Writing about about prosthetics or attempting to trace a history of the subject is quite often considered by many publications as something rather traumatic since it involves amputation.
Yet this topic, viewed by many as taboo subject, goes back to a long time ago: the earliest historical record of a prosthesis comes from Herodotus, while the first prosthesis made in bronze, wood and leather, was unearthed in the ruins of Pompeii and dates back to 300 BC. Designs of prostheses were also made by a number of influential figures, including Leonardo da Vinci.
The exhibition “Prosthetics” at London's SHOWcabinet, doesn't attempt a precise and accurate history of this topic nor does it go as far back as Pompeii, but explores the theme from a different point of view.
Curated by Niamh White and Carrie Scott of SHOWstudio, the event focuses on contemporary pieces intended to empower, enhance or simply alter the body. The selection includes a variety of contemporary designs, among the others sculptural leather armour-like pieces by Una Burke that restrain and encase the body (as also shown on the film "Bound" directed by SHOWstudio's Head of Fashion Film Marie Schuller); Kat Marks's "The Braces", a selection of three vacuum-formed thermo-plastic braces that hold the waist in tight or accentuate the hips, inspired by her own experience of having to wear a scoliosis brace; Ana Rajcevic's animalesque horns and tusks, and Patrick Ian Hartley's crucifix-shaped crosses made with artificial hip joints, pieces that explore religious and scientific issues.
Though the starting point for this event was indeed the etymology of the word - from Ancient Greek, "addition", or "to add" - the showcase also includes a variety of objects and artefacts which explore ideas surrounding prosthetics and examples of prosthetics as replacement limbs, such as the legs worn by American athlete Aimee Mullins as a Chef de Mission for the Paralympic Opening Ceremony.
Canadian designer Kat Marks did a film with SHOWstudio and Nick Knight a while back, but this is the first time she takes part in an exhibition at the gallery space. Marks’ pieces, available also from the SHOWstudio shop, transform or mimic the body, exaggerating shapes and creating robotic extensions to the natural silhouette.
The exhibition tackles the themes of prosthetics from a different perspective and from the original meaning of the word - so adorning and enhancing as well. Yet your pieces revolve quite often around the theme of empowerment as well and make us forget about the original inspiration behind them, hinting at fashion and sexuality. How do you reconcile in the braces that are showcased here these aspects - prosthetics, orthopedics and sexuality? Kat Marks: I don’t view "The Braces" as any of those aspects. The initial spark in designing them did come from the Boston Back Brace I wore as a child, however the primary purpose of these fashion braces is to create an interesting aesthetic in fashion. This is what excites me and motivates me to push the boundaries. I was interested in developing a collection that could stand on its own or be pair with another collection. "The Braces" are a subcollection of my 2008 womenswear collection 'Infundibulum'. The bold colors often hint towards sexuality, as well as the high gloss plastic, although this was not necessarily on purpose - I was just drawn to those colours at the time.
The world of fashion has consistently been fascinated by the themes of restricting, bracing and even impairing, what fascinates you about these themes? Kat Marks: I wouldn’t say I am fascinated with these themes. Material fascinates me and the idea of using plastic on the body seemed a natural design choice, perhaps due to personal experience with the Boston Back Brace. Sometimes the artefacts I create brace or restrict and other times I find myself drawn to design the polar opposite.
Which is the most constricting of the pieces showcased here and why? Kat Marks: The braces are constricting because the rigid plastic plates - front and back - hug the waist tight and are secured with straps.
A few designers have started creating functioning prosthetics using new technologies like 3D printing, would you ever create such medical pieces? Kat Marks: I might! I’m interested in technology and how it plays a part in the design process.
"SHOWcabinet: Prosthetics", SHOWstudio, 19 Motcomb St, Belgravia, London, until 31st May 2013
Mention architectural textiles and most of us will immediately conjure up in their minds images of Russian engineer Vladimir Shukhov's tensile structures for the Nizhny Novgorod Fair in 1896, Buckminster Fuller's textile panels in modular and prefabricated pods or Frei Otto's tensile membranes. Yet - Samira Boondocet - these are just a few examples of architectural textiles.
