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

Berlusconi? Gone with the (Orange) Wind

Winds of change were blowing over Milan just two weeks ago when the results of the local elections showed that the Prime Minister’s People of Liberty party was losing support. 

Runoffs were held on Sunday and Monday after clear winners failed to emerge from the first round of voting, but Italians didn’t change their minds and dealt an even more humiliating blow to the Prime Minister.

Silvio Berlusconi suffered a glorious defeat in Milan where local left-wing lawyer Giuliano Pisapia won over previous mayor Letizia Moratti.

Further bad news for the Prime Minister arrived from Naples where the candidate of the anti-Berlusconi Italy of Principles party, Luigi De Magistris, scored 65% of the votes.

There are two important connections with style and fashion in these elections: first the aggressive and violent tones used by Berlusconi and his allies during the campaign.

The Prime Minister first tried to turn the ballot into a vote of confidence on his private life and his government, then, realising things weren’t working, Berlusconi & Co. changed style, passing onto a catastrophic strategy that ranged from defining honest citizens supporting Pisapia as brainless voters to spreading fears of a communist come back, peppering debates with Islamophobic slogans and warning the citizens that Milan under Pisapia would have turned into “zingaropoli” (gypsyland).

Pisapia and his supporters didn’t seem interested in answering back to these provocations: the reply to an Islamophobic poster by extremist right wing  party Northern League came in the form of another poster with a quote by Bertolt Brecht inspired by Martin Niemöller's poem (“First they came for the gypsies and I was happy, for they were stealing; Then they came for the Jews and I remained silent, for I didn't like them; Then they came for the homosexuals and I was relieved, for they bothered me; Then they came for the communists and I didn't speak, for I wasn't one; One day they came to take me, but no one was left to complain.”).

There was also a different form of reaction from young people using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter who stirred debates, satirised the Prime Minister and shot videos and clips that made fun about the apocalyptic vision presented by Berlusconi & Co. of Milan under Pisapia's rule. 

Italian papers highlighted this morning how these elections managed to attract many young people: their reaction and contribution to this campaign is actually vitally important since it marks a cultural rebirth after the ignorance and amnesia cult spread by Berlusconi and the Big Brother generation (in love with the mind-numbing reality programmes on his channels...).   

Pisapia’s gentle ways also marked a new style and a return to a moderate language in politics, symbolised by a colour as well, orange, that turned into the main shade of his campaign and invaded the streets and squares of Milan and Naples yesterday night.

Yet fashion-wise there is something very important to note: Pisapia was supported by the enlightened middle-classes, united under the Comitato del 51% (51% Commitee) formed by Piero Bassetti (town councillor for the Municipality of Milan from 1956 to 1970; Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Milan between 1982 and 1997 and current chairman of an association that looks at "glocal" relationships). 

Bassetti managed to convince many Milan-based professionals to support Pisapia: among the professionals who answered Bassetti's appeal there were architects, engineers, managers and lawyers, but no Milanese fashion designers were ever mentioned as part of the committee (so we don't have any "enlightened" fashion designers in Italy?). 

Vogue Italia – a solid Moratti ally during her reign – turned throughout the weeks that preceded the campaign into the "Bible of Everything Superficial" with editor Franca Sozzani writing confusing posts on her redundant blog, attacking one day rich people who feel superior (“Belonging to a specific social class entitles many, who feel superior without a justification, to act disrespectfully, even humiliating others. As if being born into a certain category alone could justify discrimination. People are also judged on account of their clothes, and those who do not belong to a particular social class are excluded from economic power.”) and ridiculing the next Kate Middleton for shopping in High Street stores (“…she lives a totally different life and gets to meet people that all other girls her age will never meet. And she represents her country. In Buckingham Palace understatement is truly out of place. A totally respectable attitude, yet still out of place. Each situation and moment requires a suitable conduct (…) Of course, everyone is free to live as they please and make the choices they prefer. But coherently with their lifestyle.”).

This morning, while Milan woke up with a new mayor, a new colour and a new smile on its face, Franca felt very arty and decided to focus on the Venice Biennale in her post, avoiding any kind of reference to what's going around her (yes, denial is the best strategy in these cases...).

So while Berlusconi is licking his wounds and is currently back on trial for the usual range of financial and sex-related offences, Sozzani is probably planning to fill her wardrobe with enough dresses in the proper shade of orange from Jil Sander’s S/S 11 collection to secure the support of the new mayor in all the Vogue Italia projects that need some healthy squandering of public money.

