Lightness is definitely one of the key words for the Spring/Summer 14 yarns. The Marche-based manufacturer of fine yarns Cariaggi decided to take the theme of lightness further and developed not one yarn but an entire collection called “Ultralight” and ideal for fine gauge knitting.
The collection includes Gelso, a 100% silk yarn (finesse: 2/120); Jaipure, a 70% cashmere and 30% silk (2/120); Soffio, 100% cashmere (2/140) and Alzir, 100% Tussah silk (2/120 and 2x2/120).
Another remarkable piece of news for the next season is the development of Sirius, the first carded silk ever produced in the world. The result of the new manufacturing techniques developed by the Cariaggi research centre, this is a 100% silk (originally from four Chinese provinces – Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hunan) yarn with a 2/46 finesse. This yarn looks like cashmere and has a kind of opaque consistency.
The main colour for next season is a tender shade of pink as showed also by the swatches employed in the installations at the Cariaggi booth at Pitti Filati 72.
The fun twist in the new collection is given by the well-researched names of the yarn colours: a pleasantly vibrant yellow is called “Roi Soleil”, while an entire colour selection inspired by the “Rare Bird of Fashion” mood - a tribute to Iris Apfel and to her flamboyant style - features exotic colours going from amber to a sensual golden yellow.
The theme of lightness was interpreted in a minimalist key at the Cariaggi stand via vintage images of kite flyers and swatches in fine yarns mounted on Constructivist metal kite-like structures (a reference also to the Chinese traditions and their love of kites and therefore a hint at the fact that Cariaggi recently expanded in Asia opening an office in Shanghai?)
Visitors and buyers must have liked that, as Cristiana Cariaggi, member of the board of directors of Cariaggi Filati, stated in an official Pitti Filati press release: “We are pleased with the number of people visiting our stand, they met our expectations. I noticed many Japanese and French visitors and, in general, a lot of foreigners. The appeal that Florence has on foreigners favours Pitti Filati”.
Cariaggi is currently an Italian success story in financially bleak times: the company closed 2012 with a turnover of 100.5 million euros (34% of that turnover comes from foreign markets such as the U.S.A., China and Japan).
One of the key points of their success comes from innovation and research, two areas that the fashion industry partially neglected as busy as it is producing one collection after the other. Cariaggi invested instead in different areas, developing unique fibres through cutting-edge resources and researches.
The company recently announced that this year it will invest 2.5 million euros in innovation: competitors should maybe start worrying since, in times of crisis, that's a bold step that may lead to further exclusive discoveries yarn-wise.
In the last two days we explored in depth the knitwear trends for the Spring/Summer 2014 season. So today let's take a break with a lazy post about the installations at Filati Biagioli Modesto's booth at Pitti Filati 72 (I'll explore their new yarns in a separate post).
The company has always presented its new yarns in engaging ways and, for the next season, they enticed visitors and buyers by projecting bright digital images on basic men and womenswear jumpers.
The result was eye catching - have a look at the colourful gems, landscapes, elephants, candy wrappers, withering flowers and other assorted images projected on the knitwear pieces - and actually made you think about how will knitwear change in future.
Will we indeed be able to develop a special yarn that changes colours and forms new images when it reacts with our skin or with certain climatic conditions? We'll see, for the time being, we can just dream about such possibility.
In yesterday's post we looked at the S/S 14 knitwear trends analysing in general the research area at the Pitti Filati event. Since some of the readers got in touch asking if I had further images of the pieces showcased, let's take a closer look at some of the garments with a follow up post that focuses more on specific trends and characteristics.
(Soft) Architectural Constructions: The strong structural potential of some yarns can lead to the creation of very interesting pieces characterised by wave-like motifs or layers of knitted fabric overimposed one on the other.
In this example, the stratified "tiles on roof" motif is produced employing Pinori Filati's Snoopy (87% linen, 13% polyamide), Be.Mi.Va's Organzino (pure shiny viscose), Liv (70% viscose, 30% nylon) and Audrey (72% cotton, 18% linen and 10% nylon).
Candy-like Effects: Candies, their colours and texture seem to be very popular for the S/S 14 season. The flat lollipop-like red and white circle motifs on the menswear sleeveless cardigans above (you can see it better in yesterday's post) are produced via Accademia I Grandi Filati's Babette (57% viscose, 43% nylon), Divé's Trasparente (100% polyamide) and Confort (90% polyester, 10% lycra), Igea's Planet Washable (65% viscose, 35% polyamide) and Lineapiù's Angie (83% rayon viscose, 17% elité polyester fibres).
The layered motif around the sleeves of the top are instead produced with Filpucci's Glass (100% polyester) and Scilla (100% viscose). Both the yarns create effects that make you think about the light and weightless textures of cotton candy and of crystals in sugar candies.
