Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law & Technology

New Year, New Fashionary

The Fashionary sketchbook appeared in a previous post on this blog a while back.

The second edition of the Fashionary is currently out and there is also a menswear version available at the moment, so I’m reprinting today an interview I recently did for Zoot Magazine with Penter Yip, the designer behind the acclaimed diary.

Writers have their notebooks on which they can jot down their thoughts, artists can indulge their creative passion by drawing on practical sketchbooks, but what happens if you are a fashion designer suddenly struck by inspiration in the street, on a train or on a bus?

Fashion and graphic designer Penter Yip provided a quick and functional answer to this dilemma, eliminating traditional templates and semi-transparent papers and coming up with a simple concept, the Fashionary.

The notebook is filled with join the dot-like templates that allow designers to brainstorm and quickly sketch their ideas.

The previous edition of the Fashionary included body measurement and unit system tables, helpful lists of sites and brands, a calendar highlighting the dates for the main fashion weeks and quick explanations on colours, screen print methods, laundry symbols and textiles.

This section has been expanded in the second edition of the Fashionary, including also underwear and accessories, fabric patterns and names of seams and stitches. Yip also launched a menswear edition of the acclaimed notebook with extra pages dedicated to jackets, trousers, neckties, shoes and boots.

Though mainly aimed at designers since it helps them eliminating traditional templates and semi-transparent papers, other fashion professionals – journalists and stylists included – are finding the sketchbooks useful, while passionate fashion fans enjoy filling their pages with their own sketches, mood boards, clippings and collages.

Can you introduce us the new edition of the Fashionary?
Penter Yip: The new Fashionary includes further information than the previous version. The first version was a sort of experiment to test the concept of a sketchbook tailor-made for fashion designers. We found out that a lot of people liked the concept, especially professionals, so we decided to take the idea further and update nearly all the information, including some highly technical notions. We added further information in the second edition, around 35-40 per cent more compared to the previous version.

You also launched a menswear edition: did you find it more challenging or easier to come up with an edition for men?
Penter Yip: The part regarding the information wasn’t really that different or difficult compared to the womenswear edition, also thanks to the menswear designers in our team, Karmuel and Ronnie who provided a lot of input. But the templates were more challenging since the menswear sketches depend more on the proportions, so we had to carry out quite a few tests.

Which are the most important differences between the men and womenswear editions?
Penter Yip: The former focuses mainly on menswear information with emphasis on measurements, patterns and style samples, and includes a dedicated shirting and suiting section since we think details play an important role in menswear design.

Which will be the next phase of the Fashionary books?
Penter Yip: At the moment we are developing different tools for fashion designers to make the design process smoother, so we will focus on the tools rather than on books.

Would you like to release a special edition of the Fashionary in collaboration with a fashion designer, maybe covered in special fabric like silk, cashmere or designer fabric?
Penter Yip: That’s a really nice suggestion. In fact we are discussing some projects with fashion designers. If things go smoothly, we will see them coming out in the second half of 2011. So stay tuned!

Artist Vikki Yau did some illustrations for the postcards that accompanied the first edition of the Fashionary, did she work on further illustrations for the new edition?
Penter Yip: Vikki does most of the drawings for the Fashionary. We want to keep the Fashionary as minimal as possible but I guess Vikki’s more arty drawings will appear occasionally.

What kind of feedback did you get since you first launched the Fashionary?
Penter Yip: The feedback we got so far is great. Designers think the books are useful and really improve their speed of sketching and brainstorming and we are very happy that design teams from big companies and well-known brands use our sketchbooks on a daily basis. We put everything we thought of in the new edition and we will keep working hard and listen to all the feedback and suggestions our users will provide to improve the Fashionary and turn it into the very best tool for fashion designers.

You can keep updated on the latest Fashionary news through its site, blog, Twitter page or Facebook page.

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A Poet’s (Wooden) Wounded Hand (Turned into a Leather Scarf)

In the first episode of Jean Cocteau’s Le sang d’un poète (The Blood of a Poet, 1930), entitled “The Wounded Hand or The Scars of a Poet”, an isolated artist creates art from his own wound.