In the meantime Dolce & Gabbana will have to find alternative locations for their exhibitions (hopefully no more city hall...), while tanned culturista and culture councillor Massimiliano Finazzer Flory will have to go back to his gym and can now finally stop pretending of being a fashion historian/an icon of style, stealing public money to organise exhibitions with high-profile fashion bloggers just to win the consensus of the international fashion media.

The orange shade? Bring it on, Milan (and the rest of Italy) desperately needs a bit of its energy.

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When Size and Proportions Matter

At the moment my mind is very much taken by art-related issues since the Venice Art Biennale is opening this week and I’m curious to see the works of some contemporary artists who will take part in it.

So with contemporary art in mind let’s have a brief look today at a design by Xavier Brisoux that was showcased last Saturday during St Petersburg’s Aurora Fashion Week.

While the irregular stripes and messed lines in this design are inspired by anagrams and computer programming, its shape, the way it falls on the body and its colour made me think about Anish Kapoor's "Leviathan".

The largest artwork ever made by Indian-born British artist Kapoor (even larger than his "Marsyas" and "Temenos"), once inflated the 35-metre tall work turns into a 13,500 square metre awe-generating cathedral-like space made from PVC.

Part of the Monumenta - the indoor public art project that takes place every Spring at Paris’ Grand Palais – "Leviathan" was inspired by the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s eponymous essay about society and the state.

Dedicated by Kapoor to missing Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, the work tackles notions of space and scale and how we relate to it.

Visitors can indeed get inside it as if they were entering a cathedral or the body of a whale.

This overwhelming artwork also tackles the themes of mutation and transformation: from the outside the Leviathan looks like a structure formed by four interconnected balloon-like elements, but from the inside it’s a sort of immense fuchsia-red globular membrane.

The futuristic structure also has some interesting connections with fashion: the material used must have been perfectly calculated and cut, otherwise it would have wrinkled ruining the entire final effect (apparently, the artwork was also the result of international teamwork as the PVC was cut in Germany but the structure was assembled in Italy).

This point is somehow connected with Brisoux’s design: though the latter is made using an unpredictable knitting technique that creates irregular stripes and lines, it must still be based on some precise mathematical calculations, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to create around the hem of the garment the asymmetric yet architecturally precise motifs that decorate it.

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Origins and Evolution of a Department Store: La Rinascente

The first rumours about Italian department store chain La Rinascente being bought by a foreign firm arrived at the beginning of May when a Thai company offered 250 million euros to buy the historic brand.

At the weekend it was revealed that Thailand's largest retailer, Central Group, announced plans to acquire La Rinascente.

A major shareholder of Central Pattana Pcl, Thailand's largest department store operator, Central Group has been looking to buy foreign assets to expand its presence in overseas markets and to strengthen the presence of made in Italy goods in the East.

Apparently the final price paid by the company is 205 million euros and the operation must still be approved by the Italian Antitrust Authority, so the Thai group will have to wait until July before finalising the operation and reveal its plans for the department store.

La Rinascente currently owns 13 department stores in Italy, among them also the flagship concept store in Milan's  Piazza Duomo.

All the stores sell an excellent selection of goods including high-end, mono brands and popular fashion.

Brothers Ferdinando and Luigi Bocconi founded the first department store in Milan in 1865. After developing and expanding it, the store was renamed Aux Villes d'Italie and later on it changed its name again into Alle città d’Italia.

The Bocconi brothers started selling ready-to-wear clothing, but soon set up a mail-order catalogue that offered a variety of goods including textiles and home furnishings.

While the store expanded, wrong investments and the First World War prompted the heirs to sell the business to entrepreneur Senatore Borletti.

The latter re-launched the department store asking decadent poet Gabriele D'Annunzio to find for it a new name.

D'Annunzio suggested La Rinascente ("she who is born again") accompanied by the motto “L' Italia nova impressa in ogni foggia” (A new Italy in every style).

The name symbolised the rebirth of the store and of an entire country at the end of the war. Yet "La Rinascente" assumed a new meaning after a short circuit burnt down the main store based in Milan on Christmas 1918.

Borletti helped the firefighters extinguishing the flames, then with his face blackened by the fire and his suit slightly burnt by the flames, he sat down to have his Christmas dinner, commenting: “Tomorrow we start again.” 