Since founding her studio, the Dutch architect, textile and accessory designer has been developing intense research for innovative fabrics. Boon has so far designed a variety of experimental textiles characterised by an architectural twist and a strong tactile power. Boon's vocabulary of shapes includes three-dimensional waffle-like structures, dynamic folds and membranes that evoke the screens and doors of Japanese houses.
The designer has also been collaborating with architectural studios: one of her latest projects conducted together with NEXT Architects was focused on designing a foldable glow-in-the-dark space divider for the Theaters Tilburg to reduce the concert hall during intimate musical performances.
Studio Samira Boon's latest fashion project is instead a sort of "behavioural" shawl collection called "Changing Identity" inspired by the fact that our identities are becoming more and more visually linked to our fingerprints and iris code. The shawls, available in grey or pink, are made from banana leaves from the abaca plant. A heat-reactive yarn used in the shawls creates either a fingerprint or iris scan pattern, changing colour in response to heat.
The heat-reactive yarn becomes indeed white when warmed up for instance through body heat, showing either the image of an iris scan or fingerprint, both symbolising our identity. When it cools down the shawl returns to its original colour. Different body temperatures will cause the pattern and the final image to change (and the shawls can also be customised with a a personal fingerprint).
Can you tell us more about your studies, your practice and your designs? Samira Boon: Educated as an architect, I lived in Japan for four years where I started my design studio. In 2002 I designed the “Get Well Soon Masks”: regular masks printed with animal faces. These masks were a great success and, shortly afterwards, I developed the “Furoshiki Shiki” series, vinyl bags inspired by a Japanese folding technique. Back in the Netherlands again, I shifted my focus to the development of three-dimensional textiles. Technologically advanced textiles function differently in various interiors, resulting in a wide array of products. One of the most innovative product series is the “Instant Collection”: pre-programmed different layers and seams resulting in (nearly) finished 3D products straight out the machine. In 2011 I did a one-year residence in Seoul to collaborate with Korean companies and designers on various projects and an exhibition about folding. The studio is currently located in Amsterdam.
Do disciplines such as art and architecture inform your work? Samira Boon: My architectural education trained me in translating technique into spatial and functional design. That is exactly how I would like to develop and apply my textiles. Art inspires very much the visualisation of complex concepts ranging from natural issues such as “light” to cultural and political criticism (Ai Weiwei).
Do you have a favourite artist/architect? Samira Boon: I find the following ones inspiring for their research, new perspectives and critical visions they explore - Issey Miyake, Ai Weiwei, James Turrell, Janine Benyus and Yoshioka Tokujin. Can you tell us more about being involved in the Architextiles Project and about its results being showcased in April at the TextielMuseum Tilburg? Samira Boon: Last year I was invited to become part of the multi-disciplinary team that conducted research into innovative applications of textiles in the interior - the Architextiles Project. I expanded my research into creating space and volume with textiles. We discovered that, by combining structure and different weaving techniques, we could create volume with textiles, without using other supporting materials. We were able to weave in three layers with three different materials. The layers came flat out of the machine but could be opened as a spatial honeycomb-like structure. By using different materials, the created spaces had different characters. The installation we designed was hung at the entrance of the TextielMuseum during the final presentation. Our second project was the elevator. An elevator is a large mechanical (functional) moving device in which people are unintentionally close to each other’s comfort zone. We wondered how this more or less awkward space could be transformed into a more dynamic place. What would happen when the walls of the elevator interacted with its passengers? So we experimented with heat reactive yarn. We covered the walls of the elevator with woven fabric made with the heat reactive yarn. The yarn changed its colour in response to heat. When passengers leaned against the wall of the elevator the fabric changed its colour in response to the heat of the body.
