From Futurism to Deconstructivism |

In a previous post about Futurism and Fortunato Depero I hoped that fashion designers would be inspired by the anniversary of Futurism in their creations and in the next season's catwalks. I rarely manage to make my dreams come true, but with yesterday's MoonSpoon Saloon catwalk at Copenhagen Fashion Week, my wish has somehow turned into reality.

Futurism wasn't only in the atmosphere, created by that strangely mechanical soundtrack, with its metallic rhythms that in my mind evoked the sounds of that expressive rigmarole that Depero called "onomalingua" (onomalanguage), but also in the garments.

A knitted dress was an explosion of geometrical forms created with different yarns; plastic fringes decorated an ample black coat; metallic colours were used for post-modernist suits with drop-crotch pants or for bi-coloured all in one suits; jackets in metallic fabrics reminded of Giacomo Balla's sketches for his colourful suits, while fur pompoms in pastel colours formed short jackets or patchwork coats.

The tall headdresses that some of the model sported might have been surreally elongated versions of the soldier's hats from Tal R's paintings, but to my eyes they looked a bit like the costumes for the locomotives in Depero's "Anihccam 3000". The last model in the pleated red and blue dress accompanied by two young men with tall headdresses and T-shirts with prints of soldier's uniforms made me think about the image of the station master followed by two locomotives in love with him in "Anihccam 3000" (see pic from my previous post on Futurism).

The artistic connections in MoonSpoon Saloon’s collections aren’t casual at all: the label is indeed the result of the vision of Israeli-born but Copenhagen-based artist Tal R and designer Sara Sachs, with some help from photographer Noam Griegst and stylist Melanie Buchhave, who also have an important part in the MoonSpoon collective. Quite a few of the colours used in this collection called to mind Tal R’s polychrome paintings, with their exuberant shades, chaos and energy, such as "Last Drawing Before Mars". Chaos and energy actually characterised the whole collection, which, like Tal R's art, was a sort of mishmash of different elements, styles and fabrics. A few years ago Tal R debuted in London with the exhibition "Lords of Kolbojnik" that featured mixed-media works, embroidered cloth banners and an installation of thirty-two drawings. In kibbutz slang “kolbojnik” means the rubbish left over after a meal at the collective dining halls of a kibbutz and this is maybe the key to the chaos, variety and originality behind MoonSpoon Saloon's Autumn/Winter 09 collection.

More than Futurism you could talk about Deconstructivism in the case of bARBARA Ì gONGINI’s collection. In its latest collection the Denmark-based brand experimented on forms and shapes like MoonSpoon Saloon, but in a different way. The outfits from bARBARA Ì gONGINI’s Autumn/Winter 09 collection were indeed disassembled and reassembled à la Rei Kawakubo. The result was interesting, especially in the dresses and outfits that featured oversized explosions of tulle in neutral colours, yet not entirely new.