The name suggested by D’Annunzio came therefore to symbolise a business destined to a new rebirth like a phoenix from its own ashes.

The Central Retail Corporation (founded in 1947 by Tiang Chirativat) manages department stores, supermarkets, hotel and restaurant chains, and real estate.

Will this new management mark La Rinascente’s new rebirth? Time will tell, in the meantime, I would like to suggest the new investors to re-launch the department stores with an exhibition celebrating Marcello Dudovich.

From the mid-'20s the artist produced different posters for La Rinascente to advertise its Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer collections, sport ranges and home accessories.

The posters displayed Dudovich's graphic ability and were very successful since they usually managed to generate desire in the customers thanks to the seductive and stylish models they featured.

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Return of the “Milk Dress”

After the 1937 Forlì conference about National Textile Fibres, the fascist regime established in Italy the Ente Tessile Nazionale (National Textile Body).

The latter had to promote the so-called autarchy, that is self-sufficiency, in textile production.

The Ente had indeed to establish a policy on the production of fibres and promote the use of new textiles in the garment manufacture industry.

The regime even issued a decree that regulated the blending of imported fibres with autarchic fibres.

The list of autarchic fibres included rayon, ramia (China grass), linen, hemp, rayon-fiocco, rabbit angora and lanital.

The latter - a synthetic wool that combined in its name the words "lana" (wool) and "Italia" - was considered as the most national of Italian fibres.

First developed in 1916 by a German chemist and improved by Italian engineer Antonio Ferretti in 1935, lanital was obtained from milk casein and had a molecular structure very similar to that of wool (it was also as warm and soft as wool).

This fibre was also mothproof, one of its advantages actually, but also had very low tensile strength which meant that it was a difficult material to sew and iron since threads came out of it when it was ironed (early Italian designers used to say that ironing lanital was a bit like ironing mozzarella cheese...).

Lanital production skyrocketed in the late ‘30s: Snia-Viscosa (Società Nazionale Industria Applicazioni Viscosa), the main manufacturer of artificial and synthetic fibres in the '30s in Italy, produced at the time roughly 10,000,000 pounds of lanital a year and, at the 1937 Forlì conference, a textile competition gave the first prize to a black lanital and viscose fabric.

Futurist poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti celebrated lanital in his "Poema del vestito di latte" (The Poem of the Milk Dress – followed by "Il poema di Torre Viscosa" - "The Poem of Viscose Tower" in 1938): illustrated by Bruno Munari, the poem, enhanced by photographic collages, graphic compositions and cellophane pages, belonged to the genre of the “poema non umano dei tecnicismi” (non−human poem of technicalities).

The essay, published by the Snia-Viscosa propaganda office in 1937 to launch lanital, was an early proof of the Futurists’ skills at writing modern adverts: Marinetti's text perfectly mixed poetry, fashion and technology in a new avant-garde form celebrating industrial poetry and experimentalism.

In Marinetti’s poem milk was transformed into a fibre in a rather adventurous way: the poet used compound and evocative words, avant-garde experimentations and metaphors to describe the journey of milk from its liquid state to a casein thread with a new consistency and tactile quality ("T'impongo o sacro latte di stringere le maglie d'una viscosità re-si-sten-te").

Snia-Viscosa sold the lanital patent to Germany, England, France and Belgium and, after the war, it re-launched lanital under the name Merinova. The Atlantic Research Associates Inc. also produced a fibre in the U.S.A. derived from casein (in America "lanital" was actually called "aralac"). Yet, when further synthetic fibres were developed at the end of the war, casein-based textiles disappeared from the market. 

Believe it or not milk-based fabrics are back in fashion: while a couple of years ago an Italian brand called Milky Wear launched a line of T-shirts derived from milk, yesterday I got in my email box a newsletter from Anne Valérie Hash that seemed to have some connections with lanital.

The newsletter featured tops from the Spring/Summer 2011 collection in milk jersey fabric (apparently there's 40% of milk in the fabric).

"Made from casein, the main protein found in milk, this fibre is known for its natural antibacterial properties," the newsletter says, "the milk yard creates a lovely silk and delicate look that conveys a chic yet relaxed look."