Soon after the film starts, the Poet draws a face, but the mouth of his portrait begins to move.

Scared by the strange phenomenon, the Poet tries to wipe off the mouth, but the mouth -  representing a wound through which poetry speaks - adheres to his hand, muttering and begging for air (“Taken out of a portrait where the naked hand had contracted it like leprosy, the drowned mouth seemed to fade in a small pool of white light,” read the intertitles).

Eventually, both the Poet and the mouth in his hand fall asleep and, the next morning, while trying to get rid of the mouth, the Poet presses his hand on the lips of a female statue, giving her life.

The statue reminds the Poet that one cannot get rid of wounds that easily and her words start a new series of nightmarish visions.

Proceeding through allegories dedicated to the memory of Pisanello, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca and Andrea del Castagno, all painters of insignias and enigmas, the film is a surreally elaborate, magically disturbing and experimentally inspiring metaphorical portrait of the artist as a poet.

Cocteau turned indeed into images the words and thoughts of a poet’s mind, creating a fantastically bizarre work. 

This is why this film hasn’t got any real plot, but follows a succession of visionary sequences, from bubbling mouths and limbless statues talking and bleeding, to mirrors transforming into pools of water and beautiful black angels with intricate metal wings. 

The vision of the wounded hand with an embedded mouth in its palm has recently been haunting my imagination together with another image, that of the wooden hand integrated in one of Adrian’s designs showcased in the catwalk scene of Cukor’s The Women, a leitmotif that reappeared in different collections throughout the years (for images regarding Cukor's film and other "hand designs", please check out this post).

These last few days have been rather stressful for too many reasons, and, in between freezing temperatures and nursing a bad cold and flu, the vision of the wounded hand kept on coming back to my mind.

So, locking myself away from the madding crowds of Christmas shoppers, I looked around me, trying to find something to recycle and reuse and maybe fashion out of it a piece that reminded me of Cocteau and Adrian.

A wooden hand of the sort you find in art shops that my brother gave me a while back as a present and a black leather swatch that had been lying around my desk for a while, happened to be on my way.

I quickly assembled the two together and fashioned out of them a neckpiece that can be used as a scarf, but also as a flamboyant accessory. The thing I particularly like about this piece is that I can wear it in different ways, depending on how I fold the leather or bend the fingers of the hand, creating various combinations according to the outfit I'm wearing.

Looks like I will have to thank Jean Cocteau and Adrian for inspiring me this piece (and my brother who provided me with one of the key elements to make it...)! 

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Shades of Honeysuckle Pink

Pantone recently unveiled its colour for 2011, a reddish pink called “Honeysuckle” (code number: 18-2120).

This vibrant and uplifting nuance, accompanied by the slogan “a brave new colour, for a brave new world”, is supposed to lift our spirits, ward off the blues (no pun intended…), make us think about flowers blossoming in Spring and give us confidence to face the stress of our modern times.

It’s actually quite funny but, when I heard about this shade, one of the first things that came to my mind was a scene from an old film featuring Vittorio De Sica and Marlene Dietrich.

The film - shot in 1957 and directed by Samuel A. Taylor - is entitled The Monte Carlo Story and follows two rather unlucky gamblers Maria de Crevecoeur and Count Dino della Fiaba.

Though the movie is a rather banal romantic comedy, it features Dietrich in some great costumes by Jean Louis (most of us associate him with the black satin strapless gown he designed for Rita Hayworth in Gilda that, based on the portrait of Mrs. X by John Singer Sargent, launched a fashion trend). 

Yet the scene I had in mind in connection with this post doesn't feature Dietrich, but a few friends of Dino who are trying to convince him to seduce a rich woman, marry her, pay his debts and finally settled down.

One of the candidates they suggest him is a rather flamboyant South American lady, Señora Ivana, who seems to have a sort of colour-coded wardrobe that she co-ordinates with the wardrobe of her maid and chauffeur.

When Dino sees her for the first time in a hotel lobby she’s wearing a honeysuckle pink ensemble that perfectly matches with the uniforms of her maid and driver.