Covering Yet Revealing: Playing with transparencies is a desirable trend, especially when a yarn is used to give the impression a fabric has been eaten away to reveal the surface lying underneath.
These effects can be produced by employing harder and softer yarns: the first example shows a top in a blend of linen, cotton, viscose and polyester. The second look is instead slightly more arty and ethereal and is produced with Loro Piana's Irish (100% linen) and Stretchsilk (65% silk, 35% steel) and Filpucci's Scilla (100% viscose).
Density: This effect is produced by aggregating together many different stitch patterns and continuously adding to a garment, alterating at times only the scale and size of the knitted motifs. The final result follows the contours of the body but creates an armour that engulfs it as well.
In this specific case the bolero jacket in the image is entirely and densely covered in aggregates but it's not extremely heavy since it's not made with wool-based yarn (bear in mind this is a S/S design). The bolero is indeed made with Be.mi.va's Tracy Klee (80% cotton, 20% linen) and Toscano's Facilino (88% linen, 12% nylon) and Opalino (100% linen).
Distortions: Punk is the word for this trend. Imagine Steve Jones' playing during the "Anarchy in the UK" tour in a string vest-like sweater characterised by loose and distorted knitting. Put under it a contrasting top in a dark colour and bond them together you get the look.
Frayed and slightly ruined this raw design has actually got a pannier skirt recreated by adding around the hip area a series of thick ropes.
In this case the top is made with Filpucci's Vismat Crepe (100% viscose) and Pecci's Bellino (100% linen), while the skirt features Zegna Baruffa's Origami (54% linen, 46% cashmere) and Alpes' Egizio (100% cotton).
The result is a combination of contrasting yarns, textures and colours and the uneven knitting can be used as an anti-fashion statement.
Embellished: Sequins or crystals are among the most common embellishments employed by designers and they are very often successfully used to attract those consumers with the proverbial "magpie eye".
Yet trends for the next season prove they may disappear in favour of other and more delicate embellishments.
The choice is wide and features crocheted appliqued motifs, tulle or raffia flowers and frayed lace. An interesting match is proved by applying colourful embroideries on designs made with unusual yarns such as this one - Sato Seni's Harmony (72% washable wool and 28% paper).
Embellishments may end up having also a functional purpose: the grommets and hardware hooks in the following design anchor to a sleeveless cardigan a detachable pleated hem. Solutions such as this one may help us coming up with a 2-in-1 design or in a day/eveningwear combo.
Filigree Effect: A very popular trick for the S/S 14 season as proved by the yarn offer at many companies, this effect is employed to create extremely light, almost impalpable abstract textural compositions. In some cases transparent fabric shimmers with metallic threads forming illusory garments and almost invisible layers; in others this technique is employed to create soft and basic tops in one shade but with an extra light, extra thin consistency.
The first example here is made with Accademia I Grandi Filati's Alba Flame (100% viscose), Babette (57% viscose, 43% nylon) and Organdy Fumé (91% cotton and 9% nylon), Lanificio Dell'Olivo's Neon (100% polyamidic fibres) and Igea's Shanty and Melby (88% viscose and 12% polyamide; 85% acetate and 15% polyamide).
The second example is less intricate and only employs two different yarns, Igea's Deli (50% viscose, 50% acrylic) and Cupido (74% linen, 26% polyamide).
Geometrical: In the last few years geometry has turned from a cold discipline into a form of artistic expression for many designers. There are two trends here: knitwear reproducing geometrical motifs or abstract geometries that follow the contours of the body and redesign it.
In the first case geometries were delivered via Sesia's Cablé (100% giza sesia cotton) and SP61 (100% cotton soft); in the second, body-con motifs were created via Filpucci's Scilla (100% shiny viscose) and Ikat (94% linen, 6% polyamidic fibres), Toscano's Opalino and Igea's Sophie (50% viscose, 50% acrylic).
Multi-Coloured and Multi-Patterned: These are the key words for a trend that consists in creating dense and chaotic, and therefore strongly and striking visual effects. This jacket made with raffia by Nastrificio Fiorentino is definitely among the best examples of this technique.
Printed Tattoos: An established tradition, printing on knitted fabric is a technique that has been taken further by modern designers. The trend for the next season is to print on extremely light knitwear pieces, creating glistening effects that shine like gold at every movement.
This skirt – produced with the following yarns: Lanificio Dell'Olivo Deco (80% viscose, 20% metallic polyester) and Luminex (70% viscose, 30% metallic polyester) and Toscano's Gasolina (100% polyester) – has a very light consistency and perfectly fits in the "tattoo/second skin-like garment" category. As stated in yesterday's post, there is a trend at the moment for tattoo hosiery and this garment with a sailor's print by Stamperia Marra seems to be the embodiment of that trend.