It's interesting to note how the Fascist regime had first started manufacturing these fabrics to create and promote a national fashion, yet, in those years, early Italian designers and dressmakers kept on looking at (and copying...) Parisian houses, still considered as the epitome of elegance.

While at the time France remained the main inspiration for Italian designers, France is now looking back at something made in Italy a long time ago and taking it to the next stage (note that milk-based fabrics in Italy have been used for T-shirts so far and not for chic designs...), correcting and eliminating the early disadvantages of this product to create new and experimental materials. Could this be the right time to come up with more innovative fabrics, moving maybe from those early experiments from the '30s? 

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Bold Architectural Brushstrokes in Costume Design

I mentioned Greek mythology towards the end of yesterday’s post, so let’s look today at a protagonist of a Greek tragedy, Medea.

My favourite representation of this tragic character on the big screen remains Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film Medea featuring Maria Callas (donning costumes by Piero Tosi).

In a previous post I looked at that costume and at Medea’s figure in fashion, yet it’s worthwhile briefly analysing today a different representation of this character through a costume for Luigi Cherubini’s opera that opened in 1953 at Milan's La Scala with soprano Maria Callas as Medea and Leonard Bernstein as conductor. The costumes for this opera were designed by Salvatore Fiume. 

The Sicilian artist originally moved to Milan to become a painter, but his first success came in the literary field.

A painter, sculptor, architect, writer and stage designer, he warmly accepted to collaborate with La Scala as set and costume designer when he was invited to do so.

It was actually painter, writer and musician Alberto Savinio, Giorgio de Chirico’s brother, who suggested theatre director Nicola Benois to invite Fiume to work for the stage for the first time in 1952.

Luigi Cherubini's Medea was a very successful performance: while it marked the very first changes in Maria Callas’ look (she had started losing weight at the time and had gained self-confidence), it also showed a very personal representation by Fiume of Medea’s figure.

Fiume created designs characterised by bold colours that called to mind the sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes.

Callas in her black cloak stood out against Fiume’s visionary and colourful sets.

This simple white silk satin dress with hand-painted decorations remains my favourite from this production. Rather than covering Medea in jewels, Fiume opted for minimalist yet striking tunics with bold brushstrokes and trompe l'oeil elements that also showed an architectural derivation.  

  

 

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H2S (Disturbing) Magic

I’ve recently re-watched an Italian film entitled H2S and directed by Roberto Faenza.

Despite being very little known, I think this film is very inspiring for fashion, graphic and interior designers.

Shot in 1968, H2S was banned a few days after it was released since it was considered as too violent.

The film could be considered as a sort of manifesto of the late ‘60s student protests that also tackles themes such as consumerism, power, technocracy and mind-control.

In the film Tommaso (Denis Gilmore), a young man clad in a rather bizarre and anachronistic outfit in bold and bright colours, arrives at his new art college in London where he meets a dictatorial lecturer accompanied by the college founder, an elderly lady (wonderful Paolo Poli).

The first lecture is delivered to a class of obedient and tamed students, all dressed in white outfits.

A rebellion led by a brave girl follows but, soon after, catastrophe ensues and Tommaso takes refuge in the mountains with Alice (Carole André).

Together they live for a while in a sort of hippy cottage with walls covered in aluminium foil and furniture reminiscent of Claes Oldenburg’s papier-mâché sculptures.

Tommaso goes back to the college towards the end of the film with a criminal plan in mind, but finds it is now ruled by the assistant of the lecturer, a mad scientist (Lionel Stander – remember the barman in Sergio Leone's C'era una volta il West?) who uses hydrosulfuric acid (H2S) for his experiments to control humans and animals.

The film went through a long and extenuating trial and was released in 1971 when it didn’t seem to be as relevant as when it was shot.

Faenza released in 1977 Forza Italia! (Go Italy! believe it or not, the title anticipated in a way the name of Berlusconi’s party before it mutated into the People of Freedom coalition…), a docufilm that criticised the political class ruling in Italy (the Christian Democrats) and their abuses of power.

The film was seized by the authorities a few days after the leader of the Christian Democratic Party Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades and  banned for over 15 years (before being killed, Moro actually suggested in one of his diaries to go and see the film to understand the lack of scruples of his political colleagues...).

H2S explores different themes, from student demos and anger/rebellion to surrealism, politics, sci-fi and futuristic inspirations.