Since Dino is sceptical abut her attire he asks the hotel porter if she always goes around like that and he replies: “Oh no! On Monday she wears yellow, on Tuesday red, on Wednesday green..."

It was interesting to spot a sort of honeysuckle tending towards fuchsia also in the window of the Christian Dior shop in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna.

Though that could be explained also as a reference to the pink/fuchsia/violet flowers that usually decorate the Spanish steps, it’s interesting to see that a striking shade of reddish pink has taken the place of more popular "Christmassy" colours such as red, silver and gold.      

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Walking in Paparazzi Shoes: a Visit to the Dal Co' Shop

This post is directly linked with the previous one since it focuses on shoemaker Alberto Dal Co’, who was also the uncle of the Fontana Sisters (he was their mother Amabile’s brother).

Born in Traversetolo in 1902, as a very young man Dal Co’ already worked as a shoemaker in his own town.

When he moved to Rome he first opened a bespoke shoe shop in Via Crispi 35, then, in 1952, he moved to Porta Pinciana and soon became very popular among the stars and celebrities of those times.

Among Dal Co's clients there were also Sofia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Linda Christian, Rita Hayworth, Soraya and Brigitte Bardot.

Throughout his career Dal Co' collaborated with different designers and historical Italian fashion houses, from the Fontana Sisters to Fabiani, Lancetti, Schuberth and Valentino.

The Dal Co’ shop is currently based in Via Vittoria 65, just around the corner from Piazza di Spagna.

If you visit it, please pay attention to the cabinet at the back of the shop considered by Silvia, grandniece of Alberto, as a sort of little family museum.

In this part of the shop visitors can see photographs of famous actresses trying on shoes with Alberto Dal Co’ and samples of his historical footwear, from the legendary paparazzo shoes mentioned in a previous post (by the way, they are extremely light, despite the toothed metal wheel integrated in the heel - see the black and white picture in the background of the first image in this post? That's how you were supposed to use these shoes if you wanted to hurt the paparazzi...) to bejewelled sandals covered in pearls and beads.

There is also a recent addition to the museum, a pair of white open toe mules with a kind of curled up point inspired by the paparazzo shoe recently donated by Franca Faldini, wife of Italian actor Totò.

Silvia studied History of Art at university, so she’s very much into fashion and art and, a while back, she organised an exhibition entitled "Passeggiata Dal Co’" that featured artworks inspired by shoes and pieces that incorporated historical shoe lasts from the Dal Co’ archive.

All the shoes sold in the shop are handmade following the Alberto Dal Co’ tradition and, at the moment, the company also makes shoes in technologically advanced materials and with laser cut leather.

Quite a few foreign tourists are rediscovering the Dal Co’ shoes, but also celebrities.

Giada De Laurentiis, daughter of the late Italian film producer Dino, visited in one episode of her Weekend Getaways series the Dal Co' shop with her mother and had her shoes made on the spot.

When Silvia heard I was an Iren Brin fan she took out of the family archive an article written by the late Italian journalist and fashion critic in which she mentioned Dal Co’.

The piece was published in January 1965 for Il Giornale d’Italia, when Dal Co’ had already died.

Brin reviewed in her article the latest fashion shows in Florence and Rome, then focused on a new trend, elaborate, embroidered and colourful stockings and tights, mentioning at the end of her piece Dal Co’, remembering him as a passionate man, devoted to his art, defining him a “proud and silent craftsman, a man who actively contributed to the ‘Italian miracle’”, and adding that, if he were born in France, he would have created shoes for empress Marie Louise, Bonaparte's second wife. 

“His widow and his daughter decided to pay homage to his memory by collaborating with the best Italian fashion houses. This is definitely the best way to honour him,” Brin concluded in her feature.

I'm sure that, with Silvia at the helm, the family tradition will continue and I hope that through such family-based companies, more and more young designers will rediscover the importance of creating exquisite handcrafted pieces.

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Taking Refuge at the Fondazione Micol Fontana

I love visiting archives and libraries, yet, in the last few days, things have been rather difficult for too many reasons.

