It introduces his audience into the TVDB universe, through the method of extreme self-portrait, awareness and sensibility for the "strong”’ and the “special”.

According to TVDB, everyone has moments in life where they feel defeated, vulnerable, mistreated , sad, lonely or excluded. In such moments we look for ways to find ourselves again, we crave for a survival guide to our own life. We have a hunger for connection and community as an antidote for our loneliness and exclusion.

In order to not be alone during those times, TVDB develops a series of 7 rituals, based on 7 stages of his own life and experiences. His ongoing artistic research explores the representation and celebration of non normative bodies in a myriad of fashion, performance and visual art.

In ‘Act 01: Create a Safe Cocoon ’ high tech bricolage fashion is placed in a framework of a low tech procession. The catwalk performance explores the exciting tension between wearing and being worn, between carrying and being carried.

Designer Tom discovered at the age of 27 that he suffers from a heriditary neuropathic muscle disorder, which confronted him with the question: what is really important in life? This was the catharsic moment he decided to study fashion design and pursue his childhood dreams.

Reflecting on his own background in social work and on his own personal disposition in life, lead to questioning social structures, definitions and limits. The visual language TVDB developed goes far beyond clothes, always creating a highly personal and questioning universe, combining media and crossing borders between fashion and arts.

7 outfits created out of 7 limited non normative fashion materials are at the core of this performance and are an exploration of the concept of restriction as a base for experiment and materialisation.

7 is and will always be a magic number for TVDB.