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

New I.P.F.O. (Identified Pilfered Fashion Object): Prada Coat

Prada and Miu Miu are not new to the I.P.F.O. section of this blog.

The focus of today's column is actually Prada’s Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection.

A friend of mine kindly lent me some old copies of a few British magazines from the ‘60s (among them there are also a few issues of Vogue), since I’m doing a new research for a project I’m involved in that focuses on the Swinging London scene.

My main hope was actually finding images featuring model Jill Kennington striking poses (View this photo) in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up.

But, during this trip through the past that occupied most of my weekend, I suddenly found myself into the future, spotting in one magazine something that most of us saw just a few days ago on the Milan’s runways.

In this pic taken from the 1966 September issue of UK Vogue (downloaded from this blog as my scanner has momentarily exploded), Kennington wears a coat that looks incredibly like one of the coats we saw at Prada’s.

Prada’s collection started from a very basic idea: reinterpreting in an innocent way luxurious materials such as cashmere, fur, snakeskin and sequins.

Based on a dropped-waist silhouette that evoked the ‘60s, the collection mainly included cocooning cashmere, python and gabardine coats with fur sleeves or fur lapels and wool gabardine dresses.

There may have been references to Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian dress, but the graphic patterns, block prints and checks with bright red belts also seemed to evoke Roberta di Camerino’s dresses. In fact when I first saw the collection I thought more about being a Roberta di Camerino rip off, with just one main difference: the late Italian designer created trompe l’oeil effects on her dresses, Miuccia went instead for real wide belts and buttons, though she kept the trompe l’oeil effect for her python boots that, from far away, looked like a pair of Mary Janes worn with knee-high socks.

Everything was perfect, though slightly déjà vu perfect if I can say so, including the aviator caps in wool and fur, matched with dresses covered in shards of dégradé sequins in mermaid style or with sequins shining on fake fur (will we find also these designs in another magazine from the ‘60s?).

The mixture of powdery colours and strong reds at times brought back memories of Antonioni’s Deserto Rosso and Monica Vitti’s coats (View this photo) in the film maybe hinting at subtler moods in the collection and at a more sophisticated and complicated woman than the one we actually saw sashaying down the runway at Prada’s.

One question remains now: if Prada borrows/steals/pilfers an idea from the past and it successfully sells, is that the final proof that everything has already been tried and done in fashion and that we are mainly re-vomiting what we saw in the past without even reinventing it (or just slightly reinventing it)? Does this mean that fashion is totally useless?

Guess these are rather difficult questions to answer, especially on a Monday morning, yet I wouldn't mind getting a proper answer from many contemporary designers out there, Miuccia Prada included.  

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Letizia, Is There Something WE Should Know? (and Duran Duran Hit Milan and the City's Coffers…)

Some of us grew up in families that encouraged them to listen to music and even display a reasonably obsessive mania for a few bands and singers. After all music is culture and obsessing about a band is part of the process of growing up.

Unfortunately, not all of us were so lucky: part of the global population was probably repressed by parents who urged them to engage their free time in more “serious” things than going to gigs and buying a record. Letizia Moratti, the obnoxious right wing mayor of Milan, falls into this category, though apparently she is definitely not alone, but in the excellent company of Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani and Tod’s CEO Diego Della Valle.

Growing up as musically repressed young people, this magic trio concocted a wonderful plan, a Duran Duran concert during Milan Fashion Week. The gig took place on Friday night at Milan’s Teatro Dal Verme.

The event – preceded by a private dinner – was actually an exclusive party for roughly 1,500 people (mainly VIPs – including annoying Anna Dello Russo in a House of Worth tutu that is also a total rip off of the jacket  with zodiac symbols from Schiaparelli's "Cosmique" collection) and apparently 500 Duran Duran aficionados from the band’s fan clubs.

On the morning of Friday Duran Duran also received a useless parchment from the Milan City Council stating they are icons of style and innovators in the fields of music, fashion and style (and so, you could argue, are The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Madonna and hundreds of other famous bands and singers, so what makes Duran Duran more eligible?).