White aseptic atmospheres, white outfits and metallic silvery shades prevail (see also the futuristic vehicle Tommaso uses to get to the London-based college View this photo) throughout the film hinting at a cold and mechanic future full of fear and anxieties.

Faenza’s film also boasts some interesting connections with A Clockwork Orange (1971): both films feature disturbing, violent images and look at a dystopian future.

During his trip to the college, Tommaso is given a pair of bizarre glasses and headphones that look a bit like the contraption used to torture Alex in Kubrick’s film (though Tommaso’s glasses are supposed to allow him to enter some bizarre virtual dimension, so they're not used to torture him).

Besides in the Professor’s office there is a chair shaped like a woman that calls to mind the piece of furniture in  the Korova Milkbar (was Faenza inspired by Allen Jones’ human furniture?). 

In H2S when Tommaso goes back to the college after his hippy escapade with Alice, he is submitted to a sort of punishing treatment like Alex, though in this case the experimental therapy is not the “Ludovico technique”, but consists in strapping him to a strange vibrating device (shaped like the stylised body of a woman) and in forcing him to watch a video showing a pair of sensual red lips moving and repeating words such as “order”, “legality”, “well-being”, “happiness”.

Faenza’s film was shot before A Clockwork Orange, but it wasn’t released outside Italy, so it’s unlikely that Kubrick actually saw H2S, even though it’s impossible to deny there are some connections between the two films (Faenza may have read Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange yet a book is always different from its adaptation for the big screen...).  

 

Music fans seem to know this film pretty well since the score was composed by Ennio Morricone and also includes “Luna Canadese” sung by Edda Dell’Orso (bizarrely enough Morricone never regretted doing the score for this obscure film and still plays its main theme during his concerts, while scores for cult films à la Diabolik were totally abandoned by the maestro).

The film has also got some very interesting graphics: the closing titles feature chaotic representations of letters and numbers while an abstract red and blue painting (reminding the students that the Greek word "Techné" means Art, therefore, according to Tommaso's lecturer, technocracy is the way forward) hangs in the lecture hall of the college.

Colours strike the imagination hitting the retina and the senses turning some of the stronger scenes into the projections of the main character’s visionary and confused imagination.

Architecturally speaking the spaces used in the film are also amazing: there are no ordinary benches in the lecture hall, but cubicles (that disturbingly anticipate the cubicles in our call centres...); rooms often have aluminium walls and there is even a strange rotating platform on which a priest celebrates a final doomed wedding.

Bizarre and grotesque set decorations have in this film the same purpose of the strange props in Elio Petri’s La decima vittima, since they are used by the director as a sort of satire against society.

There are also some interesting fashion connections: Franco Carretti (the costume designer for many films by Elio Petri and Sergio Leone and current owner of the ABC costume shop in Miami) designed the costumes for this film that were made by the Tirelli tailoring house.

One of the most striking outfit remains the bride dress seen at the very end of the film.

While this bizarre rocket-shaped metallic wedding dress looks futuristic and perfectly matches with the aluminium room where the wedding takes place, it still retains some connection with classicism and in particular with Greek mythology (see also the laurel wreath around the head, like Apollo for example, God of healing and the arts - and a connection to the "techné = art" concept often repeated in the film).

This outfit actually came to my mind after seeing some designs by Craig Green.

Though the main inspirations for this young British designer’s collection came from the Bauhaus, '60s robots and Russian folk tales, with hints at Walter van Beirendonck (Green worked at his studio as an intern) and Bernard Wilhelm, one outfit from his collection seems to reference this amazing costume from Faenza's H2S.

I wonder if this film will ever be re-released: as bizarre as it may look in 2011, I think its eerie magic could still inspire many artists, designers and directors.

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Building Fashion: on Design and Retail Spaces

The connections between fashion and architecture have been widely explored in this blog with multiple posts on architectural approaches, buildings compared to garments, collaborations between architects and designers and courses, workshop and lectures tackling themes that relate in some ways to these two disciplines (to find these posts please use the Lijit Search Widjet at the end of this article).

Some posts also looked at the connections between architects and retail spaces, from  Prada’s collaborations with Rem Koolhaas to the projects by architectural firm Piuarch that explore the possibilities of creating retail spaces inspired by the “glocal” principle and alternative solutions to the “Dubai effect”, that is contemporary projects referred to or integrated in specific contexts.