My trip to Rome for a research project that I’m currently following (more about it next year) coincided with the sinister survival of Berlusconi’s government and with an anti-government demo that last Tuesday blocked the streets of the Italian capital.

It was terribly difficult to walk around the city centre as the police blocked off the main roads and was essentially too busy diverting passer-bys and Christmas shoppers and shouting them to walk on the pavements while charging the students demonstrating along Via del Corso.

My refuge for the day was the Fondazione Micol Fontana, a Rome-based organisation that stores the Sorelle Fontana archive and promotes fashion studies among school and university students through workshops and seminars.

I found some wonderful treatures at the Fondazione, among them sketches, costumes and images regarding the Fontana Sisters' collaboration with the world of cinema. A group of students was watching a DVD about the history of fashion, so while doing my research I also had the chance of going over one century of fashion. It was a shame though that Micol, the last surviving member of the Fontana Sisters, who is 97, wasn't there as it was rather cold outside and decided not to visit the office for the day. The secretary told me a funny story about a group of students who recently visited the Foundation: one of them asked Micol what's the secret to become famous and Micol answered: "You must work, work and work!" A wonderful lesson, don't you think so? 

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Nutre Arayavanish, Flat Pack Jewellery Queen

I’m always on the lookout for original jewellery as I feel that a striking accessory can often revamp even an old outfit.

For quite a while I tried to find pieces from Thai designer Nutre Arayavanish's previous "Postable Jewellery" collection. 

During a recent trip to Rome, I recently managed to spot a few pieces at RE(f)USE.

Nutre, from Bangkok, attended Silpakorn University before moving to London to complete her Master in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art.

The recipient of many awards, Arayavanish uses in her work both traditional and new techniques, though she also tries to engage the wearers, encouraging them to play a bit with the pieces she creates.

Arayavanish’s new collection, "In the Shadow of the Moon" has got some kind of Space Age quality about it as it illustrates the different stages of the moon.

Despite I quite like this collection, the pieces I like best by Arayavanish are the most versatile ones, like the reconfigurable earrings from the "Snap" series that feature snap buttons that allow the wearer to change their colour, texture and pattern, or the designer’s flat pack jewellery, such as the “All Year Rings”. 

The latter - a project in collaboration with Tithi Kutchamuch released under the name TT:NT - consists in a paper sheet containing 12 flower-shaped rings and in a foldable birthday card that can be transformed into a ring.

My favourite pieces created by Arayavanish remain the ones from the "Postable" series, that is based on the same concept behind wooden press out sets.

The collection includes a few postcards that can be coloured, painted or customised in other ways. Each postcard integrates a ring that can be easily pushed out and assembled. 

The postcards can be sent out like ordinary mail, so this series implicitly deals with communication, a very important theme in fashion.

The series includes different pieces, but the one I picked calls to mind Arayavanish's "Blossoming" collection, composed of seven rings illustrating the life of a blossoming flower (part of the permanent collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum).

This piece includes indeed 7 petals that can be reconfigured in different structures, in this way the ring can change according to your tastes in just a matter of a few minutes. Guess that could be the perfect present for a friend obsessed with wooden press out models.

Nutre Arayavanish's pieces are exhibited at Bangkok's Atta Gallery until 18th December.  

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Uniforms, Felt and Fashion: on Joseph Beuys' Parallel Processes

The work of artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) displays some interesting connections with fashion.

There are actually quite a few works by this artist exhibited at London’s Tate Modern.

One large room on the first floor is entirely dedicated to him and includes works such as “Monument to the Stag” and "Table with Accumulator".

The former is connected to the artist’s interest in European folklore and to the figure of the stag as a mythical guardian of the forest and a symbol of rebirth and renewal through the yearly shedding and re-growth of its antlers; the latter features instead an accumulator attached by wires to two pieces of clay as if drawing power from the earth itself to symbolise the production and storage of energy and a metaphor for the creative and spiritual energy that Beuys wanted to foster in the individual viewer and in society as a whole.

In the same room there is a rather large picture of Beuys taken in 1970 that features the artist posing in front of some of the sledges from his sculpture "The Pack" while wearing a sort of uniform, a theme that ties in with the previous post and with Andrea Zittel’s works.

