I would like to close the ballet/costume thread that I started on Thursday with a post on the costumes designed by Italian experimental artist Corrado Cagli (1910-1976) for the 1967-68 performance of Debussy’s “Jeux”.
Working at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera from 1956, Cagli always showed an incredible cultural complexity in his work and critics often compared him to a fashion designer for his colours and abstractions.
Cagli loved using collages and researching materials and, from the early 30s on, he was influenced by Italian and international artists such as Fausto Pirandello, Emanuele Cavalli, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Picasso, Braque and Derain.
For the sketches for "Jeux" - that, in my opinion, wouldn't look out of place in a fashion designer's lookbook - Cagli used the frottage and the stencil effects of papiers velours.
The artist designed for “Jeux” the colourful costumes for The Girl (View this photo) and for The Two Young Men. All of them were directly inspired by Debussy’s music, Cubism and Sonia Delaunays’ use of colours.
I must confess that, the more I look at these sketches, the more they remind me of Missoni’s iconic zigzags.
Here’s a challenge for fashion students and knitwear designers: how would Cagli’s colourful abstractions look if they were reproduced in a knitwear collection (or maybe in prints)?
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