Reading Viktor & Rolf

Reviews and articles about the Viktor & Rolf exhibition at London’s Barbican have appeared in many magazines and sites. The event, entitled “The House of Viktor & Rolf”, celebrates the 15th anniversary of the design duo’s career.

Inspired by their own 1996 Launch exhibition and by the doll’s houses at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, the exhibition features a 6-metre high doll’s house designed by Dutch architect and art historian Siebe Tettero that contains fifty 70cm dolls dressed in outfits from various collections.

Each doll – recreated by a traditional Belgian doll maker and with bisque porcelain faces and papier-mâché bodies – uncannily resembles the model that wore for the first time that particular outfit. A series of rooms in another part of the gallery replicate the rooms of the doll’s house, but contain a human-sized doll, identical to its smaller version.

Unfortunately, though, those of us who don’t live in London or won’t be able to visit the British capital in time for the exhibition, will miss it, but there is still a way to know more about the event: reading the sumptuous book The House of Viktor & Rolf. The volume – featuring an introduction by Caroline Evans, Professor of Fashion History and Theory at London’s Central Saint Martins College, an extensive interview by The Independent fashion editor Susannah Frankel and 200 images – is an amazing journey through the art, style and fashion of the Dutch design duo.

Each collection is explored through beautiful pictures and catwalk photographs juxtaposed to the images of the dolls featured in the exhibition. The book can be considered as an extraordinary retrospective on Viktor & Rolf’s art.

Both born in the Netherlands in 1969, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren developed an interest in fashion from a very early age. Meeting at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design, they started working together and moved to Paris in 1992. Here, in a tiny apartment too small for their huge patterns, they worked on their first collection that won the three main awards at the 1993 Hyères Festival International de Mode et de Photographie.

The lack of mainstream press response to their 1995 show L’Apparence du Vide, consisting of five garments in gold lamé suspended from the ceiling with their shadow equivalent in black organza lying on the floor, inspired them to produce nothing in 1996, apart from a poster sent to fashion magazines that read ‘Viktor & Rolf on strike’. In the same year, the Launch installation at Amsterdam’s Torch Gallery marked the culmination of their love affair with art. The miniature installation – symbolising the duo’s desire to become fashion designers and their frustrations at not having the financial resources to do so – featured a tiny catwalk, atelier and fashion shoot and celebrated the launch of a fake perfume complete with ad campaign.

It was after Launch that Viktor & Rolf started producing proper fashion shows: their first couture collection launched in January 1998, followed by the Autumn/Winter 1998-99 “Atomic Bomb” collection. The latter was characterised by the silhouette of the mushroom cloud: first the models paraded on the catwalk wearing clothes inflated with silk padding, balloons and pompoms, then they walked out again wearing the same outfits with the stuffing removed.

Exactly a year after, Viktor & Rolf’s “Russian Doll” collection became their most original haute couture show. Model Maggie Rizer stood on a rotating platform wearing a simple jute and silk satin dress and the designers themselves came out and slowly started dressing her, adding layer upon layer of garments. By the show’s end, the model was wearing over 70 kg of heavily embroidered couture dresses and was cloaked by a massive cape decorated with a huge rose.

Launching in 2000 their first ready-to-wear collection and their wax seal logo, Viktor & Rolf finally entered a more commercial phase. Yet theatricality kept on being one of the main characteristics of their shows: for their “Long Live the Immaterial (Bluescreen)” collection (A/W 2002-03), the models were transformed into special effects. The cerulean blue of the garments they wore was read as a bluescreen and, when live feed of the models was filtered on the screens flanking the catwalk, the outfits were replaced by moving images of natural landscapes, cities and freeways. For “Flowerbomb” (Spring/Summer 2005), that also marked the arrival of Viktor & Rolf’s first perfume, the duo put up an extravagant show: models paraded down the catwalk in black outfits characterised by oversized bows and ribbons and wearing a black motorcycle helmet. At the end of the show they arranged themselves in a pose that reminded Christian Dior’s models in Loomis Dean’s 1957 picture. The stage then revolved showing a similar scene, but with models dressed in pink and gold.

Often compared to Gilbert & George, Viktor & Rolf developed throughout the years a peculiar attention to their impeccable image, commissioning portraits, but also becoming the models in their own shows, as they did when they launched their “Monsier” menswear collection (A/W 2003-04).

Despite their collaboration with high street brand H&M in 2006 and their gloriously entertaining shows such as the one for the “Ballroom” (Spring/Summer 2007) collection with Rufus Wainwright performing live and even singing a track written for Viktor & Rolf’s first male fragrance, Antidote, the designers never stopped criticising the fashion system. Frustrated by the relentless pace of the industry they created the “No” collection (A/W 2008-09), that featured garments stapled together and scrawled with the words “NO”, “DREAM ON” and “WOW”.

The House of Viktor & Rolf is a must for every fan, but it’s also an excellent substitute for those who won’t be able to go and see the Barbican exhibition or simply want to know more about the design duo who turned fashion into a unique visual phantasmagoria that combines together sensational art, exceptional craftsmanship and boundless imagination.      

“The House of Viktor & Rolf”, Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, UK, until 21 September 2008. The volume The House of Viktor & Rolf is published by Barbican Art Gallery and Merrell. 

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