Despite it was good to see the magic trio didn’t splash money on more flamboyant characters à la Lady Gaga (they must have tried, but couldn’t probably afford her…), the event has been highly criticised by a few papers: apparently the City Council invested €18,000 to hire the theatre, plus paid for other assorted expenses for a total of €30-35,000, though some papers claimed the City Council invested something like €70,000 into the event.

Moratti was indeed flanked at the event by Luana Codignoni, a mysterious character working for Promos, an agency linked to the Chamber of Commerce led by Bruno Ermolli, a close friend of Silvio Berlusconi.

Shady Codignoni, a woman with no real qualifications when it comes to organising events, also collaborates as advisor for the Municipality of Milan. Promos works indeed with the City Council organising events on an international level (Codignoni is actually paid by Promos and not by the City Council), receiving every year roughly €100,000 from the Muncipality of Milan, which means that Duran Duran were slightly more expensive than just €30,000. 

The Councillor for Fashion and Local Events Giovanni Terzi replied to those journalists and members of the opposition parties criticising the City Council stating we should stop being provincial and support such events that have an international resonance and reward the city of Milan with lots of publicity worldwide (wait until April 6th, dear Terzi, and Milan will get even more publicity on a global scale and this time it will be totally free and courtesy of Berlusconi’s trial…).

Yet isn’t that a bit silly to splash public money on an exclusive event open to just a few people? (I'm definitely not the only one who seems to be having serious doubts about this point...) What about investing into a proper fashion event and opening it to the public? After all it’s ordinary people who end up supporting fashion designers by choosing to buy their products.

Think, Letizia: fashion events organised in the mid-'80s like Trussardi’s show in Piazza del Duomo gathered thousands of ordinary people together. Friday’s event managed to get 1,500 more or less famous people in one place.

Now the damage is done, though, and Letizia, Franca and Diego have convinced themselves and the international press Milan is not a walking corpse with zero nightlife, but a glittering star, a beacon of fashion and style. Unfortunately, this event proves that Milan's star is burning bright in the night just for very few people.

In the meantime, Duran Duran fans can rejoice: the City Council is now working towards a larger event open to all the pariahs - pardon, citizens of Milan - so the band should be back in July with a gig during the Milano Jazzin’ Festival, while Simon Le Bon is hoping they will also be collaborating with the City Council for a new event during the Expo 2015.

And who can blame you, Simon? Guess if the Municipality of Milan is throwing money in your direction, you'd better just find a case large enough to contain it and run away with it once it's full.  

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Return to the Chrysler Building: Krizia

Quite a few fashion houses found new strengths in the last few years by going back to their roots.

Krizia finally woke up from its slumber and decided to do more or less the same, going back to the architectural experiments carried out by Mariuccia Mandelli.

In the early ‘80s Mandelli explored the possibilities offered by architecture, moving from pleating techniques.

Mandelli at the time tried to play with the rigid Vs softness dichotomy, using pleats to expand the body in an architectural way and at the same time to define softly the body’s contours.

In 1983 Mandelli – considered at the time as a sort of Italian Issey Miyake – created two iconic designs, a jumpsuit and a long gown in silver metallic cellulose acetate inspired by the decorative arches of the Chrysler Building, a classic example of Art Deco architecture.

Mandelli originally based her designs on the ornamentation characterising the terraced crown of the building (View this photo), designed by architect William Van Alen and inspired by the features on Chrysler cars. 

The fashion designer tried to recreate the sunburst pattern of the crown using a pleating technique and a silvery fabric that called to mind the material for this part of the building, the "Enduro KA-2" stainless steel metal. 

Both the jumpsuit and the dress (View this photo) were recreated for the Autumn/Winter 2011 collection, this time in a beige nuance rather than in their original more flamboyant silver shade, while the architectural moods were also applied to the strong and exaggerated peaked shoulders (View this photo) and softness reappeared in the draped designs (the weakest part of the collection, actually, together with Krizia’s iconic animal jumpers) and in the ample and voluminous coats.

