1/13/15: Forget what you think you know about disability.

Following an injury sustained at birth, fashion model/pop artist Viktoria Modesta endured 15 surgeries to correct her left leg, with no success. After a miserable childhood being excluded and teased for her disability, first in Latvia, then in London, she dropped out of school at 14. At 15, she concluded that her leg was holding her back from the careers in music and fashion she so wanted, so she started the search for a doctor who would be willing to amputate the troubled limb below the knee. Once that was done, she got to work making her dreams come true.

But this post isn’t really about Modesta. It’s about The Alternative Limb Project, headed up by art-major-cum-prosthetics designer, Sophie de Oliveira Barata, who created the fiercely fabulous prosthetics.

“It’s drawing attention to their disability in a positive way. Rather than people seeing what’s missing, it’s about what they’ve got. Having an alternative limb is about claiming control and saying ‘I’m an individual and this reflects who I am.'” -Sophie de Oliveira Barata to CNN

And she’s not stopping at visual innovation, either. de Oliveira is currently working on re-reinventing the prosthetic limb with other projects including an arm with fold-out tools (a la Swiss army knife) and a chef’s arm with interchangeable cooking attachments.

BBC’s Channel 4 sponsored Modesta’s most recent music video below, which showcases The Alternative Limb Project’s work better than anything else could have. The music is kind of forgettable, but the performance is solid, and the design is really inspired. In fact, it’s so gorgeous that one of the commenters on the video observed that Lady Gaga might be inspired to chop off a limb herself.

You can follow Viktoria Modesta on her website, and you can learn more about The Alternative Limb Porject on their website, and you can follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

In addition to the hyper-stylish (and slightly fetishy) designs modeled by Viktoria Modesta, their website also showcases a number of other designs. They also make eerily realistic ones which I have not included in this post.

By now, you have likely noticed how much I enjoy a good making-of video, and this one definitely doesn’t disappoint!