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PROCESS

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SAGRADA SANGRE ➺ KRV

This project was originally titled Sagrada Sangre (sacred blood), a response to the glorification of institutions like the Sagrada Família and the sanitized narratives we’re fed around what is holy and what is impure. But midway through, I came across another project under the same name Sangre Sagrada by Catherine Euale. Out of respect and the desire to create something that stands fully on its own, I let it go.

I decided to title the project KRV pronounced like krew {f} /krɛf/, a Polish word meaning blood. It carries my language, my roots, and the weight of everything this project stands for. It’s raw, unapologetic, and stripped of sanctity. KRV also echoes kurwa, a Polish curse. It’s not a coincidence. It’s punk. It doesn’t whisper; it spits. It sounds like something you shouldn’t say out loud, and that’s exactly the point.

This is no longer about what’s sacred. This is about what’s been discarded. KRV is a wound. A spell. A slur turned into power.

It’s not asking for permission, it’s taking up space.

So why KRV? Because blood needs to be seen.

TOOLS

NECESSARY PRODUCTS

    𖡎 latex gloves
    𖡎 respirator
    𖡎 stainless steel spatula
    𖡎 tray
    𖡎 hand blender
    𖡎 coffee grinder
    𖡎 scale
    𖡎 soucepan
    𖡎 strainer
    𖡎 kitchen roll

BLOOD CORSET

This project began with blood. Or rather, the lack of it.

In the early days, sourcing animal blood felt like an impossible task. I visited numerous butcher shops across Barcelona, trying to source blood, only to be met with blank stares, confusion, or outright dismissal. People looked at me like I was insane.

My first real breakthrough came thanks to Emma Picanyol, a former Fabricademy student whose family owns a farm outside the city. She gave me a liter of frozen pig blood, and that became the foundation for my early samples (shown in my December presentation). But to really push the work, I needed more.

I started emailing slaughterhouses, thinking collaboration with them was the most sustainable and logical option. I got successfuly ignored. For weeks, I was stuck.

I didn't give up and continued going to meat shops, Chinese markets, salvation came from the place that I already visited but initially very quickly gave up as too many people told me no. CARNES SERRANO, a meat shop near La Boquería market. No questions asked. Just How many liters? Pig blood? Approximately €5 a liter. And from that moment, it became my unofficial supplier.

HOW TO TURN BLOOD INTO POWDER?

After sourcing the blood, I followed a process similar to designer Basse Stittgen.

VACUUM OVEN SETTINGS

    𖡎 Temperature: ~60°C
    𖡎 Duration: ~7h
    𖡎 Stir: every 2h
    𖡎 Silicone mat: to prevent sticking
    𖡎 Blood quanity: approx. 2l

Once dried, I ground it manually using a hand blender and a coffee grinder until I got powder. It wasn’t perfect. Our profesional powdering machine wasn't working, and honestly, I gave up on it for a while. The material was hard to control, and I wasn’t getting the results I envisioned.

WHY NATURAL LIQUID LATEX? HOW IS IT REGENERATIVE?

After developing my blood bio-latex (explained below), I decided to include natural liquid latex in my practice.

Natural liquid latex, not to be confused with synthetic latex made from petroleum, is a regenerative, biodegradable material harvested from rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis). These trees grow predominantly in tropical regions like the Amazon and parts of Southeast Asia. The trees can be tapped for decades without harming them, making latex one of the few fashion materials that actively supports forest preservation and local ecosystems.

In a short documentary Shiringa: Fashion Regenerating Amazonia, we learn about indigenous Amazonian communities, and how latex tapping is a tradition of coexistence with nature. The tree sap (latex) is collected using careful incisions, often as part of community-led sustainable forestry. It’s a form of biocultural preservation: not only does the tree live on, but the knowledge passed down through generations survives alongside it.

Designers like Harri have brought this ethos into contemporary fashion.

LATEX INSPO

Inspired by Janine Grosche, known under her studio name PATH, a Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist whose SKIN SERIES explores garments as living, ritualistic membranes. Janine hand-casts transparent sheets of natural liquid latex, mimicking the subtle texture of human skin, creating intimate ecosystems that sit between body and nature.

Her practice helped me realize that latex could be more than fetish, more than slick black, that it could be organic, decaying, ritualistic, and regenerative.

This reverence for bodily materiality also links back to Heidi Bucher, whose iconic latex casts of domestic spaces reclaimed the spaces it inhabits. She peeled latex like flesh from old architecture, making intimate imprints of memory, trauma, and presence.

