We live in a picture-bound world: we desire and crave bright colours that hit the retina, strong images that quickly catch our fantasy and maybe transport us to a parallel and more entertaining universe. In this visual world, many fashion designers easily fall into the terrible trap of launching collaborations with an artist that usually result in a painting, drawing, illustration or photograph being printed on a dress or a T-shirt. That's not the case, though, with Rei Kawakubo.
Comme des Garçons’ Autumn/Winter 2013-14 collection features indeed designs incorporating in a very original way artwork by Dan Michiels. Born in Hollywood, since 2008 Michiels has been working at San Francisco-based Creativity Explored, a centre that gives artists with developmental disabilities the means to create, exhibit, and sell their art. Michiels has a distinctive tract: he creates on paper intricate psychedelic patterns, squares, triangles, grilles, swirls, and repetitions of abstract forms that he then fills with vibrant colours.
In a process that fascinated also the Creativity Explored team, as Marketing Director Ann Kappes recounts, Rei Kawakubo moved from Michiels' painstakingly intricate patterns organised in two dimensions (from the works "My God We Have Needles and Pens" and "Return of the Aliens") and attempted to give them a three-dimensional feel.
The first looks that went down the runway during Paris Fashion Week could have been dubbed "the pinstripe (or the houndstooth) that exploded", as formal suits seemed to implode, refracting in a bizarre kaleidoscope of fabric that formed three-dimensional rosettes, elaborately architectural layers, ballooning and bulbously biomorphic sleeves, and voluminous Escher-like optical illusions.
The suits that incorporated Michiels' bright artworks in cheerful shades looked like very peculiar gardens in bloom: Kawakubo tried to recreate with fabrics the intricacy of the artworks and their psychedelically impossible patterns incorporating and embedding more rosettes and bows. In a way it was as if Michiels' colourful seeds planted in the fabric had bloomed, ripping open classic tailored suits.
The media spotted femininity bursting into masculinity, but maybe the key to decode this exercise based on body-morphing multidimensionality that revolved around exaggeration, reconfiguration and humour as well (see the knee-length culottes matched with the jackets) wasn't just gender relations. There was indeed also a sort of "divided self" in the collection, embodied by art and fashion as two sides of the same coin, or, as Comme des Garçons CEO Adrian Joffe puts it more simply, two forces - "synergy and accident".
After the show, fashion critics mentioned Kawakubo talking about "the infinity of tailoring", a definition that almost calls to mind Yayoi Kusama's infinity nets and accumulations.
This was a different direction from Kawakubo's flat silhouettes from two seasons ago, almost to prove that fashion can be updated by altering tailoring and that art, and quite often art by unknown or outsider artists, can be employed to give fashion a breath of fresh air.
In our picture-bound, superficially insufferable world, in which many have stopped experimenting and researching lazily claiming that everything has been more or less done in fashion, sometimes you get rare glimpses of hope that prove there's always the chance to reach out for the impossible and make it possible. The final verdict? R.D. Laing would have approved.
What's the main aim and purpose of Creativity Explored?
Ann Kappes: Creativity Explored is a nonprofit visual arts center where over 130 artists with developmental disabilities, create, exhibit, and sell art. It provides an engaging studio environment for beginning, emerging, and established artists with developmental disabilities in which they receive individualized instruction from professional artists, quality art materials, and opportunities to exhibit and sell their work. Studio artists receive 50% of the proceeds from the sale of original artwork and 40% of licensing royalties. Artists at Creativity Explored communicate through their art. In expressing their thoughts, emotions, experiences, and cultures to their peers, instructors, patrons, and art lovers, they also engage with a broad and supportive community.
How did this partnership between Creativity Explored and Comme des Garçons happen?
Adrian Joffe: Rei Kawakubo saw the work in Raw Vision magazine and liked it very much and wanted to use for the next collection. I contacted John Maizels who put me in touch with Creativity Explored and we went from there - we were thrilled when Dan agreed to the use.
What did Rei Kawakubo like about Dan Michiels' work?
Adrian Joffe: It was just the perfect work to express what Kawakubo wanted to express with this part of the collection - synergy and accident.
How does Dan feel about this collaboration?
Ann Kappes: Dan has expressed that he is very proud of this collaboration. He works out of our studio two days a week, and has been included in several group exhibitions at Creativity Explored; his work, although limited in the number of pieces that are available, sells quickly. Artmaking at Creativity Explored brings Dan joy, and the fact that his work is now being shared with a larger public, is cause for celebration.
In your opinion, can such a collaboration between art and fashion have a positive impact on an artist with developmental disabilities?
Ann Kappes: Absolutely! At Creativity Explored, art is a captivating means of challenging and transforming assumptions about disability. The beauty, depth, humor, and fearlessness of the work created by our artists, such as Dan Michiels, provokes fresh perspectives and fosters a new regard for the personal vision and artistic ability of artists with developmental disabilities. Artists and designers often collaborate in successful and creative ways, particularly at Comme des Garçons. So, it is not surprising that Ms. Kawakubo was equally intrigued by Dan Michiels' artwork and chose to use it in her latest collection. Likewise, I would venture to say that a collaboration between art and fashion also has a positive impact on the fashion world. Because the fashion world is so influential and wide-reaching, it can have a positive impact on the career of an artist with developmental disabilities - just as it can on any other practicing, professional artist - so long as the collaboration is done with integrity and respect. Most artists can benefit from partnering with the fashion profession, and artists with developmental disabilities are no different in my opinion.
What was your reactions when you saw the designs on the runway, did you ever expect to see Dan's works achiving that specific effect once transferred onto the fabric?
Ann Kappes: Everything that Ms. Kawakubo does is innovative and creative, so I am always surprised to see what she is able to do with fabric, color, texture, and design. Similarly, I was thrilled to see photographs of how Ms. Kawakubo used Dan's pattern design in the Comme des Garçons Fall collection for it gives Dan's work a new exciting life and purpose. I think the pieces using Dan's work are an interesting mix of pattern, artwork, and tailoring.
Is this the first time that one of the artists you support is selected for such a project and how did the team at Creativity Explored feel about it?
Ann Kappes: No. Creativity Explored has had a successful licensing program for several years, so the collaboration with Comme des Garçons was a perfect fit for us and Dan Michiels. Over the years, Creativity Explored's innovative and respected programs, structure and culture have been recognized as a model worldwide in the field of art and disability. In addition to the studios, exhibitions and gallery sales, Creativity Explored has a licensing division, working with the likes of affordable modern furnishing company CB2, renowned artisan chocolate business Recchiuti Confections, Deluxe Skateboards, etc. This year, Creativity Explored is celebrating its 30th anniversary. We are proud to continue to provide professional opportunities to exhibit and sell our artists' work as an emerging and increasingly important contribution to the contemporary art world - and now the fashion world!
Image credits:
“My God We Have Needles and Pens” and “Return of the Aliens” by Dan Michiels, Courtesy of the Artist/Creativity Explored
Comme des Garçons A/W 2013-14 collection: Courtesy of Comme des Garçons
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