His uniform comprised jeans, white shirt, a fishing vest, fur-lined coat and a trilby hat. Next to this image there is the “Campaign Bed” (1982), a piece linked with his plane crash in Crimea during the Second World War.

According to the myth, the artist was saved by a band of Tartar nomads who saved him by wrapping his body in fat and covering it in felt. 

This is the reason why the felt blanket became one of his signature materials.

The portable and easily assembled campaign bed carries association with the body while being connected with ideas of survival under emergency conditions.

The electrical accumulator suggests the preservation of physical and creative energy.

If, like me, you are fascinated by the concept of uniform in Beuys' works, but also by his use of thick felt as a material that carried traces of the past with it, check out the exhibition "Joseph Beuys. Parallel Processes" (until 16th January 2011) at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen am Grabbeplatz in Düsseldorf.

The event - featuring some of the artist's large-scale sculptural pieces on loan from major museums and private collections - also includes "Stripes from the house of the shaman 1964-72" (1980) which is shown in Europe for the first time.

The exhibition is accompanied by a very interesting 400-page catalogue that will allow you to discover more about Beuys and maybe get inspired by his fascination with felt for your own fashion collections.    

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Aware: Art Fashion Identity

Identity is a vital theme connected with fashion. It’s indeed through our clothes and accessories that we shape our persona and communicate to other people the way we feel or the way we want to be perceived.

A recently opened exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts entitled “Aware: Art Fashion Identity” (until 30th January 2011) tries to analyse how different artists and designers use their creations to communicate a specific message or to reveal our personality.

The event – including work by Marina Abramović, Andreas Gursky, Claudia Losi, Susie MacMurray, Maison Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Yoko Ono, Grayson Perry, Dai Rees, Cindy Sherman, Helen Storey, Rosemarie Trockel, Sharif Waked, Gillian Wearing RA, Yohji Yamamoto and Andrea Zittel – is divided in four sections, Storytelling, Building, Belonging and Confronting and the Importance of Performance in the presentation of fashion and clothing.

While the first section explores the role of clothing in chronicling personal and cultural history - a good example is Grayson Perry’s “Artist’s Robe” (2004), a coat with appliquéd motifs used as commentary on the figure of the artist in today's society - the second section references the world of architecture, by looking at clothing and accessories such as wigs as a form of protection, as buildings that shelter the body.

Mella Jaarsma’s “Shelter Me 1” (2005) explores this theme in a minimalist way, looking at basic body constructions directly related to the proportions of the human body.

The third section allows to explore more vital social issues also linked with cultural and political themes.

This section also includes "Chic Point” (2003), an installation by Palestinian artist Sharif Waked that tries to juxtapose high fashion and semi-imprisonment.

The final section focuses instead on the roles that we play in our daily lives through fashion and clothes.

Among the works exhibited in this section there is also the video of Yoko Ono’s 1965 performance in which the artist invited the public to cut strips from her clothing.

Special relevance is given in the exhibition to new works by Yinka Shonibare and Hussein Chalayan: the former created a colourful wall mural using 18 designs based on 19th-century children’s dress made with bespoke tailor Chris Stevens.

Chalayan presents instead an installation that calls to mind one of the creations inspired by the Bunraku puppet theatre featured in the film that accompanied his Spring/Summer 2011 collection.

Andrea Zittel showcases in this event the hand-felted dresses from her "A-Z Fiber Form Uniforms" (2002-2006) project, consisting in a series of dresses to be worn for six months at a time.

I’m ending this post with an extract from an interview I did with the artist a while back in which she talks about her garments and the techniques she uses to make them.

Do you find it difficult moving between art and fashion or sparking up dialogues between these two worlds?
Andrea Zittel: Within my work there is a natural dovetailing of design and art. The issues I’m more interested in design deal with art while part of my fashion exploration started instead almost by accident. I think it’s natural to be drawn to clothing since it’s just the most basic kind of architecture for the body, it is the very first level you think about when you focus on what you’re going to use every day on a really personal level.   