You collaborated with NEXT Architects to develop the caterpillar-shaped separation for the Tilburg City Hall – which was the most difficult aspect of this project, the fact that it had to be foldable? Samira Boon: During the project for the Tilburg Theatres there were quite a few difficult aspects. In accordance with the demands of the Theatres Tilburg the divider had to be adjustable and easily packed away so it could be built up in two hours; it therefore needed to be very practical. The folding and the delicate fabric was another difficult aspect; the fabric needed to be semi-transparent, but at the same time it had to be strong enough for folding.
For this projects you also employed a felt yarn by Lineapiù, a manufacturer from Italy that also provides the yarns for Azzedine Alaia. Do you have a favourite yarn manufacturer? Samira Boon: For each and every project I do research into new innovative yarns. The properties of the yarns are more important than the spinner, however, quality is very important too and Lineapiù is famous for that!
What kind of yarns do you prefer? Samira Boon: I like various yarns; from very innovative ones to yarns made out with natural materials. So far which is the most challenging technique you applied to make your designs? Samira Boon: That would be the 3D textiles and the programming of the weaving machine so that products come out almost finished.
Is there a technique you'd like to experiment with in future? Samira Boon: I would like to extend my research on smart textiles. For instance, I would like to integrate energy generators like solar cells into textiles.
There is a lot of talk at the moment about smart textiles - do you feel that new technologies will help us developing genuinely innovative and functional garments in the future? Samira Boon: I think useful applications are definitely of interest. We are currently working on a project for the TextielMuseum in Tilburg about this subject. But I also have my doubts. Fashion that is trendy now turns into waiste in about three months and the recycling process of garments with electronics is complex. I think such garments would have to be useful in the long-term and/or they will have to be highly recyclable. Smart textiles go beyond what you can imagine when it comes to various applications and sustainable development of such products in interiors and in otehr fields will imply the cooperation of multi-disciplinary teams including companies and specialised individuals. If you could launch a collaboration with a scientist who would you choose? Samira Boon: It would be of great pleasure to work with Janine Benyus. She is a scientist specialised in biomimicry, innovation inspired by nature. She seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s designs and processes, for instance, solar cells that mimic leaves.
Will you be taking part in any events soon? Samira Boon: In June we have an presentation scheduled at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan, and in Autumn an exhibition at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg.
Studio Samira Boon, Cultuurhuis Diamantslijperij, Tolstraat 129 / A.2.17, 1074 VJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Fashion never ceases to amaze us: one day you see vertiginous high heels on a runway, the next physically impairing evening gowns appear on the red carpet. But we hadn't seen any radioactive belts on the market yet.
Well, at least until yesterday when news quickly spread on the Internet about clothing retailer Asos recalling a batch of metal-studded belts because they tested positive for Cobalt-60 by U.S. border control.
As The Guardian reported, the offending belts - currently held in a radioactive storage facility - may cause injury to the wearer if worn for more than 500 hours. According to a report called "Project Purple Flower" produced by an external regulator, the incident is actually quite common. As the report states, during the refining process of scrap metal, "orphaned radioactive sources are sometimes accidentally melted at the same time".
Asos is currently in a dispute with Haq International, the Indian group which the firm said supplied the belts, even though there are some uncertainties over whether the manufacturer was the supplier of the product in its integrity or if Haq actually bought the studs from elsewhere.
So after tragic accidents in factories in Bangladesh and Cambodia that reminded us all the true costs of fast fashion, the radioactive metal scare poses a new question. How many workers may have been contaminated during the manufacturing processes of such accessories and do we as consumers actually already own pieces that may be contaminated? After all, if the original Indian manufacturer bought the studs somewhere else, the supplier of the studs may have already sold other radioactive bits and pieces to other companies working for other retailers or other fashion houses.
Incidents involving radioactive scrap metal are not new yet it's somehow very strange consumers were never alerted about such perils in garments and accessories (after all this is definitely not a problem that regards only India where in this case the belts were manufactured, but the entire world and all those people dealing with scrap metals).