In March the Paris-based F(AA)shion workshop also investigated the issue of innovative retail spaces through lectures in which students where asked to think about offering customers hospitable gallery-like spaces that went from multimodal to mobile pop-up stores.

The fashion and architecture connection will strengthen in the next few months also thanks to specific projects tackling this connection (and to other projects that will consist in hundreds of high-profile bloggers and assorted fashion brands with no real interest in architecture jumping on the bandwagon just for the sake of it…).

Amongst the latest projects looking at the architecture and fashion connection there is a competition launched by New York-based non-profit arts and culture organization BOFFO in collaboration with architect Spilios Giannakopoulos.

Entitled "Building Fashion" the competition – launched in partnership with Architizer – is actually in its second year.

The concept behind the competition is very simple: architects and architectural firms are asked to send projects for retail installations dedicated to five different fashion houses and brands, including Mugler, American jewellery designer Irene Neuwirth, menswear designer Patrik Ervell, lingerie brand The Lake & Stars and womenswear design duo Ohne Titel.

The jury includes BOFFO, Architizer and industry leaders including DS&R’s Charles Renfro, Architectonic’s Winka Dubbledam, High Line Co-Founder Robert Hammond and other industry professionals. Winning architects will be warded $20,000 that will go towards the installation.

Projects will be showcased in New York at the new BOFFO location, 57 Walker Street.

Every two weeks starting from September 2011 the retail spaces will change, showcasing a different project.

This is not the first time BOFFO launches such an event: last year the non-profit organisation teamed with Giannakopoulos working on the first "Building Fashion" competition that included a series of six installations – among them also retail spaces by Snarkitecture for Richard Chai and by Leong + Leong for Siki Im – located on the site of Neil M. Denari Architects’ HL23 in the Chelsea Arts District. 

 

 

The call to this second competition (deadline: 4th July) is accompanied by different videos with designers explaining their vision and in some cases also talking about the connections between their collections and architecture.

Some videos are perfectly spot on: Ohne Titel's Alexa Adams and Flora Gill talk for example about their architectural materials and volumes or graphic silhouettes and shapes; Patrik Ervell mentions the construction behind his designs and the sets for his catwalk shows while The Lake & Stars hint at the importance of understanding who is their customer to create a coherent retail environment.

These issues are rather interesting as they allow architects to have a clearer vision of what the designers involved are looking for, as opposed to the video with Mugler's Creative Director Nicola Formichetti, essentially an individualist rant about himself and Lady Gaga presenting an ambitiously confusing idea for a retail space-cum-installation (complete of Japanese girl used as a cool prop…) that is everything and nothing at the same time and that may spell as total bankruptcy if it were taken a step further by a company really investing in it.

I'm curious to see which architects and architectural firms will take part in the competition and the final results.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in the "Building Fashion" theme and you’re a student, you can start enrolling in the next Paris-based workshop by the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

Incidentally also entitled "Building Fashion" it will look at issues such as technology and couture, experimental prototyping and, last but not least, developing cutting edge creations through a technique I mentioned in a previous post, stereoscopic 3-D technology. Guess you have no excuses this year not to delve further into the relation between fashion and architecture. 

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Misticoni or Erdem?

Many fashion designers consider art as an infinite source of inspiration for their fashion collections and, in many cases, the starting point for a collection is a painting or a sculpture.

Throughout the history of fashion there have been fashion collections that successfully moved from specific art movements or works of art, but there have also been designs that somehow didn't manage to show a convincing derivation of a specific garment from the works of a particular artist.

Take Oscar de la Renta’s resort 2012 collection: the designs moved in this case from Picasso and Cubism, two themes that were mainly translated as printed and embroidered motifs but also (with occasional necklaces that seemed to show a derivation from Cubism).

While the arty reference seemed to work well in some cases (View this photo), the actual catwalk presentation was somehow ruined by unnecessary paper sombreros and flamenco hats in schizoid prints that could have been definitely avoided since they attracted the attention in a rather detrimental way. 

Rather than to art, Erdem Moralioglu turned in his Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection to the muse behind a work of art, being inspired by Jackson Pollock’s wife, abstract expressionist painter Lee Krasner.

The designer must have imagined her intent on splashing colours and paint on fabric rather than on canvases or maybe ripping up canvases and wearing them herself.

This inspiration allowed Erdem – also known as a master in surface elaboration – to play with different effects.