Bizarrely enough, with Gucci celebrating its collaboration with Fiat (a customised car that will be available from April) and all the talks about the Fiat-Chrysler merger, rediscovering these iconic designs inspired by the building where the headquarters of the Chrysler Corporation were based (from 1930 until the mid-1950s) seemed very apt.      

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Galliano: Cracking Up?

Fashion designer John Galliano was arrested by the police yesterday in Paris after he allegedly uttered anti-Semitic insults and engaged in violent behaviour.

According to witnesses, the creative director of the Christian Dior maison and “enfant prodige” of fashion allegedly attacked a couple seated on a cafe terrace and made anti-Semitic remarks.

While the reasons for accosting the couple and attacking them remain unknown – though police stated he was found to have been drinking alcohol – there have been some speculations about Galliano’s behaviour.

Friends of the designer stated such assaults are out of character as he never displayed any violet behaviour, but one policeman said the outburst was caused by stress ahead of the approaching Paris Fashion Week.

Galliano currently faces criminal charges and will have to appear in court on a date to be fixed, so we will hear more about this story in the next few weeks.

Not having witnessed the scene, it's difficult to say anything in defence or against the designer. Yet I find it interesting how the police linked his behaviour to the pressures for the coming fashion week (though if you are a major fashion designer you should be able to handle such pressures...).

The rhythms of the already fast fashion industry have somehow been upset by the new technological developments and nowadays if you aren’t able to put online the new collection 30 minutes after it has been on the runway you are considered a loser. Yet maybe the time has come to slow the machine down a bit, use technology at our advantage and maybe recreate a new kind of fashion industry that focuses on quality rather than quantity (New York Fashion Week was a ridiculous affair of bulimic proportions...).

In the meantime, I would advise Galliano - currently suspended from his duties by the Dior maison, well-known for its zero tolerance policy against racism - to sit down and relax for half a day at least, possibly listening to some interesting music like the works of Luigi Nono, a socially engaged composer and the author of "Intolleranza 1960" (Intolerance 1960), a drama against racial segregation.

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''Garbo Sings'' @ Prada's

My mind is currently taken by a soundtrack project that I will unveil soon and that it was somehow inspired by the research I did for the “Italian Style on the Silver Screen” exhibition, so when a few minutes ago I heard the music playing in the background at Prada’s catwalk show I just felt I had to approve the choice. 

The Italian fashion house often uses cinematic soundtracks as background music for its catwalk shows. This time the music was 'Garbo Sings' sung by Elin Klinga and taken from Sparks’ "The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman" (2009), an ambitious album commissioned by Sveriges Radio Radioteatern, inspired by a fictional visit to Hollywood by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman in the mid-1950s.

In a way this album with its dark undertones perfectly matched the fashion catwalk show: Sparks looked through the tracks featured in it at the clash between European and American culture and at the art Vs consumerism dichotomy. Easy to wonder then if the music was somehow a subtle reference to the "New York Vs Milan" or to the "high quality/luxury ready-to-wear VS garments by hyped up designers" dichotomies. Did Miuccia have all this on her mind? Who knows, yet I guess we shouldn't underestimate the subtleties of the devil...

 

F(AA)SHION at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs

I have widely explored the connections between fashion and architecture in previous posts on this blog, often analysing innovative projects by architectural firms or cutting edge designers. 

If you are genuinely interested in these subjects and want to explore them further, I would suggest you to apply to the F(AA)shion workshop at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs (111 Rue de Rivoli).

This event, taking place from 21st to 31st March 2011, is part of the international visiting programme of the Architectural Association School of Architecture, one of the world’s most respected institutions for architectural design and spatial research.

The visiting school programme includes events and workshops in five continents that give every year the opportunity to international students, architects, graduates and young creatives to pursue researches in different fields.   

The aim of the F(AA)shion workshop, entitled “Re-fashioning”, is to explore the new possibilities offered by fashion and architecture and look at ways to develop ideas and design practices through interdisciplinary laboratories analysing digital-based investigations, physical performance and manufacturing.