Another unusual fashion-related story is that involving former Prada employee Rina Bovrisse who has now turned to the UN to sort her lawsuit against Prada Japan.
The lawsuit has been going on for four years now and regards allegations of discrimination and harassment.
The ex-retail manager for Prada's Japanese division sued the company claiming she was asked to fire store managers and retail staff whom Prada Japan CEO David Sesia found "old, fat, ugly, disgusting, or did not have the Prada look" (Mr Sesia, we thought you embraced ugliness since Prada is all about "ugly chic").
Last year a Tokyo District Court ruled that Prada's behaviour was discriminatory, but that such treatment was acceptable for a luxury fashion label and in the fashion industry ("discriminatory behaviour" acceptable?) and that a well-compensated female employee should be able to withstand a certain level of harassment. But Bovrisse - who has also a petition on Change.org about the issue - took her case to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that urged Japan to outlaw sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.
While the saga continues as Prada countersued Bovrisse for damaging the brand (even though Judge Reiko Morioka and Prada’s attorneys previously acknowledged that discrimination had in fact occurred), you're warned: if you ever venture out shopping, remember, doing it may be like having a trip through Sergio Corbucci's Wild West, so bring your own Geiger counter and a UN officer. They will be incredibly useful if you have to fight against an invisible health and safety risk or if a manager in a luxury fashion label store attacks you for not having the "Prada look" (whatever that is). Ah, who could have ever thought that being a simple, unsassuming consumer in 2013 would have been such a difficult and stressful business.
Between the 1920s and the ‘30s, Shanghai was one of the most prosperous and cosmopolitan cities of East Asia, a centre of business and pleasure offering a vibrant lifestyle thanks to its restaurants, cafes, cinemas, cabarets and dance halls.
The Nanjing Road became a mecca for the fashionable people of Shanghai. The busiest part of China's most cosmopolitan city, the road soon turned into the home of a new commercial culture with major department stores offering high standards of quality and merchandise and an innovative shopping experience that allowed people to buy all valuable brands imported from Western Europe, North America and Japan.
Tradition and modernity, two contrasting yet vital forces, gave life to a renovated society and soon Shanghai - the "Paris of the East" - boasted some of the most fashionable women, among them actresses, divas and wives of ministers. Women living in Shanghai in the early decades of the 1900s are the protagonists of a recently opened exhibition at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York.
Organised by MOCA and by the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou and guest-curated by scholar Mei Mei Rado, "Shanghai Glamour: New Women 1910s-40s" explores the allure of 20th century Shanghai through beautiful outfits that perfectly represent the cosmopolitan lifestyle of the city in those decades.
Among the highlights of the event there are twelve outfits from 1910s to 1940s on loan from the China National Silk Museum and on view for the first time in the United States, and three dresses from prominent New York private collections.
In the context of the exhibition, each of these designs symbolises a transition, a stage in the process of change that the city, society and women in particular were going through in those decades.
The most interesting point highlighted in "Shanghai Glamour" remains the strong link between fashion, women and the city's vibrant cultural hybridity.
The daring transformation in style from looser to more fitted garments that revealed a woman's figure becomes therefore extremely important, since it also helps shaping new feminine archetypes.
The exhibition explores indeed three different types of women: the Femme Fatale, that is a seductress, from courtesans to dancing hostesses and movie stars, all clad in glamorous dresses; the Femme Savante, embodied by writers, artists and students whose new role was hinted at in the sartorial inventiveness of their clothes, and the Femme du Monde, donning sophisticated garments and representing the city's cosmopolitanism.
Yet this is just one side of the exhibition: while Art Deco travelled from Europe to Shanghai via students, tourists, designers and patrons, becoming the style of choice of many buildings including dance halls, theatres and hotels, the ever changing cityscape was also transformed by posters, billboards, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, promoting goods that enabled the consumption of glamour and modernity.
"Shanghai Glamour" tackles this aspect via a series of rare and beautiful accessories, posters, lifestyle magazines, and period images.
