Shiva Skull Bag // ARCHETYPE #001 [001]

The Shiva Skull Bag (originally featured in When Football

Hooligans Become Hindu Gods), is a completely functional military

bag constructed in the shape of a human skull. It was the first of 23 archetypal products to be released as part of Aitor Throup’s New Object Research product line.

Unlike designers working within the traditional structure, Throup has been working on concepts outside of the fashion industry’s timelines, sometimes taking two or three years developing a new idea. These concepts express personal interests through the various narratives, rather than as responses to seasonal trends. Throup often prefers to evolve and refine existing ideas rather than develop new ones in order for the resulting products to be as innovative and unique as the concepts and processes that inform them.

Through this intense distillation process of product design, Throup is creating his own brand’s ‘archetypes’ which will become the designer’s product offering on a continuous basis.

The Shiva Skull Bag is derived from the When Football Hooligans Become Hindu Gods concept and every edition of it references a different military bag or satchel, always morphing into the same anatomically accurate form of a human skull. The first (#001) edition was made in worsted wool and backed by a further layer of stiffened melton with thermo-film backing supporting its structure.

A zip opening at the top of the head reveals the main inner compartment, while a second ‘mouth’ zip gives access to a second, smaller compartment. Its complex strapping system allows the Shiva Skull Bag to be worn in various ways as a belt attachment, rucksack or shoulder-bag, by simply modifying its arrangement of straps and D-rings.