Museums all over the world have developed what could be defined a terrible addiction for fashion, organising one exhibition/event after the other in the (often vain) hope to acquire a younger generation of visitors with very little interest in the arts, but with a destructive passion for clothes and accessories.
Yet, while most fashion exhibitions have revealed themselves as cash-making machines or major adverts for big fashion houses and brands, there are some smaller museums genuinely interested in involving people in their activities and in proving that fashion can inspire us in different ways. The Groninger Museum is among these ones.
A few weeks ago the museum organised a competition divided in three categories – children, youth and grown-ups – asking the museum visitors to create a cutting-edge design for a Barbie doll inspired by its most recent Azzedine Alaïa and Iris van Herpen exhibitions.
The number of entries was overwhelming with 400 people taking part and the results – unveiled last month and uploaded also on the museum's Flickr page – were surprising, with children and grown ups using the most disparate materials, from proper fabrics to plastic, balloons, wax, wood, tree bark, paper, ropes and sanding sponges for their unique creations. Most participants also made sure their dolls had matching accessories and haircuts.
Some dresses looked like perfect catwalk showpieces, others should have gone straight into a museum collection and others, well, they should be put into production and sold in the best toy shops. Quite a few designs had an architectural edge about them (which is perfectly understandable considering also the main inspirations for the dolls' dresses).
Jury members Cécile Narinx, editor of Elle Netherlands and author of the book Geluk Is Een Jurk (Happiness is a Dress), contemporary art curator Sue-an van der Zijpp and designer Iris van Herpen were genuinely surprised by the quality of the submitted designs and by the time and effort all the participants put into their creations.
While the museum should be praised for presenting an activity that involved people of all ages and that focused on fashion and style, but also had some great craft and architecture connections (and also offered clever awards – fashion vouchers and exhibition catalogues), the main praise should go to the participants.
Through their creations they proved that a Barbie doll doesn’t necessarily need to live in a pink and fuchsia plastic world, but can actually adopt more clever designs with a fun and extravagant – but also architectural – flair about them.
Images:
The Winners of the Adult, Youth and Children’s categories; jury members Cécile Narinx, Iris van Herpen and Sue-an van der Zijpp and a finalist from the Adult category.
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