Is this the first time that this theme is tackled through a dedicated exhibition at the MOCA? Mei Mei Rado: Yes, it is. The museum approached me last June to be the guest curator of an exhibition of qipaos. They expressed the idea that they wanted to borrow some dresses from the China National Silk Museum but weren't sure about which ones. So I went to visit the National Silk Museum and looked at their collection, picking in the end the 12 designs we are exhibiting in New York. We initially wanted to show the style revolution, but then, as the research progressed, I thought that most dresses come from Shanghai and they were connected to new women, so I decided to move onto modern women's identity and new fashion styles.
What criteria did you follow to select the 12 outfits? Mei Mei Rado: I wanted to choose different styles and that became my main criteria. You see, certain styles like the cropped pants and jacket are very rare since not so many of them have survived. They had two at the National Silk Museum and they loaned us one ensemble that is in a good condition. Yet I didn't want to focus just on the characteristic style known as qipao since Western fashion or "hybrid styles" were widely worn in Shanghai in those times. This is why I picked one dancing dress as well - the green one with sequins - one hybrid style that combined a Chinese top and a Western evening skirt.
The styles exhibited are all unique and pretty, but what fascinated you the most about them, their construction, the materials they were employed to make them or the embroidered motifs? Mei Mei Rado: I think I was more fascinated by the actual idea of body that was behind the garments. Before then women used to wear ample dresses in accordance with the standard idea of feminine beauty, and such dresses hid their bodies. But in the late '20s and '30s, shapes changed in favour of body hudding designs. This meant that beautiful feminine curves emerged. I found this aspect very fascinating, especially in the case of dresses characterised by more fluid lines that were mainly popular in the '30s and weren't so much tight fitting.
Were you aware of this body shaping connection when you first started working on this exhibition? Mei Mei Rado: I started this research on modern Chinese fashion a long time ago when I was doing my Master and at the time this idea already struck me a lot. In this exhibition we decided to look at women's changing roles, but in many ways the focus on body was always there since the role changing idea is very much connected to the idea of body changing, and, as a consequence, to women's liberation or to women becoming more present in the public space. So, in the end, the final story line of the display ended up connecting women, the female body and fashion.
What do the accessories, posters, lifestyle magazines, and period images tell us about those women and their roles in society? Mei Mei Rado: First they tell us how these dresses were worn and what kind of femininity was associated with such dresses; then they also tell us about women's changing roles and their identity in modern Chinese society. Readers contributed to two of the magazines on display, discussing fashions, but also problems concerning modern life, and from what they wrote, you can clearly understand they had a very active role in society.
You strike perfect correspondences between the shoes on display and some of the images in the various magazines: was it dificult to source out shoes in such good condition? Mei Mei Rado: The shoes are not borrowed from China, actually there aren't too many that have survived in Chinese collections. They were borrowed from the FIT Museum and the style looks like the one that was popular at the time in Shanghai and that you could spot in magazines from the '30s. The shoes on display are therefore very similar to the ones you would have found in department stores at the time; one pair was actually never worn that's why they are in such good conditions.
Femme Fatale, Femme Savante, Femme du Monde: what kind of woman would you have liked to be if you had lived then? Mei Mei Rado: I would have liked to be a Femme Savante, but in the show we highlight how the different archetypes weren't defined too rigidly. In fact different types of women were connected, and you could have been at the same time a Femme Savante and a little bit of a Femme Fatale as well!
Does the exhibition also look at Art Deco architecture? Mei Mei Rado:
We didn't have the space to look also at architecture, but we look a
bit at the interiors that were very much influenced by Art Deco. The posters on display show some
of these new environments associated with modern women.
Will the exhibition go on tour after New York? Mei mei Rado: It's unlikely it will go anywhere else since it features loaned items, so if we wanted to take it somewhere else we would have to ask the China Silk National Museum and that would be a long process.
