In the next few posts (I'm planning three) I will try to focus on a few materials that always fascinated me. The first one on my list is metal mesh.
When I was at school I could spend hours looking at the pictures of knights in chainmail armours featured in the Medieval chapter of my history book. I loved chainmail armours for two main reasons: first their weight and consistency, second the fact that they produced a strange noise when the wearer moved. I 
have often tried to explore in depth the tactile and auditive quality of garments and chainmail armours are characterised by both these qualities. My fascination with chainmail brought an obsession with metal mesh safety gloves, yes, the sort of gloves used by butchers or in heavy duty jobs to prevent stabs, cuts and slashes. I love the fact that they are resistant, but they also provide the wearer with comfort and flexibility. 
After Medieval times chainmail was sort of forgotten, but it was employed again into fashion in the late 1800s-early 1900s, when the Whiting and Davis company, established in1896, started producing their metal mesh purses. The bags - available in gold, silver or coloured metal mesh, in all sizes and forms, both in soldered and woven mesh – became so popular that in the ‘30s the company created some designs in collaboration with Elsa Schiaparelli. 
In 1976 the company celebrated its 100th anniversary with a collection of shoulder bags with portraits of movie stars such as Marion Davis, Charlie Chaplin, Renee Adoree and Clark Gable. Unfortunately the production was destroyed for threats of legal actions from the stars' heirs.
There is a wide selection of vintage metal mesh bags on the Internet and the Morning Glory site offers the chance of browsing a selection of the most interesting models produced by Whiting and Davis.
In fashion it was Paco Rabanne who, in the mid-to-late ‘60s, rediscovered the application of metal in his futuristic designs. 
His aluminum plaque mini-dresses were indeed an exploration of the past with a view of the future and soon spawned new trends. After appearing at catwalk shows, metal mesh was employed also for film costumes: Jacques Fonteray designed the bizarrely futuristic outfits for Barbarella, but it was the Farani tailoring house in Italy that made them. 
Owner Piero Farani made indeed the metal mesh pants and bras with red deerskin leather details paired with a black cotton cape bordered with a metal mesh that Jane Fonda wore in the film. Farani himself actually bought the metal elements to make the costume in Paris.
Metal mesh resurfaced again in fashion thanks to Gianni Versace: 
the Italian designer loved experimenting with different fabrics and, in 1982, the same year he debuted as theatre costume designer, he did a collection that featured draped dresses in a metal mesh that he called oroton. The inspiration for this material came directly from the attire of Medieval knights, but oroton was the result of a long experimentation Versace carried out in the early ‘80s with a German craftsman. This special material was produced by Friedrich Münch’s atelier and its main quality stood in the fact that it could be draped, dyed or printed. The material soon turned into one of the trademark designs of the Versace fashion house and was often re-employed in different collections, such as the A/W 85-86 collection inspired to Klimt, and in more recent years in the panels of the dresses featured in the A/W 97-98 collection. 
But where is metal mesh nowadays? It has been mainly re-employed in accessories such as bags, one of the first and most successful experiment was carried out by Finnish duo Aamu Song & Johan Olin who produced the rather successful “Metallica Bag” a couple of years ago. 
In fashion it’s definitely Louise Gray who has presented some of the most original items with metal mesh/chainmail elements. For her recent S/S 09 collection she designed chainmail tops, ideal to be worn with bright coloured trouser suits, and cycling shorts paired with minidresses, 
while her metal ropes and chains provided interesting decorations on dresses and shoes.
Gray's collection looks exciting and proves that, though a lot of centuries might have passed since the Medieval times, chainmail can be re-used in interesting and new ways to create strong and slightly aggressive garments with a rather glamorous but urban edge.
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