Space Dyed Flame Effects: First developed by Missoni, the "fiammato" or "flame effect" is a classic, but the space dyed flame effect is a new one.
An example is this cardigan made with Igea's Shanty (88% viscose, 12% polyamide) and Lineapiù's Image and Allis (80% rayon viscose, 20% polyester fibres; 100% viscose). The main difference between Missoni's "fiammato" and the space dyed flame effects is that the latter are obtained by printing bright colours over the knitwear. In this case tiny plastic dots are added to enrich the lunar landscape-like texture.
Tradition: Handmade pieces will obviously never go out of fashion as proved by these two garments that evoke in their execution traditional techniques such as handweaving strips of fabrics on wood looms.
Both the garments could have come out of Pasolini's Oedipus Rex, and they were produced using Be.Mi.Va's Tracy (80% cotton, 20% linen) and Alanis (100% pure viscose), Toscano's Opalina (100% linen); Filpucci's Ibisco (100% cotton), Pergamena (100% cotton makò) and Ikat (96% linen, 6% polyamidic fibres).
New Techs: Contemporary designers have been experimenting a lot with innovative techniques. Specific yarns have their own behavioural characteristics and, if not careful, counter-reactions in the knitted structure can cause undesirable failures, yet mistakes can be part of the fun and it's worth carrying out further experiments with bonding, latex or plastic coating on unusual materials.
Traditional sweaters and tops are given a modern twist via these new techniques and in some cases the final effects help enhancing the body curves and silhouettes. Both the following garments present plasticised areas - the first is made with Zegna Baruffa's Sand (100% cotton); the second incorporates instead Loro Piana's Natural Bamboo (100% bamboo), Exodus Tech (100% silk) and Broadway (76% silk, 24% lurex).
Please note: I came up with the names of these trends, so in case you're one of the usual freelancers working for a trend agency on the lookout for ideas, you're very kindly requested to point your readers to this article and site as the sources of "your" knitwear research.
To recap once again the installation or to look for further inspirations and trends, you can watch the following video:
The knitwear research area looking at the Spring/Summer 2014 trends at Pitti Filati 72 was entitled “Festa Fiesta Fest Festival” and was inspired by all those joyous gatherings that may be taking place during summer - from rural sagras held in the open air with dancing and games to music festivals.
The concept of the area was as usual developed by Angelo Figus and Nicola Miller, and was divided in different parts celebrating the happiness of collective gatherings and hinting at the rebirth brought by Spring and at the energy inspired by Summer.
The wide range of yarns (divided into four larger themes - natural, soft, washed and bright) employed to create the thirty mens and womenswear looks, mirrored the different feasts and festivals highlighting the great diversity of religious or celebratory practices.
The installation opened with a “Spring Woman” and a “Spring Man”: both their looks were based on stratifications created with linen, viscose and nylon blends in pastel colours by a wide range of companies, including Pinori, Be.Mi.Va, Filpucci, Loro Piana and Igea (Image 1 and 2 in this post; please do not take care of the numbers near the dummies as they do not refer to the images in this post but to the designs in the installation).
Interestingly enough, perhaps by pure chance, the woman's cardigan looked a bit like the colourful costume made with strips of fabric donned by the Jarramplas during the centuries-old Spanish festival that takes place on Saint Sebastian's day.
Viscose, nylon and polyamide-based fibres prevailed also in the looks that followed “On Air Man” and “On Air Woman” (Image 3 and 4 in this post). These fibres were used to produce very light pieces ideal for the warm season.
The most interesting elements on the womanswear look were the viscose knitted tapes for the top and the skirt decorated with a bunting made with a 100% linen yarn by Loro Piana.
For what regards menswear, the interesting bits were the shoulders of the cardigan made with a series of viscose, nylon and polyamidic fibres that produced aesthetically pleasing effects.
Mud, the leading culprit of many epic festival disasters, inspired instead brownish tops, cardigans and dresses and an elaborate bolero jacket à la Sandra Backlund characterised by voluminously intricate knitted motifs (Images 5, 6 and 7).
All these garments reshifted the attention towards blends of natural fibres such as cotton and linen or cashmere.
Religion was introduced in menswear via a top with sparkling metallic effects (in rayon, viscose, polyamide and polyester fibres) and in womenswear through a thin gauze-like dress stained with paint made with linen and with a Loro Piana yarn called “Stretchsilk” that has an interesting composition - 65% silk and 35% steel (take note, fashion and knitwear designers - Images 8 and 9).
The ebullient moods of sagras and popular folk festivals appeared in a sleeveless cardigan that played with fancy construction techniques and that featured circle-shaped elements (Image 10).