Shanghai Glamour: New Women 1910s-40s, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), New York, until 29th September 2013
Image Captions/Credits
All captions by MOCA
1. Cover of Ling Long magazine, no. 1, 1931. Photo credit: Courtesy of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University.
2. 1928 advertisement for Yunshang Fashion Company. The dress displayed on the mannequin in the shop window highly resembles the "Dancing Dress" in silk georgette and sequins on display in the exhibit (image 13 in this post).
6. Cover of Liangyou Huabao (The Young Companion), January 1, 1934. Published by Liangyou Publishing Company, Shanghai, 1926-1945.
7. Cover of Liangyou Huabao (The Young Companion). Female stars exemplified the healthy natural woman, demostrating sportswear and posing in swimsuits with legs and arms exposed. Published by Liangyou Publishing Company, Shanghai, 1926-1945.
8. Naimei dress. By late 1920s to mid-1930s experimental Shanghai women wore see-through qipaos made out of diaphanous gaze fabric, including actresses, dance hostesses and socialites alike.
9. A large feather fan was a chic component of a Parisian ensemble during the 1920s and used to communicate subtle interpersonal messages in courtship and also social etiquette.
10. Purses with personal objects inside encapsulated the new notion of privacy that emerged in relation to the division between the public and private sphere in modern society.
11. Grey high-collar jacket, 1910s, China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou Photo credit: China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou.
12. Blue short jacket, 1920s, with black skirt, 1920s, China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou Photo credit: China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou.
13. Green qipao with printed fabric, 1930s, China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou Photo credit: China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou.
14. Half sleeve purple qi-pao with lace trimmings, 1930s, China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou Photo credit: China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou.
15. Ivory Western-style long dress, 1930s (detail), China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou Photo credit: China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou.
17. Shoes constituted the most contested site of fashion in Republican China, as they were directly related to the issue of female foot-binding. Western high heels made their debut in the early 1910s and became ominpresent in the 1920s and 1930s.
18. Black qipao with embroidery, 1930s, Private Collection, New York Photo credit: Museum of Chinese in America.
19. The Paramount in urban Shanghai. Opened in 1933, the building combined the styles of American Art Deco and modern skyscraper. The streamline façade of vertical lines, epitomised the glare, heat, speed and power of urban Shanghai.
20. Blue qipao, 1940s, Private Collection, New York Photo credit: Museum of Chinese in America.
3D printing lab i.materialise in collaboration with Materialise Malaysia and Japan recently launched a competition focused on redesigning your own version of traditional Japanese or Korean accessories. Participants can move from Japanese Netsuke, traditional hairpins and Korean Hanbok accessories and recreate innovative designs using the strength of 3D printing. The 10 winning designs will be printed and exhibited during the fashion show at Materialise's North East Asia Conference (NEA) in Japan on the 5th and 6th of September.
The piece I entered into the competition is entitled "Architectural Kanzashi" and is inspired by traditional kanzashi ornaments. The starting point for my hairpiece was the Gion Festival that takes place in Kyoto in July (it seemed very apt to pick this month since the competition closes in July...).
During the festival there is a parade of floats and the upper part of the hairpiece moves from the rigid pagoda-like architecture of the Naginata Hoko float. Another inspiration - modern and futuristic architecture - then comes in and this is when the piece starts to gradually becoming more elaborate and intricate and in some parts it looks as if it were melting, to symbolise the union between tradition and modernity. Who would wear it? Probably a character out of a retro-futuristic Asian noir à la Blade Runner!
Interviewing somebody is always a special experience on a human level because you usually end up learning a lot in a very short time about the person standing in front of you. Interviewing Cinzia Ruggeri is a bit like being taken on a colorful tour de force of the best and quite often quirkiest designs ever created in Italy.
Born in Milan, Ruggeri studied design at the local Accademia delle Arti Applicate in the ‘60s. She then moved to Paris to work for Carven, and, upon her return in Italy, she settled down in Milan and focused on her own collections, becoming soon well-known for her creations that mixed fashion, architecture and interior design and reinterpreted them in a surrealist key.