While he splashed colours on his dresses via digital abstract prints, Erdem also employed lace, embroideries and sequins to create elaborate effects on his shift dresses matched with opera-length gloves made from the material used for girdles.

The designer seemed to employ a lot of interesting details and strong vivid yet blurred colours that hinted maybe at a sort of psychological unrest and turmoil (and this was good since it allowed him to get away from his more romantic inspirations), though he should have maybe worked a bit more on the silhouettes of his designs that at times didn’t seem to display much variation.

Apart from the connections with Lee Krasner, the splashes of colours and the palette of Erdem’s collection somehow made me think a lot about a painter who comes from the same Italian region I'm from, Giuseppe Misticoni.

Born on Christmas Day 1907, Misticoni studied in Rome but mainly worked in my hometown, Pescara, where he kept on developing his style and his interests in avant-garde movements.

His work was interrupted by the Second World War, but, at the end of the conflict, he started painting again focusing on abstract shapes and figures (the three paintings matched in this post with designs from Erdem's A/W 2011-12 collection are all from the '60s).

In the early '70s Misticoni developed instead works based on studies on architectural elements and geometric figures and on their relation with the concept of interspace. 

This is actually a part of Misticoni’s work that not many people have so far explored and that I think could lead to interesting experiments in both art and design.

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From Rudi Gernreich to Electrophoresis: Drew Williams

I have already mentioned Academy of Art University graduate Drew Williams in a previous post, so let's discover further about her today in this interview. 

As you may remember, her collection, showcased a few weeks ago during the BFA Fashion Show, mixed Rudi Gernreich, medical attire and agarose gel electrophoresis, a method employed to separate proteins by charge/size and in biochemistry and molecular biology to separate DNA and RNA fragments by length.

As a young child Williams, who grew up just outside San Francisco, used to make doll clothes and, while in High School, she started altering her own garments.

When the time came for her to choose her course for further studies, she opted for molecular biology rather than fashion, hoping to go into the medical field one day.

Scientific topics ended up inspiring her something completely different in the creative field and she switched subjects and life purposes enrolling in the Academy’s School of Fashion.

While the medical world may have lost a scientist, the fashion industry definitely gained a designer: Williams’ graduate collection, based on minimal lines and clean shapes with an emphasis on fabrication and transparency, won her an internship at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.

What inspired your collection?
Drew Williams: I’m usually inspired by scientific topics, but I like to decontextualise them, interpreting them as metaphors for personal experiences. I went through many changes throughout my studies at the Academy of Art and with this collection I wanted to find a way to express that. My graduate collection was inspired by electrophoresis, which I was introduced to in High School. I was so intrigued not only by the process and technology, but by agarose gel. I found it interesting in a humorous way: the concept of DNA and our growing technologies to manipulate it led me to think about the way society will evolve over time and that brought to mind Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. It’s interesting to think that it’s not impossible after all that the world may end up in such a sterile and engineered state…

Can you talk us through your creative process?
Drew Williams: For what regards this collection I started from the textiles. I like to interpret my inspiration through the fabrics first, trying to find a technique that works, though this usually changes as I start to sketch the looks. Once I found my direction, I began to develop the textiles and garment designs together. Visually, I was drawn to medical attire-lab coats and wrapped patient gowns, but also by Rudi Gernreich’s designs and the way he used transparency to reveal and conceal parts of the body.

Which materials did you use to give your designs the impression they had the consistency and colours of agarose “slab” gel prior to UV illumination and with UV illumination?
Drew Williams: I used silicone to coat knitwear. I designed a stitch pattern or knit and coated it with liquid silicone. Coating the knits alters the colours and makes them look more saturated. I used slight differences in saturation to create depth or the illusion of illumination. For the cubed vest, I moulded plain silicone squares and placed them on a loose knit plain stitch and this created a slight colour difference. I also used colours in the same hue group within certain looks like the coral and nude top in varied saturations, which magnified the intensity of the more saturated colours.

Who is your favourite fashion designer?
Drew Williams: While I don’t have one favourite designer, I’m really into Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga. I just get excited and inspired seeing his collections and I love the way he balances contrasts, the sculptural and the feminine, fabric manipulations and silhouette shapes.
 
