Constantino, Lyra Ezekiel

Constantino, Lyra Ezekiel
@lyraezzzekiel

Ethereal Voyage is a ready-to-wear collection inspired by the life of seafarers, particularly my memory of my late brother and family’s deep maritime roots. It explores the hidden struggles and sacrifices behind this image of seafarers, aiming to challenge toxic masculinity in the male-dominated maritime world.

Designed for men and women, the collection redefines traditional uniforms with expressive, gender-neutral clothing that balances strength and vulnerability. Feminine crafts such as dip dye gradients, pleating, smocking, and cut panels are interwoven with the masculine aesthetics of seafarer uniforms, honoring the harmony between fragility and resilience. The result is a dreamlike portrayal of seafarers: not bound by stereotype, but freed through expression and delicate beauty. Ethereal Voyage offers a vision of identity redefined where uniforms carry the echoes of duty, memory, and transformation.

Lyra Ezekiel is fashion designer and a performer, her artistic journey weaves together the fluidity of movement, the depth of emotion, and the tactile richness of material. Growing up in a small town, her roots are intertwined with a profound spiritual curiosity and an enduring passion for the cinematic world, all of which inspire her quest to tell compelling stories through textiles and surface design. She creates garments that breathe intimacy and strength, merging sensuality with soul. Deeply anchored in the transformative process of art, aiming to translate vulnerability, cherished memories, and profound spiritual experiences into vivid tactile narratives.

The stage of my process that became my favorite was visual research, where I immersed myself in seafaring and my brother’s life by asking questions, listening to my dad’s rarely-shared stories, and absorbing documentaries, articles, and films. I went through everything my brother left behind—his bag, neatly packed clothes, essentials, IDs, and endless paperwork—and each object carried its own weight of memory and meaning, becoming unexpected yet powerful reference points; this phase was deeply emotional, and paradoxically grounding, helping me grieve while sharpening the conceptual clarity of my ideas. As I translated that research into construction, the technical skill I found myself refining the most was surface manipulation—learning how dip-dye gradients, pleating, smocking, and cut panels behave on different materials so that each detail could express mood and narrative without compromising structure, ultimately evolving how I use textiles to communicate story with both precision and nuance.