Fans will definitely remember her "Abiti Natura" (Nature Dresses) with their backs covered in ivy or her "Abito Muretto” (Wall Dress), from her Spring/Summer 1983 collection; the "Dress with Octopus" (S/S 1984), a practical yet fun garment that turned the body into a surreal yet sensual sea creature, and the Piero della Francesca dress, a simple design with a strong art connection.
In many ways Ruggeri and her visionary creations that sometimes had the retro futuristic look that Rachael donned in Blade Runner, or the way she explored different themes and sparked collaborations that went beyond the world of mere fashion, meant that she was more like an '80s version of Schiaparelli, a free spirit with and open mind and a strong desire to grasp the essence of the future.
Ruggeri was indeed one of the first designers in Italy to use new technologies in her designs creating garments with integrated liquid crystals, offering kinetic solutions for dresses (achieved by means of chromatic sequences and a band of polarised light), and designing garments with micro-ventilators inserted so that the sleeves would puff out.
As the years passed Ruggeri began working in other fields: as an artist she designed theatrical productions, ballets and artistic events, venturing into interior and furniture design and designing wardrobes, glasswares, mirrors, pieces of furniture and home accessories for different companies.
In the meantime, fans kept on remembering her: Amanda Brown's LA-based record label 100% Silk released a while back a split 12" by Magic Touch/Ital with a cover featuring iconic designs from the '80s by Cinzia Ruggeri.
It's a joy to follow the trail of her scattered thoughts and discover the story behind her "Homage to Lévi Strauss dress" with its three-dimensional ziggurat-like motifs, or tales of friends who donned her "transdisciplinary" pieces, behavioural garments and performative dresses at parties marvelling the participants.
If you're lucky, at some point Ruggeri may pull out an old issue of Vogue showing the architectural correspondences in her designs, sketches of avant-garde dog-shaped cases that you could carry on a leash or hilarious accessories such as a pair of boots shaped like Italy with the Gargano sticking out, accompanied by Sicily and Sardinia clutch bags.
In a way spending time with Ruggeri is a bit like a therapy session: the Italian artist, interior and fashion designer is still a volcano of ideas ready to erupt every five minutes with designs that make you smile.
Some of her designs and fun pieces are currently part of the "Nerofumo" exhibition together with Aldo Lanzi's "Aliens" at the Milan-based E27 gallery space.
Throughout your career you worked as a fashion and interior designer, but also as an artist. Can you tell us more about how everything started? Cinzia Ruggeri: As a child whenever somebody asked what I would have liked to become once I grew up I would say an artist. I loved painting and sculpting and I used to drench my hands in colour paint or sculpt at night. I did my first exhibition when I wasn't even 18. It was at the Galleria del Prisma, in Milan, and it was accompanied by a brochure with an introduction by Dino Buzzati. At the time I lived near the offices of the Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera and I had become a sort of mascot of the intellectuals and journalists who worked there since they went to eat at a nearby place where also some of my friends gathered. I hadn't told my family about the exhibition as I knew that these were the sort of things you had to do in secret otherwise you would have never got round to do them. I gave my father the invitation to the event the day before the opening. After the exhibition I received a lot of requests for TV and radio interviews and somebody even wanted to do an exhibition in Rome. I knew my personal limits and I realised that things were getting out of my hands too fast. Besides, I always felt I wanted to gradually get to things and I wanted to "suffer" to become a real artist, I didn't want it to happen so quickly. So I decided to stop and pull out. I guess I was just very coherent with myself and that's why I never looked back or regretted it.