These structures, mainly employed for the menswear look, were made with polyester, polyamide and rayon yarns, while the womenswear matching design included a patchwork dress made with a series of different yarns and also included a blend of nylon and polyurethan rubber by Be.Mi.Va (Image 11).
Mexican culture offers quite a few vibrant fiestas and the customs, ancestral beliefs and cultural identity of this country inspired for menswear a brightly coloured raffia jacket with flower motifs matched with a printed 100% bamboo yarn top (“Natural Bamboo” yarn by Loro Piana) and a pair of shorts characterised by a colourful diamond-like geometrical motif made with cotton yarns (Image 12 and 13).
The bamboo yarn top was particularly intriguing since it looked extremely thin, but, at the same time, quite strong.
The womenswear black mini-dress with a mask created with appliqued cotton and viscose fine cords in a wide range of contrasting colours was inspired by the Day of the Dead celebrations and by the colourful and intricate skull art linked to it (Image 14).
The Palio, the famous horse race that takes place in July and August in Siena, Italy, attracting visitors from all over the world, inspired instead not just two but four different looks.
Two looks moved from the colourful uniforms of jockeys: a menswear jacket was made by stitching polyurethane foam with satin ribbons, while the womenswear design was a very modern and futuristic body-con dress (Images 15 and 16).
The other two looks included a men's top made with plasticised bamboo and silk yarns and a metallic polyester dress.
Both the designs moved from the flags and symbols of the seventeen “contrade” and the women's look evoked Emilio Pucci's Spring/Summer 1957 “Palio” collection (Images 17 and 18).
The military-style uniforms of marching bands were recreated in the cardigans with gold decorations and in a pretty dress in viscose, polyamidic stretch fibres and holographic lamé (again, knitwear designers take note - Images 19 and 20).
The latter produces a very different effect (check it out by looking at the following image - you can easily spot the holographic yarn) compared to that of ordinary metallic or lamé yarns while it still retains the classic look of a traditional knitted piece.
Elegance was imagined through the looks of two spectators or tourists and in particular via a man's 100% fine linen top (Toskolino yarn by Toscano) with appliqued flowers and a delicate dress in a mix of yarns (viscose, polyester, Peruvian pima els, extra kid mohair, washable wool, nylon...) with decorative straps made with beads (Images 21 and 22).
Wild urban moods were instead evoked in patchwork garments created with blends of linen/cotton/acrylic, viscose/nylon, while a womenswear top was made with mixes of nylon and polyurethane rubber yarns (Meg by Be.Mi.Va) or silk, nylon and acrylic (Rubbersilk by Loro Piana - Images 23 and 24).
The late '60s hallucinogen scene, the seminal Woodstock concert and artists such as Jimi Hendrix inspired the “Summer of Love”-evoking graphics on a roomy men's cardigan matched with a brown top embroidered with flowers and fruit. The latter was made with a paper and washable wool yarn by Sato Seni ("Harmony" - Images 25 and 26).
The matching womenswear look featured a sleeveless viscose cardigan with a detachable pleated hem anchored via a series of hardware-like hooks (Image 27).
It's pretty easy to meet people with large tattoos at festivals and there is currently a trend for faking tattoos by wearing second skin-like garments with delicate inky prints and drawings.
Two looks (“Skin Man” and “Skin Woman”) included in the installation attempted to recreate this effect: one featured a polyamidic fibres and polyester top, the other a striking asymmetric skirt in viscose and metallic polyester with the print of a sailor (Images 28 and 29).
The back of the womenswear cardigan was also interesting since it featured a motif that looked like a crossover between a tribal mask and the iconic "V for Vendetta" mask (Image 30).
Carefree 21st century Gypsies and New Age Travellers inspired colourful garments made with cotton, linen and polyamidic fibres that produced interesting effects and surface patterns (Images 31 and 32).
The final looks - “Railroad Man and Woman” featured raw materials (Images 33 and 34): for the menswear look they were handknitted together to produce a linen and cotton white top with black and white matching cardigan (slightly reminiscent of the techniques using for the costumes in Pasolini's Oedipus Rex).
The womenswear look featured instead a quite interesting top made by bonding black viscose with raw linen.
The installation was, as usual, very inspiring, though you felt that, given the main theme of the research area, the designs produces were just the very tip of the iceberg.
It wouldn't have been a bad idea to look a little bit more in-depth at the knits that religious processions may have inspired or it would have been interesting to move from more contemporary gatherings à la Glastonbury rather than from more classic music festivals or explore more obscure traditions and rituals like the Scottish Burryman (you can indeed almost imagine a Burryman inspired knitted jumper or dress...).
