There’s one thing I love doing: taking one thing out of its context and putting it into another. I do that in practice by creating contrasts in what I wear, but my main obsession is doing it in writing. I like doing unlikely comparisons and analysing things that do not seem to have anything to do one with the other. It’s a brilliant trick if you want to widen people’s horizons or if you just want to utterly confuse them. I followed in the last few years Marios Schwab’s work and studied carefully the images from his Spring/Summer 09 collection and I have come up with the conclusion that Schwab has turned my obsession of displacing things and moving them from one context to another into a compulsive and beautiful fascination.
Winning the Swiss Textiles Award last year seemed to have influenced a lot the young designer: Schwab has moved from his scientific and anatomic prints to explore a different world made of cut out suede dresses and sculptural swimwear and reinventing the Greek chiton, taking it out of its context and transferring it to our times. Being half Greek, you might argue, it’s only natural that Schwab would re-explore this ancient garment, but the young designer has managed to update this ancient form without falling into any stereotype, creating modern and elegant chitons for contemporary goddesses.
The main features of the chiton – points of attachment at the shoulders, pleats and that technical virtuosity of draping – are preserved in Schwab’s creations, but thick metallic harnesses and accessories by Husam El Odeh turn the ancient Greek costume into a classic example of modern design. In ancient Greece the amplitude of the garments was controlled by girdles and harnesses: the practice of harnessing the chiton and the effects that resulted from such practice are best seen in many sculptures, such as the Charioteer of Delphi. The latter wears a shoulder harness that pulled in the fullness of his sleeves in a regular line at the front and in a criss-cross at the back.
The main aim of the harness in this case was practical: it had to prevent the chiton from ballooning during a race. Schwab turned instead the classical harness into an integral part of the garment it controls and at the same time into a decorative motif. Imagine Chanel’s costumes for the muses in the Apollon musagète ballet, substitute the silk ribbons that girdled her creations with thick ropes and metal chains and you’ll get an idea.
In Schwab’s collection ropes of thread wrap short body-skimming one shouldered chiton-like dresses in metallic fabric; thick ropes design shapes on the front of a dress, turn into a belt, sensually and erotically loop and coil around the body disappearing inside the fabric or retrace artery lines.
Does Schwab’s remixed atavistic Hellenism work? Apparently yes. Schwab’s creations might not instantly turn you into a statuesque goddess à la Artemis – usually portrayed in a high-waisted girdled chiton – but his simple and natural constructivism will guarantee maximum effect.
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