Fashion is inspired and affected by what goes on in the world. But, every day we face new political, environmental, health, and social struggles, while the digital realm has unlocked infinite universes. As a consequence, it is becoming difficult, if not impossible, to understand what the future of fashion will be like.
An exhibition currently on at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, attempts to do so. Curated by Camille Boyer and Miriam Kathrein, "Crafting Fashion for Possible Futures" (until 8th September 2022) is an intriguing overview of contemporary Austrian fashion design.
Nationality is not important, though, as the exhibition is more an exploration of the designers' working methods, and the items on display are more a way to introduce visitors and fashion fans to design practices that do not look at trends, but at specific themes and ponder on the responsibility of the designer towards society and at the possibility of using fashion to investigate identity, activism and sustainability.
The 14 designers included in the event try to answer with their garments, shoes, accessories, textiles, images and films to one precise question – how can the act of crafting fashion drive positive and systemic change?
Each of them, as you may imagine, answers in a very different way: Julia Koerner uses the latest 3D printing technologies to create nature-inspired geometries and multi-coloured effects and interpret the juxtapositions of oceanic and arid environments in innovative pieces developed in collaboration with Stratasys (in 2019, Koener produced with them the "Setae" jacket, made with Stratasys' J850 3D Printer) while she made the "Arid" collection using their Polyjet 3D printing technique.
Like Koerner, Flora Miranda looks at the future, with couture techniques such as 3D scanning and printing, laser cutting, machine learning, and generative design. Her garments are considered as a performative experience, in which music, space, and movement become a conceptual part of the clothing.
Susanne Bisovsky’s work is instead suspended between the avant-garde and traditional folk costumes. Her collections are drenched in traditions and in the ancestral knowledge behind threads, stitches and embroideries. Her designs revolve around the concept that she calls "Wierner Chic" and the designer hopes to safeguard crafts and couture, while interpreting them in a sustainable way, encouraging to reuse and repurpose vintage fabrics and textiles.
Repurposing and recycling is also the principle behind Jojo Gronostay's label Dead White Men's Clothes (DWMC).
The name of the label originates from the Ghanaian expression "Obroni Wawu": when the first wave of second-hand clothes arrived in Ghana from the Global North in the 1970s as help aid, the clothing was of such a high quality that locals assumed the previous owners must have died.
Yet, decades of exporting second-hand clothes to Africa have caused environmental pollution, prompting the designer to start posing new questions about neocolonialism, identity, and the effects of the globalized fast fashion industry.
The label makes new clothes from the designs and textiles bought at the Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana, the largest marketplace for second-hand textiles in West Africa, and reintroduces them with modifications to its original context via the Western fashion and art world.
Recycling is also on Matthias Winkler’s mind: the designer creates shoes and boots from leather sections cut off from traditional men's trousers, work gloves, motor jackets, and old-fashioned equipment. The result is unusual and intriguing, suggesting us a more responsible way of producing shoes is possible.
While Larissa Falk experiments with bold silhouettes, elements of fetishism, a new sort of materiality (see her designs made with silicone and hair), and three-dimensional knitting techniques, Alessandro Santi and the label Hvala Ilija play with gender.
Santi looks at identity and gender, for a wardrobe that, through digital and analog manipulation techniques, proposes unusual volumes, patterns, and proportions with stretched and distorted, elongated and deconstructed designs.
Founded by Bosnian-born designer and stylist Ilija Milicic, who was born in a village in the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but moved to Vienna with his family when he was a child, Hvala Ilija destroys the concept of toxic masculinity and machismo with images of bride boys. Milicic is inspired by strong women, such as his mother and grandmother. Through his designs, Milicic hopes to dismantle a system to create a completely new one.
And there’s more to discover in the designs by unisex label Amaeena, founded by Anna Menecia Antenete to give visibility to marginalized groups such as BIPOC and LGBTQ through her work; by collaborative label House of the Very, that focuses on eco-friendly and fair trade materials, by Rudolf’s knitwear and homeware or Mühlbauer's headgear. Published By combines state-of-the-art 3D modeling and production technologies with precision craftsmanship in its bags and accessories, while Leni Charles' Kids of the Diaspora is a creative community embracing all cultures and expressing its ideas through fashion, events, music videos, visual poems, exhibitions, and documentaries.
Challenging large fashion-corporations, these designers and labels go beyond trends, choosing optimism, solidarity and hope rather than overproduction. Time will tell if their future is where the industry is heading to, but they are definitely showing us that fashion can be employed to tackle the complex issues, doubts and questions of our society.
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