I recently dug out of my personal archive some books about Bruno Munari for a personal research I’m carrying out.
Yet the more I looked at some images and re-read a few notes I took a while back about this Italian artist and designer, the more I felt Munari’s work could help fashion designers getting further inspirations, especially the ones stuck in a creative rut.
Bruno Munari (1907-1998) was an amazing artist: he created seminal works of art, wrote many books and carried out very interesting researches on themes such as creativity, fantasy, light and movement.
In the late ‘20s and early ‘30s, Munari experimented with futurist paintings, but then developed his studies and researches along different lines, creating mobiles, tensostructures (that somehow anticipated the concept of "tensegrity", that is the building of complex forms using simple elements held in balance by different forces), metal sculptures, photographic collages, kinetic pieces and metaphysical and oscillating objects.
He was one of the first artists to experiment in Italy with installations, video installations and kinetic objects using different materials and techniques.
Munari also created iconic interior design objects, from ashtrays to armchairs, tables and lamps (many will remember the 1964 Falkland lamp made with tights - View this photo; Munari visited a hosiery company at the time asking if it was possible to create a lamp, they told him “we don’t make lamps”, but the artist simply replied, “well, you’ll start making them”), mainly for Bruno Danese, designed textiles for different companies and even created a watch entitled "Tempo Libero" (literally "Free Time", but in this case also a pun on the literal meaning of the two Italian words - free time - since the numbers marking the hours were left free to roam around the clock face) for Swatch (View this photo).
From a fashion point of view, one of the most inspiring projects by Bruno Munari remains (in my opinion) his 1946-47 installation entitled “Concavo-Convesso” (Concave-Convex).
The latter consists in a sort of cloud or shell-like structure (that also referenced geometry and mathematical variables) made using a simple (1m x 1m) square metal net.
Munari bent the net giving it shape using an invisible thread to hang it from the ceiling and let it project shadows on the walls around it, letting the object actively interacting in this way with the architectures surrounding it.
This dynamic object with no beginning and no end was unanimously considered as one of the first installations in Italian art history.
Munari based it on just a few principles, that is simplicity, form, light, movement, lightness, technology and unpredictability.
The artist tried to obtain the maximum result with the minimum effort, using a simple and cheap metal net that you can find in hardware stores to create an iconic structure.
The main idea behind this object was that it could be easily carried around or reproduced. Munari refused indeed to create luxurious objects of art that incorporated expensive materials but didn’t display any innovative shapes and forms.
Munari’s principles (simplicity, forms, technology…) could be applied in fashion to create not just one design but an entire collection. At the same time his structure could inspire fashion designers to create innovative shapes.
We have actually seen silk dresses recreating a sort of cloud-like shape in Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection: as you may remember, some of these designs evoked the movement of water around the body of the wearer.
While in that case the designer opted for a sort of tensostructure that enveloped the body, in Dries Van Noten's Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection we have seen a focus on collages and clashes of fabrics, some characterised by bold and strong graphics.
Though the starting point for this collection were Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, interestingly enough some pieces that mixed different fabrics, prints and embroideries called back to mind Munari’s textiles.
While the asymmetrical silhouettes of some of the designs seemed to be references to the shapes of Munari's tensostructures, the grids, nets and swirls on tops and skirts evoked the shadows projected on the walls by the artist's Concave-Convex experiments.
Tension, compression, harmony and equilibrium mixed in with Munari's principles could maybe help creating innovative ideas for prints, shapes and wearable structures, producing countless solutions for both garments and accessories.
So who's ready among you readers to take up the Bruno Munari challenge?
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