In a way there was something lacking in all that ebullience as if the garments had been put together with fewer researches in mind than usual (besides some garments featured techniques already seen in previous installations such as "Futurural" and "Renaissance").
At the same time, there was plenty to see and take inspiration from and you can be sure that some of these ideas, moods and stitches will appear soon on catwalk near you.
The biggest diappointment about the research area at Pitti Filati remains the fact that you can't buy these garments on the spot as they are just there for us to see new trends and carry on our researches and that's a real shame as some of us could really picture these garments in our own wardrobes.
Pitti Filati number 72 took place this past week, opening on Wednesday 23rd January and closing just two days ago, on Friday. So, as usual, in the next posts we will hopefully be exploring in-depth the world of yarns and the new knitwear trends for the Spring/Summer 2014 season.
Since quite a few recent posts on this site focused on innovative techniques such as bonding and thermowelding, we are going to start the reports with yarns that have some kind of technological connection designed by Prato-based Toscano - a company specialised in the production of yarns for both knitting machines and hand-made creations.
The first two yarns we are going to look at are the Vibuko (100% Viscose) and the Kolbuko (100% Cotton) yarns. Both are treated with Vinavil glue and then washed (that's why the final composition is 65% Viscose; 35% Vinavil and 72% Cotton; 28% Vinavil).
Vinavil is an adhesive for porous materials, such as paper, wood, cork, fabric, leather or rigid plastic materials and once applied to the yarn it eats it away, this means that once it's employed to make a knitwear design it creates looser stitches and holes as shown by the swatches. While this is not a strictly technological yarn, I quite like the idea of “ruining” the yarn with glue and then creating with the damaged parts holes and loser chains.
There are two high-tech yarns in the S/S 14 collection and both employ fibres blended with polyurethanw: Tecnogomma (70% Polyester and 30% Polyurethane) and Tecnolino (84% Linen and 16% Polyurethane or 88% Linen and 12% Polyurethane). Both the yarns have a rubbery consistency and are ultra-resistant while they are still pleasant to the touch and would be ideal to create chain mail effects.
Polyurethane offers the elasticity of rubber combined with the toughness and durability of metal, it is resistant to abrasions, oil, solvents, fats, greases, gasoline, tears and weather, so these yarns could have many benefits, from weight reduction and wear improvements to high flexibility.
Polyurethane has also got excellent electrical insulating properties and it's heat and cold resistant, so this yarn could be applied to create garments ideal for specific disciplines (including extreme sports?) while it would also be interesting to see it mixed with noble or natural fibres in a dress or a jumper.
In a post written two years ago I drew a comparison between fashion and art moving from the works of Flemish artist Jan Fabre and in particular from his installations "Pietas", "Heaven of Delight", "Skull with Budgerigar" and "I had to demolish a part of the ceiling of the Royal Palace because there was something growing out of it". In these installations the artist employed thousands of shells from the Buprestidae beetle and glued them together to create the different forms and patterns for his artworks.
In that post I also wondered if, since the gleaming metallic iridescences of this beetle (produced by the microscopic texture in its cuticle that selectively reflects specific frequencies of light in different directions) are particularly beautiful, it would have been possible to reproduce them by employing some kind of technology in the textile industry.
Two years after that post, two young Haute Couture houses decided to use Fabre's idea in their creations. The beetles and their iridescent nuances reappered in a carapace-like jacket with matching bag by Serkan Cura and as the main theme of On Aura Tout Vu's collection.
Livia Stoianova and Yassen Samouilov created designs with prints of beetles or made with iridescent or transparent fabrics that evoked wing-like textures, then appliqued on their gowns the shells of over 10,000 Buprestidae beetles to embellish their designs, creating spiky motifs around the shoulder area or using the shells as decorative elements.
It is interesting to see that once again fashion is borrowing from art in a very literary way, applying the same material used by an artist in a fashion collection without doing further researches about it (at least Fabre justified his choice of material with the main themes he deals with including the transience of life, eternity and extreme beauty).
There are actually previous correspondences between art and the use of the Buprestidae wings in fashion, or rather in costumes: one of the earliest use of the Buprestidae shells as decorations occurred in the late 1800s. Actress Ellen Terry wore indeed a gown covered in 1,000 Buprestidae wings when she played Lady Macbeth in 1880 (the play was directed by Henry Irving).
John Singer Sargent painted Terry wearing the gown. The costume was reused on many later tours, crossing the Atlantic at least twice, so it was worn down and restored in 2011.
The shiny elytra (the shield-like wings) of Buprestidae beetles are collected once the beetle is dead, so you naturally wonder if these insects will go extinct at some point (it is worth reminding though that many beetles, butterflies and other insects are collected sustainably, so this may not happen). But there is something else you wonder when seeing such collections, why did the young designers behind them use the same material as starting points for the same season?
