with A$AP Rocky, and her techno, rave-inspired flow for her upcoming album Eusexua. And that’s why this partnership makes so much sense. “At the moment I’m really into discovering movement which is very strong and sensual, especially on the female body. I love exploring movements that show strength.
On and FKA twigs’ mutual vision of exploring training as a holistic experience which engages the body, mind and spirit and motivates us to see our bodies as a blank canvas and interpret training as expressive and empowering. twigs explains: “I’m very sensitive to my body, so I love to listen to it and let it tell me what it needs. Sometimes I want to get on a running machine and run for two hours, and sometimes I just want to lie on the floor and do gentle stretching. This connection really helps me stay grounded and focused in my work, it just clears my mind and makes me feel good about myself, mainly on how I feel on the inside, rather than how I look on the outside. And how I look on the outside almost happens as an accident.”
And this is also evident in her upcoming album. The artist shared a glimpse of what’s coming, performing pieces of Eusexua in her presentation. “Eusexua was inspired by me raving in techno clubs in Prague, thrusting my body around, stamping, screaming,” twigs explains. “I performed a song today called ‘Room of Fools’ and that’s because when I was in Prague dancing I was like, ‘we all look so crazy and foolish moving around’.” She adds that everyone dancing and moving their bodies together is what makes it all so meaningful and freeing. It’s about letting ourselves be free, letting go and moving our bodies in a self-expressive way.
The collection is available to shop at on.com, in stores and select retailers.