Students will be challenged to explore form intended as a dynamic process of space-occupation and embrace the entire process of production looking at digital fabrication and assembling refined prototypes.

One interesting topic that will be touched upon is the investigation of gallery-like spaces where firms and emerging designers can engage audiences and the future of fashion retailers (multimodal or mobile pop-up stores?) will also be discussed. 

Students enrolled will also get the chance to be involved in the assembly process of Marc Fornes’ THEVERYMANY™ installation at the Centre  Pompidou (Fornes is actually looking for interns in Europe to take part in the installation of a prototypic pavilion for the Frac Centre Collection in Orleans, France, from April to May – you can check out his site to get further information about this project).

The F(AA)SHION Lecture series (21-31 March), curated by Jorge Ayala, Director Architect, MA Architectural Association School, Founder of [Ay]A Studio, include events about the following topics: Prototypical Computation (Marc Fornes), Hyperbody (Marco Verde), Behavioural Matter (Robert Stuart-Smith), Intensive Aesthetics/Intensive Surfaces (Alessio Erioli) and Game Engines & Mobile Platforms (Moe Ekapob).

The deadline to send the application for the F(AA)shion workshop is 28th February, though there is also a late deadline available (14th March), subject to a fee. Applications can be submitted to: [email protected]

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A World in Turmoil: Peter Pilotto A/W 2011-12

Fashion weeks can be stressful events full of strong ideas and revolutionary moments, yet they can’t be compared to political revolutions.

Indeed, while the recent fashion catwalk shows have been taking place as usual, a part of the world has been (and still is) in turmoil.

Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced to resign in January; Egypt is preparing to its post-Mubarak future; Gaddafi regime is falling apart in Libya; protesters are calling for greater democracy are under way in Morocco. Add to that the protests in Bahrain and Iran and you will get a picture of a world going through some radical changes.

Catwalk shows have been livestreamed on the net, bouncing from screen to screen, yet the echoes of these revolutions never arrived on the runways in New York and London (many people involved in the industry - critics, buyers and other assorted professionals included - probably don't even know what has been going on in the rest of the world since the menswear shows started...).

So there were no revolutionary echoes at least until designers Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos showcased their collection.

The Autumn/Winter 2011 designs looked indeed at revolutionaries and political unrest through degrade chain prints, layered looks and bright colours.

Violence was evoked via strong shades and slashes around the upper chest area.

Sharp military coats characterised by rigid shapes contrasted with the prints while there was a certain emphasis on liquid and fluid shapes that, twisting on the body, incorporated different fabrics or garments (such as tailored blue shirts) in the same design, maybe hinting at fast social transformations.

While a fashion collection is definitely not enough to explain a political revolution, it was good to see a young design duo looking at what’s happening off the runway and trying to evoke through their designs the power of youth.

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Checks and Carbro Colouring Shades: Jonathan Saunders A/W 2011-12

Jonathan Saunders fans and followers perfectly know that when one of his collections starts with strict lines and well-balanced colours, the best is yet to come.

The bi-coloured mohair suits in purple and black or red and gray that opened the show, followed by a rusty brown pencil-skirt matched with an emerald silk blouse with a nude back and a black belt and a rusty brown top with a blue back paired with a blue skirt, were indeed just the beginning of a series of designs in kaleidoscopic colours.

In the previous collection Saunders took inspiration from photographer Erwin Blumenfeld, reinterpreting in prints and colours his techniques and use of lights.

For the Autumn/Winter season he moved instead from Paul Outerbridge and from his use of shades, graphic effects and carbro colour process.

Outerbridge - who also worked in his career for Paris Vogue with Edward Steichen - became a popular commercial photographer, especially after his experiments with the technically difficult tri-colour carbro process that allowed him to give his models a special reality with a surreal edge, creating visual artificial paradises.