Maybe we all just go and see the same art exhibitions/installations to get inspired or we are just borrowing things off each other without bothering to find better and more original ideas. So, sho knows if this is just a mere coincidence or another occult fashion correspondence. The mystery remains.
Fashion and politics definitely work well together: clothes can indeed be used to project specific messages and reach out to voters, fellow politicians and rivals. The fashionable attire of certain First Ladies also fascinates many critics and political commentators who often try to read in the choices of clothes important political message. This was the case in the last few weeks when Obama's Inauguration spawned a series of features on newpapers and Internet sites, blogs and forums about the style (and, in the last few days, about the new hairstyle) of First Lady Michelle.
A recent exhibition at Berlin's The Kennedys looks at the style of another First Lady, Jackie Kennedy, and in particular at her choice of Marimekko dresses.
The designs showcased in this small but well-researched exhibition entitled “The Spirit of a Dress” were selected by the museum in-house curator Alina Heinze in collaboration with the Finnish textile and clothing design house Marimekko and anticipate the functional yet elegant trademarks of the “Jackie” look - jackets with three-quarter sleeves or A-line dresses matched with above-the-elbow gloves, low-heel pumps, and pillbox hats.
Jackie Kennedy opted to wear Marimekko's designs for the U.S. Presidental Election in 1960 to look modern, youthful and stylish, but also approachable. Marimekko's dresses not only emphasised Jackie's personality, but also reflected the spirit of the time, oozing through their bright colours a terrific optimism, mirroring the political change Kennedy represented.
The dresses - characterised by clear shapes, architectural silhouettes and vibrant prints and colours and accompanied by rare photographs and vintage magazines chronicling Jackie Kennedy's style - could also be read as genuine embodiments of freedom. The Jackie Kennedy who donned them was indeed a more carefree woman compared to the grieving widow in mourning attire at her husband's funeral or to the sophisticated Jackie Onassis donning a wedding gown from Valentino's 1968 White Collection, a dress that marked a brand new start in her life.
What fascinates about the main theme of this exhibition? Alina Heinze: Jackie Kennedy was the first person in politics who used fashion to express certain things and to achieve certain reactions. During the campaign in 1960, Jackie Kennedy knew that it was important to reach out to the voters and establish a connection with them. She expressed this through the choice of her clothes. She wore dresses with simple cuts and hardly any jewellery. So the woman who grew up in wealthy surroundings became less inapproachable for the voters. Her style was simple and classic but still exclusive. Jackie Kennedy managed to connect with the people and her style played an importand part. At The Kennedys Museum you can get an in-depth insight of how Jackie Kennedy became a style icon and why she still is.
How many pieces are showcased in this event? Alina Heinze: There are six dresses on display for the exhibition. All six were chosen from Marimekko by Jackie Kennedy for the presidential campaign in 1960. One of the dresses was originally worn by Jackie Kennedy. Two of the dresses are from that time. Three of the dresses she chose were reproduced from the fabric of that time for the exhibition. In addition to the dresses four different patterns of Marimekko from the early'60s are on display. They complement the dresses and illustrate that bright colours were on the rise.
Which is your favourite Marimekko print on display and why? Alina Heinze: I do not have a favourite print in particular. What really appeals to me is that the prints are timeless, and cheerful. The striped dresses for example look fresh and vivid – just like a day by the sea.
What did you learn about Jackie Kennedy while researching for this exhibition? Alina Heinze: What became apparent while working on this project is that Jackie Kennedy really was very fond of bright colours and not shy to wear them. Her preference for pink was quite unique in the U.S. in the early '60s.
What would you say Marimekko's prints represented for Jackie Kennedy – freedom, modernity, the spirit of those times? Alina Heinze: Jackie Kennedy chose to wear adequate and modest clothes that were nevertheless precious but would not dissociate her from American women during that time. She was pregnant with John Jr. in 1960 but, apart from that, she always preferred to wear loose cut dresses. Marimekko's dresses were tailored just that way. But this was not the only important thing to Jackie Kennedy: the fashion label was nearly unknow in the U.S. in 1960 and that made those simple dresses really exclusive.
This week the news were focused on President Obama's second inauguration, and his wife was once again under sthe spotlight from a fashionable point of view: in your opinion, how has the First Lady's attire changed in the last few decades? Alina Heinze: The significance of Michelle Obama's style is that she remains true to herself. Like Jackie Kennedy whose style developed from her being a student to becoming first lady, but always stayed classic and special. I see the same for Michelle Obama.