What’s the fashion scene like in San Francisco at the moment?
Drew Williams: I don’t know if there is a designated fashion scene, but I love watching people here because the street fashion is very interesting. The other day I saw a man walking down the streets of the financial district in full zombie make-up! There are bohemians, punks, fashionistas and a million variations on combinations of those three and more. It’s a melting pot of different styles, especially amongst young adults. There are quite a few art/fashion schools in the area, so there’s a great concentration of creative people who like to experiment and sometimes shock as well.

You are one of the recipients of the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne internship: what do you expect from this internship?
Drew Williams: I will be attending the school for a full year, which is very exciting. I hope to learn more about myself and to grow as a designer. I am anxious and thrilled about going to Europe! Sounds stereotypical, but I fell in love with Paris on a school trip during High School, so I’m looking forward to going back and exploring the city further.

What are you working on at present?
Drew Williams: Apart from getting my Visa and learning more French, I am continuing to collect inspiration and research and building my portfolio. My cousin approached me to help him make a LED jacket, so hopefully I’ll also get to do that this summer. 

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Currency Converter: Old Currency into New Styles

I’m definitely not a fashion designer, but I enjoy making my own accessories whenever I can. Apart from being a fun hobby, it's also quite relaxing. 

I usually start by piling up unusual materials that I scatter around my office and studio waiting for creativity to hit.

While friends and relatives give their contribution to my madness by giving me as presents things they may not need anymore or unusual stuff they find in shops or in their houses, I often buy such materials in bulk from the most bizarre places, from markets, second-hand shops and antiquarians to hardware and medical appliance shops.

A while back I visited an antiquarian shop in my hometown owned by a friend of mine. I was with my brother who was looking through a folder of assorted banknotes from different countries, including Afghanistan, Myanmar/Burma, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Mongolia, Soviet Union, Suriname, Vietnam, Yugoslavia and Zambia.

I liked the colours of the banknotes a lot: some of them had quite pleasant shades of aqua green and salmon that seemed to go well together, so I decided to buy a few of them. 

As usual I left them lying on my desk, but, while waiting for creativity to hit, I got an email from Dr Joanne Turney from Bath Spa University. I met Jo during last October's "Fashion in Fiction" conference at Philadelphia's Drexel University.

If you’re a fashion fan, Joanne’s name probably rings a bell: apart from being senior lecturer at Bath Spa University where she is the course leader for the MA Investigating Fashion Design, she is also the author of The Culture of Knitting (Berg, 2009) and the co-author, with Rosemary Harden of Floral Frocks: The Floral Printed Dress from 1900 to Today (Antique Collector’s Club, 2007).

Jo got in touch to let me know about a three-day conference, workshop and discussion group focusing on the theme “Trans/National Clothing” that will be taking place at Bath Spa University in September.

I really love the theme of the conference since it implies discussions on transnational contaminations in contemporary fashion collections that mix garments, accessories or traditional costumes from different countries and times, representations of one culture in another and fusion fashion, but also debates on issues concerning human rights such as smuggling and sweatshop labour. 

I promised to send an abstract as soon as possible and give my total support to the event, but then inspiration hit and thinking “Trans/National” and looking at the banknotes lying on my desk I decided to "convert" my currency into a hat that can be turned into a brooch and a foldable necklace that can be worn around your neck or as a belt around your waist.

I loved the fact that by pleating and glueing the banknotes all together identity is mixed and almost erased, yet, at the same time, it's still possible to spot where the banknotes came from.

The banknote on top of the hat (the one rolled up in imitation of a feather) is an Italian one and symbolises my identity, but it’s also a retro reference.

In 1939 Gilberto Mazzi sang the hit “Se potessi avere mille lire al mese” (If only I had one thousand liras a month) since at the time one thousand liras was a little fortune (a 1,000 liras bill corresponds nowadays to roughly €0,50…).

So the two pieces are inspired both by the “Trans/National” theme, but also by other references: the shape of the hat is directly taken from the fancy headdresses donned by Sylvia in George Cukor's The Women (1939) while the mille lire song could be the perfect hit also for the "precarious" generation I’m part of (though in our case the song should change title into "If only I had one thousand euros a month"...).

I feel a bit guilty now since I’ve just spent the weekend fashioning fancy accessories out of piles of old banknotes, but, Jo, this is all (more or less…) part of the background research for my abstract. You can't see me now, but I can assure you I'm going to lock myself into my office and do more serious researches in a minute. But first, if you don't mind, I'll put on my "thinking hat" (and necklace)...  

 

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