And lastly, Eva Hesse, who became an artist during the time of the women’s movement and the sexual revolution, when liberating forces were shaping the U.S. Eva used nontraditional materials such as industrial felt, molten lead, wax, and rubber. This new aesthetic is known as Anti-Form, Post-Minimalism, or Process art. Her goal, she explained, was to portray the essential absurdity of life.

MIXING LATEX + BLOOD

The mix of powdered blood and natural liquid latex makes the corset not only emotional and political, but also regenerative. In contrast to fast fashion’s obsession with permanence and plastics, this project celebrates the temporary, the biodegradable, the sacred decay.

This is not leather. This is not plastic.

It is a protest against purity, against patriarchy, against synthetic permanence.

MAKING THE CORSET

BASE

    𖡎 paint a thin layer of liquid latex on the shape (mannequin)
    𖡎 repeat around 5 times
    𖡎 every layer needs 15-30mins to dry
    𖡎 use fan to speed up the process

ADDING BLOOD

    𖡎 paint layer of latex
    𖡎 sprinkle blood powder
    𖡎 paint over with latex
    𖡎 repeat until it’s fully covered
    𖡎 approx. 7 layers

When I finished it… I hated it. I tossed it aside and ignored it for around 2 weeks. But something pulled me back. I cut it into shape, added chains, piercings, and suddenly, there it was. Raw. Brutal. Beautiful. A second skin, made of what the world fears and discards.

VIDEO: MAKING THE BLOOD CORSET

BLOOD BIO-LATEX JACKET

This all began with a recipe I found in our Fab Lab biomaterial library.

SAMPLE RECIPE

    𖡎 24g gelatin
    𖡎 24g glycerin
    𖡎 48g water

RECIPE

I customized it by substituting some part of water with blood.

INGREDIENTS

    𖡎 2L water
    𖡎 0.5L blood (preferably your ex’s but pig can do as well)
    𖡎 1.25kg gelatin
    𖡎 1.25kg glycerin

SPELL

    𖡎 boil water
    𖡎add blood, and cook until brown bubbles show
    𖡎 strain, helping yourself with a spoon, and throw away all the bubbles
    𖡎 weight, and top up the water
    𖡎 reheat gently, avoiding overcooking (will turn brown!)
    𖡎 add gelatin while stirring
    𖡎 strain again and pour into molds or flat forms
    𖡎 dry flat for 1 day, then you can place them vertically
    𖡎 cures in 5+ days
    𖡎 the longer it dries, the stronger it gets

I repeated the process three times. Roughly 1.5L of blood was used. Once dried, the material reminded of latex, it was very shiny and glossy. One of the issues I encountered was its stickiness. I didn't know how to work with it. Then I decided to treat it like normal latex as it is so similar in its form. I bought talcum powder (baby powder). It fixed the issue of stickiness, but I hated how it looked like, almost like raw meat. It reminded me of Lady Gaga's meat dress (iconic). I purchased latex spray and it turns out that once sprayed, the baby powder becomes completely invisible and gains its shine again!

PATTERN

I needed a pattern. I found a spiked shoulder piece on Katkow, but the bio-latex was too heavy and too sheer to hold its shape. I also found Rick Owens’ archive pattern, posted by Showstudio, but in the end I returned to something more personal, my favorite oversized jacket. A pattern I trusted.

Sewing latex? Glueing latex? That was another challange. This YouTube tutorial saved me:

PUNK

This project was always going to be punk. Blood, chaos, and protest stitched into material. My love for subcultures was seeded by one of my earliest university profesors, Dr. Alastair Gordon. My other inspiration is also the Zombiepunk from Camden Town, the capital of punk, with whom I had a chance to work a few years back.

This project is a middle finger. The safety pins are symbol of solidarity with victims of racist and xenophobic speech and violence. Why would anyone want to wear blood? Because we’re tired of hiding the things that make us alive. KRV isn’t just about materials, it’s about owning what ours. It’s a ritual. It’s about turning a taboo waste into a anarchist weapon.

VIDEO: MAKING THE BIO-BLOOD LATEX JACKET

VIDEO COLLAB

For the final video, I decided to collaborate with local videographers and photographers based in Barcelona. One of the best platforms to discover talent in the area was through instagram @assisting_fashion_spain, which connects creatives within the Spanish fashion scene.

To prepare for the shoot, I created a shooting plan PDF that outlined my visual direction, aesthetic references, and conceptual intentions. This plan was shared with the team to ensure we maintained the disruptive, ritualistic tone of the KRV project.

You can find the final video on Fabricademy YouTube.

Videographers: @catalina.elemento and @el.mvx

  1. FILE: Shooting plan PDF  ↩