Last week young fashion designer Fred Farrow was awarded the Frans Molenaar Couture Award 2010 during Amsterdam International Fashion Week (AIFW) at the end of a catwalk show during which all the collections by the finalists – comprising Denise Esser, Ratna Ho, Tishya Oedit, Marie Burlot and Piotrek Panszczyk – were showcased.
The jury that awarded Farrow’s prize included photographer Loes Geerdink, stylist Ruud van der Peijl and fashion journalist Milou van Rossum.
Farrow’s collection was interestingly characterised by a mish-mesh of fabrics, tied, knotted and mixed together to create strange hybrid-like formations.
Farrow’s starting point was apparently rather classic since he moved from a Chanel-clad girl who goes back home in a dishevelled attire after partying up a bit too much and mixing her clothes with the bartender’s shirt.
Funnily enough Farrow’s party-goer had something rather arty about her, apart from the streaks of paint that seemed to be splashed on her face, tights and on the fabrics that formed her dress.
In fact, it was almost possible to detect in one or two designs a sort of connection with French artist César Baldaccini, better known simply as César.
Interestingly enough, Farrow's palette with its predominant orange and white nuances even recalled the rusty shades of César Baldaccini's L'Homme de Figanieres (1964).
In the early 60s, French art critic Pierre Restany used for the first time the definition “Les Nouveaux Réalistes”.
Linked to a “new sensitivity for things happening by chance”, the movement was based on the spontaneous creation of works made with different materials, even pieces collected from waste processing plants and mixed together to create three-dimensional sculptures.
César first started welding together pieces of scrap metal in 1952 and, in the mid-60s, his “expansions” - that is sculptures made out of poured polyurethane - inspired to Pierre Cardin some interesting sculpted draped motifs for his dresses.
The 60s also brought César a new inspiration: after seeing a hydraulic crushing machine in operation, he decided to experiment with it in his sculptures and started mixing and crushing differently coloured parts of vehicles all together, becoming famous for his "Compressions", sculptures made using various compressed parts of wrecked cars mixed together in cube-shaped formations.
While it is not unusual to see nowadays pieces based on a sort of "Nouveau Réalisme" (think about all the recycled accessories - from bags to jewels - that find inspiration from urban life and incorporate discarded elements maybe picked up from waste plants), César’s sculptures made out of assembled scraps of iron could maybe lead to the creation of fashion designs characterised by interesting surrealist shapes.
The compression technique could indeed be used to incorporate in the same design different fabrics and materials, by stitching, welding or moulding them together in innovative ways. Fashion design students, the challenge is yours: while not trying your hand at working on a collection inspired by "Nouveau Réalisme"?
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The post you have made over here is really nice and it is interesting as well. The picture that you have shared over here is little bit weird and it do not looks like an attractive design. It is true that it is the unique one concept and it is firstly applied concept.
Posted by: compression shorts | December 13, 2010 at 07:37 AM