Saunders seemed to play a lot with Outerbridge's surreal shades, coming up with suits in colourful geometric patterns and prints of flowers and birds in bright colours, the latter applied also to men's cashmere cardigans and sweaters.

At times the designer obtained effects very similar to specific Outerbridge's photographs such as the iconic "The Shower" (View this photo).

The hyper-real baroque prints created clever contrasts with the controlled silhouettes and the severe collared and pencil skirts: blooming lilies and poppies exploded in acid green and bright orange, turquoise and electric blue, while checks in different dimensions and colours were mixed together in the same design.

A sporty elegance was replaced by the evening looks that comprised chiffon dresses with pleated hems and sequins trapped under thin tulle.

While it was good to see Saunders coming up with looks for young but grown up women, it would have been even better to see more menswear looks: Saunders’ bright and energetic shades are indeed what's often needed in the grey desolation of winter.  

To know more about Outerbridge you can check out Wolfgang Hastert's inspiring documentary "Woman with Claws".

 

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Adriano Celentano's "Prisencolinensinainciusol" @ Holly Fulton

Guess the following post goes somehow well with the previous one, since Holly Fulton is a Scottish designer.

Many years ago, before being swallowed up by the fashion industry, I was a music journalist, so a few people asked me if I knew the track playing in the background at Holly Fulton's catwalk show at London Fashion Week (more about the collection later...).

Well, yes, that's actually "Prisencolinensinainciusol" by Adriano Celentano, a rap in a made up language.

The text of the song doesn't mean anything in any language (even though you can hear every now and then something similar to an "all right"). The song came out as a single in 1972.

Apparently Celentano came up with it as he sang a melody in a loop while working on single 'Disc Jokey' that later on became the B-side for 'Prisencolinensinainciusol'. The singer said it was sung in a new unintelligible language but that it was supposed to have a new universal meaning and spread love.

The single was a popular hit in France and Germany, entered the charts in the States and was recently rediscovered by American bloggers and Celentano fans who now seem to unanimously consider it as the first rap in the history of music.

This clip (that also features Italian icon of kitsch Raffaella Carrà) is taken from a TV show called "Milleluci" (1974) in which Celentano re-launched the track two years after it came out as a single. Enjoy!

  

The Peroni Collection – Italian Style on the Silver Screen (Edinburgh leg)

I don’t really like using the blog for self-celebratory posts, but I guess this is not strictly about myself, but about a project I’ve been working on in the last few months.

The project in question is entitled "Italian Style on the Silver Screen" and it's a photographic exhibition co-curated by Rankin and myself in partnership with Peroni Nastro Azzurro.

The exhibition is conceived as a journey through Italian film and costume design that will allow visitors to discover quite interesting connections between cinema, fashion and style, revealing how many directors inspired the imagination of other artists and how film creativity rained down on fields of expression quite distant from those of cinema, proving an inexhaustible source of aesthetic suggestions for the fashion industry.

The event officially kicks off tomorrow in Edinburgh (though tonight there is a private viewing) at the Dundas Street Gallery. The exhibition will open in March in London and Glasgow, and I promise you will get the chance in the next few weeks to discover on the blog more about it and about the archives and partners that decided to take this journey through fashion with us.

The image in this advert is taken from Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits, 1965) by Federico Fellini (Costume Design by Piero Gherardi).

We have a few images from this film in the exhibition (one taken from the Rome-based Archivio Storico del Cinema that I absolutely love). Fellini’s first colour film was a feast for the eyes: its plot, characters, dreams and nightmares are indeed determined by strong and vibrant colours, filtered through an intense chromatic scale.

In this film colours enrich Fellini’s tableaux vivants, giving them a powerful dimension. A decoratively splendid, elegant and rich baroque excess, this hallucinatory visual enchantment was dubbed by some critics as “Alice in the Spiritland”, since it incarnated everything phenomenal, surprising, wonderful and fantastic.

Cinema, Fellini seems to tell us in Juliet of the Spirits, is an illusion. But isn’t fashion an illusion too, nourished by dreams, fantasies and emotions?

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