So far what kind of feedback did you get from the visitors? Alina Heinze: Jackie Kennedy is always a topic that interests people throughout the generations. Most of the visitors are fascinated by her classic and modest style and political impact. While walking through the permanent exhibition of the museum they get an idea that there are bright colors hidden in the black and white photos of Jackie Kennedy. Those vivid shades highlighted in the exhibition are exactly what excites the visitors the most.
The Spirit of a Dress", The Kennedys,Auguststraße 11-13, 10117Berlin-Mitte, Germany, until 17th February 2013, Opening Times: 11.00 a.m.-7.00 p.m.
Armours conjure up images of warriors wearing metal plates to prevent injuries in battle while intimidating the adversary, but fashion designers redesigned and redefined the meaning and purpose of these protective structures. It is not rare to see armour-like garments at catwalk shows, pieces that restyle the contours of one's body, protecting its precarious fragility, filling the voids.
Image maker and craftswoman Kat Marks and artist and designer Patrick Ian Hartley moved from the concept of armours turning it around in their first collaborative collection entitled “Paladin”. Forged iron gave space to more flexible and light materials capable of transforming the wearer into a modern gladiator and of shifting the main purpose of the armoured pieces from defence to seduction.
In a way it was very apt for Marks and Hartley to get together: since her MA in Fashion Artefact at London College of Fashion, Marks designed Perspex and leather pieces that literally encase the body, developing unique collections often used as props for photography and film purposes (a while back she also produced a film with SHOWstudio and Nick Knight).
Hartley has instead been going for roughly 20 years. A well-known master in the art of body modifications, he has also been creating works inspired by different disciplines - including cosmetic surgery, genetics and cloning - tackling complex body modification and alteration issues while designing face corsets exhibited in world famous museuns and art galleries.
Can you tell me more about how you two met and decided to collaborate together? Patrick Ian Hartley and Kat Marks: We were introduced by a colleague 3 and a half years ago soon after Kat had moved to London from Canada. In that time, we've regularly discussed the possibility of collaborating together but it was only recently that the time felt right. Relocating our design practice to a studio that we share at London Bridge gave us the opportunity to work together on a daily basis and become more familiar with how each other's works.
What did you learn from each other while working on this project? Patrick Ian Hartley and Kat Marks: In terms of how we operate, we have a relatively similar approach to the way we design. We have a mental frame work for the project and designs, but we allow the dynamics of the material to influence how the design takes form. We found that we both approach material in a very intuitive way; rather than forcing a material to perform in a particular way, we allowed the dynamics of the material to equally inform our process. Although we both have a distinctive style, we are open to the influence of the other. By doing this, an equal measure of our own styles remained and is evident in the aesthetic of the piece.
What inspired you while working on “Paladin”? Patrick Ian Hartley and Kat Marks: Predominately, the characteristics of the material but we have both explored and incorporated body armour detailing in our previous collections. This common ground seemed a logical foundation for the collection. We're fascinated by the versatility of PVC and how aesthetically, it can be such a contradictory material. The material itself appears hard and rigid when in reality is soft and flexible. The individual components which make up the garments appear machine-cut when in actuality are hand-cut at a 45 degree angle to exploit the refractive-like qualities of the transparent material.
Can you tell us more about the materials employed in “Paladin”? Patrick Ian Hartley and Kat Marks: We worked exclusively with white and transparent Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). PVC is an industrial plastic with broad application in various industries. We used industrial-grade PVC, which is seldom used in fashion.
The pieces that you designed make you think about a futuristic kind of armour, did you have in mind themes such as transformation, protection, reshaping the body and empowering the wearer while working on these pieces? Patrick Ian Hartley and Kat Marks: We did begin the project by investigating the aesthetic quality of armour in a transparent material, it being a common strand we have both investigated in our previous collections. We would say that themes such as transformation or protection are subject to the context in which the work is shown and depended on the viewers interpretation.
Would it be correct to say that this collection is suspended between fashion design and art? Patrick Ian Hartley and Kat Marks: If the collection is judged based on our backgrounds, then yes, it is suspended between art and fashion but ultimately, that is dependent on the interpretation of the viewer. Patrick trained in ceramics and sculpture working exclusively as an artist since 1990 until his career in fashion design took hold a few years ago. Kat is trained in womenswear fashion design and tailoring and later in fashion artifact, an area of fashion that fuses garment, accessory and product design. We approached this project primarily from a design and material perspective. We say this is a fashion collection and a fashion product but depending on the context in which it is placed, this is open to interpretation.
Will you showcase your project during any fashion events in the next few months? Patrick Ian Hartley and Kat Marks: 'Paladin' is currently on location for a number of shoots in New York and we have instigated our next collaborative collection ‘Sdutz Veda’, which we intend to showcase in the coming months. In addition, we will be exhibiting pieces from our previous and future collections at the opening of SHOWstudio's new premises in March and we have a series of interviews and editorials featuring our work in a number of Vogue publications in the coming weeks.