What kind of technique do you use to make your garments and will you continue the series in future?
Andrea Zittel: I’m really interested in figuring out new technologies that are at the same time very basic. A couple of years ago I started learning how to make felt, but, within that process, I discovered new ways to make hand-felted dresses made with fabric that is not cut or sewn. The challenge when I started making my dresses was figuring out a way to make a garment using the most fundamental material, that is raw and unspun wool. The fibre has been washed, but it hasn’t been processed through any other kind of technology. I just use my hands as a tool, so I employ the most basic ways of making something, but I make it in a quite sophisticated way. I’ve been making the garments since 1990 and I’ve been wearing and making my own clothes since then, so I’ll continue doing it, even though I’m not sure I will move onto a larger scale. 

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Sweet Voyages to the Moon

Funny how sometimes when your mind is taken by a specific research or inspiration, the entire world seems to be tuned on the same wavelength.

I recently resumed a personal research on Space Age fashion, while my mind was still taken by early silent films from the Fashion in Film Festival and I found it quite funny to pass in front of Ladurée’s shop at Harrods and spot in the windows of the patisserie most loved by fashionistas worldwide for its colourful creations, brown and silver macaroons packaged in boxes emblazoned with the moon.

I instantly thought about space and French filmmaker and “Cinemagician” Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès and his iconic black and white science fiction film Le voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon, 1902). 

Mainly based on two books, From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells, Méliès' film starts with a meeting of astronomers.

One of them proposes a trip to the Moon and six brave men agree to go.

After building a bullet-shaped space capsule they are fired into space from a cannon operated by a group of girls (dancers from the Folies-Bergère).

As the capsule pierces the eye of the moon, the astronomers disembark and start wandering around, delighting at the landscape. 

They then settle down and fall asleep, dreaming of stars with the face of the Folies-Bergère girls.

Woken up by a snowfall, the astronomers seek shelter in a cavern where they encounter the local aliens, the crustacean-insect like Selenites (more Folies-Bergère acrobats...).

The explorers are arrested by the creatures and taken to the Selenite King.

Eventually the astronomers manage to run back to their capsule that falls through space with a Selenite in tow, landing in an ocean where all are rescued by a ship and taken ashore.

While looking at the Ladurée boxes in the windows it was somehow impossible not to think about the surreal shot of the rocket stuck in the moon, imagined by Méliès as a cream-pie face blinking and smiling at the approaching rocket. 

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Last Call for the Fashion in Film Festival

The Fashion in Film Festival closes today at the BFI Southbank with two screenings of La Revue des Revues (1927) directed by Joë Francis and Alex Nalpas (3.30 p.m.) and Secrets of the East (Geheimnisse des Orients/ Shéhérazade, 1928) directed by Alexandre Volkoff (6.20 p.m.).

Both the films will have live piano accompaniment by the wonderful Stephen Horne and both feature extraordinary fashion moments and choreographies, so they are the perfect choices for fashion fans but also dance lovers.

La Revue des Revues – featuring Hélène Hallier, Josephine Baker and Pépa Bonafé – follows the vicissitudes of Gabrielle, a seamstress and wannabe dancer, though the main plot is actually an excuse to show some wild dancers and grand show stopping numbers like the one in the finale embedded here.

The film also includes one of two Josephine Baker Folies-Bergère performances recorded on film at the end of the 20s, the number entitled "La folie du jour", that consisted in a series of Charleston steps, high kicks, splits and sensual hip contortions.

Secrets of the East, starring Italian actress Ida Maranca (better known as Marcella Albani), D. Dmitriev and Brigitte Helm, features sensual costumes by Boris Bilinsky and rich sets by Ivan Lochakoff.

Bilinsky was one of several Russian designers, including Alexandre Benois, who worked in ballet, drama, and film during the interwar years (definitely worth rediscovering him).

He was very much inspired in his creations by Léon Bakst’s work for Les Orientates and Le Dieu Bleu and mixed in this film his Oriental inspirations with hints at Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Expressionism.

The best way to savour this film would be after seeing the Ballets Russes exhibition at the V&A to spot parallelisms and references between the costumes of the famous corps de ballet and Bilinsky's work in Secrets of the East.  

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