By Jack Cork, Shooglebox Team, 4th February 2022
"A big ball of sunshine", "a tonic" and "a January advent calendar". That's how accessories designer Taryn de Vere has been described after wowing fans on social media with her impressive #ObjectDressChallenge.
Every day of January she dressed up as a different object or food item in her house, transforming into everything from a bright orange bottle of sink unblocker to a glamorous bag of bin liners, a tin of Quality Streets, a can of Guinness and even a pot of Bisto gravy granules! Her creativity knows no bounds.
The idea for all this came about when Taryn, who moved from Australia to Ireland at the age of 21, was taking a month off after working for two years straight and looking for new ways to connect her creativity with her love of fashion while at home. It wasn't long before her bold outfits caught the attention of not only her followers, but brands and TV and radio shows right across the world – and they've proved so popular that what started off as just a one-month challenge has been extended into February, when she'll be dressing up as objects in other people's houses.
Something that's really impressed people is Taryn's fine attention to detail – she plans every part of her outfits to the "T" so the textures and shades are as close as possible to the item she's trying to replicate. So, when she dressed up as Batchelor's baked beans, she tied orange bunches into a scarf and carried a knobbly knit vintage bag to look like a plate of beans, and wore a silver headband and silver shoes to reflect the upper and lower parts of the tin. Then, when dressing as a bag of Kerrs Pink Irish Potatoes, she wore a white feathery skirt to replicate the texture of mash, a 1960s pink dress and coat set to match the packaging, and mismatched green and orange shoes for the colours on either side of the Irish flag.
Taryn's achieved all this using items that are already in her extensive and colourful wardrobe, including some great charity shop finds. As she tells her followers: "I love charity shopping because it's so random, you just never know what gems you'll find. Plus, everything is so incredibly affordable." She says the challenge has made her think even more creatively about different colour and texture combos and inspired outfits that she might not have put together before. She probably didn't imagine the red vintage ballgown she wore for a TED talk in February 2021 – about "fashion policing and the double standards of gender" – would make a reappearance in the form of a bin liner outfit one year down the line! But by thinking outside the box she's found new outfits that she loves and plans to wear again – like her pink and white marshmallows outfit.
I used Shooglebox to squirrel away links to Taryn's daily looks and the reaction she's been getting across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. I combined cards that use embeds from her social media posts with text-based cards featuring and linking to some of the best comments on her posts. Here's a read-only link to the box I made.
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