It is possible to write entire books about the symbolism behind the triangle within a circle. The equilateral upright triangle inscribed within a circle and touching the latter with each vertex or placed inside the circle but not touching it, has indeed been adopted by occult practices and esoteric movements going through different transformations and interpretations as the decades passed.
Yet what interests me is not the instrinsic meaning of this symbol or if the triangle stands for Satan or for the Holy Trinity; if it's a symbol of domination or authority; if it represents Alcoholics Anonymous' three part answer to a three part disease or if it hints at serenity, perfection and stability. What interests me is indeed to try and understand why the same symbol bizarrely reappeared on two recent menswear collections, and if that's just a casual coincidence or a case of, well, occult correspondences and therefore plagiarism (in which case we should ask which designer came first and therefore which designer copied the other).
The triangle within a circle appeared embedded into two tone sweaters and embroidered onto high-collar streamlined jackets in Kris Van Assche's collection for Dior Homme and as prints in the collection of Berlin-based Danish designer Mads Dinesen.
Kris Van Assche's collection with its polished garments characterised by rigorous and streamlined silhouettes evoked - via technical fabrics and innovative techniques - sci-fi futuristic moods borrowed from Andrew Niccol's 1997 film Gattaca, while maybe also hinting through their clean and clinical lines at the financial austerity we're going through and while some pieces looked like space uniforms, they also looked modern, saleable and wearable.
Mads Dinesen - a young designer, who studied at the University Of The Arts, Berlin, graduating in 2010 - moved for his A/W 2013 colletion from music, poet and inventor Moondog who lived on the streets in New York in the 1950s and was known as the “The Viking of 6th Avenue”.
In Dinesen's collection Moondog's face appeared almost like a God-like figure (a reference to the Masonic traditions that placed a single eye inside a triangle?) inside a circumscribed triangle printed on bomber jackets and T-shirts. Dinesen also mixed in his designs elements borrowed from Alejandro Jodorowsky's movies and in particular from The Holy Mountain and from occult inspirations.
So the doubt remains, who came first? Last year Mads Dinesen was among the finalists of the 4th Mango Awards with a womenswear collection inspired by Moondog, but that collection didn't feature any occult symbols.
Maybe the occult symbol is just a coincidence, after all, it has been a recurrent symbol in different collections (remember for example the Masonic symbols in Marios Schwab's S/S 2011 collection? Besides, in Dior Homme's collection the clean graphic quality of the symbol makes it look like something pertaining to geometry rather than occultism). We hope so, since it would be quite depressing to know that Dior Homme would have to steal ideas from a young designer to come up with a desirable collection.
The great outdoors and climate may have been the starting points for Issey Miyake's collection and the themes were convincingly developed through parkas, jackets and trousers in technological fabrics. These themes are quite fashionable at the moment: climate is changing and the main preoccupation of quite a few designers has recently been creating lighter yet warmer garments that can guarantee dynamism, comfort and efficiency.
In Miyake's case, though, two words were the keys to unlock the collection - tradition and innovation. Sakori, that is the Japanese art of creating new cloth from old cloth (weaving with thin strips of worn fabric) was employed in the opening looks; other designs were instead a mix of samurai-style quilted garments made employing the Japanese hand needlework technique called Sashiko that uses the basic running stitch to create a patterned background.
The quilted garments in Myake's collection can also be folded and rolled up as picnic blankets - another reference to nature and the great outdoors and the focus of Miyake's studies about fabrics (as proved also by the 132 5. project that relied on science and mathematics).
Yet there was also something else: the collection featured garments made with the metallic ultra-thin fabric of emergency blankets. The fabric was incorporated into parkas, coats and pants for a well-defined futuristic look.
The gold and silver foil evoked space uniforms while suggesting new ways to keep warm, but the collection also seemed to indirectly reference the palette - reds, blues and purples - and the futuristically dystopic moods of Katsuhiro Otomo's 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk film Akira.
Though you could easily imagine the characters populating Neo-Tokyo in 2019 and in particular Shotaro Kaneda and the Capsules, his bōsōzoku gang, clad in these garments as they race on their motorbikes, the shades of the designs constantly called to mind the multiple blasts and horrifying explosions, the blinding balls of light or apocalyptic visions of the sun rising over the destroyed city or the purple halos surrounding the espers and their paranormal powers.
Though the utility wear included in the collection was about the popular and currently covetable high-tech aesthetic and this should satisfy the buyers, maybe there are other reasons to be happy: we may have finally found the post-atomic costumes needed for the long-expected live action remake of Akira.
