Universe 25 was an experiment conducted by American ethologist John B. Calhoun, in which a population of mice was placed in an environment designed to provide everything they needed to survive: unlimited food, water, shelter, and protection from predators. The conditions were engineered to eliminate the external pressures of survival.There was no shortage of resources. No need to search for food. No need to escape the dangers of the outside world. And yet, as the population grew, the social structure began to deteriorate. Behaviour changed. Social bonds fractured. Reproduction declined. Some mice withdrew from social interaction altogether.

The Hand Painted Back Panel The back of the jacket carries the central narrative: a hand-painted composition that brings together the imagery of life, collective behaviour, and a world that appears abundant yet contains the possibility of its own undoing.

The Rose, with its layered petals, becomes an image of life held within a protected environment. At its centre, the infant-like figure evokes vulnerability, prosperity, and the possibility of a future. It asks what it means to create the conditions for life to flourish, and whether providing those conditions is enough.

The Human-Like Figures form a collective. They stand together, yet their presence invites us to question the difference between physical proximity and genuine connection. A population can occupy the same space without necessarily sharing a meaningful social world.

The Surrounding Colours and Forms suggest a landscape of energy, growth, and possibility. Yet there is an underlying tension between the beauty of the environment and the uncertainty of what unfolds within it.

The Geometric Embroidery across the linen sleeves and front body introduces another layer of meaning.A society operates through a similar network of relationships. Individuals coexist within shared structures, influenced by the people around them and by the patterns of behaviour that become normal over time.But repetition is not inherently positive. A pattern can produce harmony, or it can reproduce a dysfunction indefinitely. When behaviour is repeated without reflection, it becomes habit. When habit spreads through a community, it can become culture. And when a pattern becomes deeply embedded in a system, questioning it can begin to feel more difficult than continuing it.

This work is not a declaration that humanity is destined to repeat the outcome of a mouse experiment.It is an invitation to examine the relationship between the world we construct and the lives we live within it. Through hand-painted imagery, geometric embroidery, linen, and silk velvet, the bomber brings together the apparent perfection of an environment and the uncertainty of the society that inhabits it. It asks whether abundance without connection can become a form of emptiness, whether order without meaning can become a pattern without purpose, and whether the quality of a civilisation should be measured only by what it can provide, or also by what it allows its inhabitants to become.