Which were the funniest or quirkiest creations you ever designed in your career? Cinzia Ruggeri: The list is extremely long: I once did a series of garments such as trousers and shirts with a fabric that featured a photographic print of a lawn with a four-leaf clover scattered here and there. The clover was the key to the collection: since it was casually printed here and there, some lucky people would get it on their garments, others wouldn't. Then I did a menswear trench coat in a beautiful grey fabric, nice but ordinary looking. Yet it hid a secret: one pocket was lined in blue velvet and another in red silk; one featured an appliqued image of a champagne cork, another an image of a diamond. When the wearer was happy she could turn her pockets inside out and show everybody how she felt. I also remember putting little messages or objects into the lining of some garments so that when a hole would open in the pockets, the wearer would find them and smile or laugh. Some ideas were directly inspired by things I hated: women who played with the pendants on their necklaces inspired me shirts with an appliqued embroidery of a dog house on one side and a tree on the other and a little chain with a movable dog in between. In this way they had a purpose in that meaningless and annoying gesture they would keep on repeating with their pendants, they could take the dog out for a piss! I also hated clothes labels, so, rather than using my name on them, once I scattered bits and and pieces of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days on different labels of various garments. Even if you bought them all, you wouldn't have been able to read the entire thing anyway, but you would have still wondered what it was about and the doubt would remain.
And what about the quirkiest accessories? Cinzia Ruggeri: Well there are hundreds of those as well: from boots shaped like Italy, with Sicily and Sardinia clutches, to gloves sprouting grass, violets or crystal tears from their fingers (check out the third Matia Bazar video in this post around 05:20 for the teardrop gloves and skirt suit), dog-shaped sunglasses and a case that could be divided in two in case the unfortunate couple on a weekend away or on a holiday together would quarrel and decide to split and go their own ways.
What prompted you to develop such pieces? Cinzia Ruggeri: I love freedom and I hate prejudices, I just wanted to express myself and my ideas in a completely free environment and in different fields and make people smile. See, even tableclothes irritated me because they had to look the same with their symmetrical prints, patterns and embroideries. When I started selling my stuff in Japan, they always used to see a picture and ask for that dress, that hat, those tights, shoes and gloves, in a nutshell, they wanted the entire look as it were presented to them, something which I found appalling and terrifying because the wearers would have replicated themselves in that way, they would have annihilated their personality, while I wanted people to be free.
In your career you also developed some of the first behavioural garments, what inspired them? Cinzia Ruggeri: Fashion allowed me to explore the wearer's intimate secrets, needs and desires, but also a person's crazes, fads and nervous disorders and I loved this aspect of fashion as the entire point behind my work wasn't to continuously and bulimically create, but to tackle and explore these issues also through behavioural garments. In some cases, I employed very rigid net-like fabrics that restricted the mobility of the wearer and allowed her to use only one hand. I found the idea of reducing or impairing the movement of the wearer very interesting. I also did garments that changed colour and dresses with a light fabric that featured holes or slashes so that the wearer could pull out the fabric underneath and create draped motifs or alter the shape and silhouette of her dress in many different ways.
Were the LED dresses also part of the behavioural garments? Cinzia Ruggeri: In a way yes as they could be used by a shy wearer or a wearer who had some kind of speech impairment to express something and even open up. I remember lending my first LED dress to a friend of mine, a journalist, who had to go to a special evening to which also Umberto Eco had been invited. When she arrived she had her lights off, but when Eco walked near her she switched on the lights via an embedded button in the belt. The next day she became the talk of the town and she was all over the papers, because she had communicated through her dress and acknowledged the presence of a honourable guest.
You sometimes employed materials that changed colours according to body heat and liquid crystals that enabled you to create from a single model a number of variants of colours and patterns. Which was the most experimental creation fabric-wise? Cinzia Ruggeri: It was a liquid crystal dress in which my beloved staircase motif was highlighted by a liquid crystal serigraphic print that changed colour when hit by light or when it came into contact with heat. I actually got a worldwide patent for applying liquid crystals to textiles, imagine that a while back a group of Japanese people came to ask about it since they wanted to apply this technique on windsurf sails.
What did you like about staircases, their connection with zigurrats and the fascination of the postmodernist movement with such structures? Cinzia Ruggeri: Bidimensional and tree-dimensional staircases were always an obsession of mine and they quite often came back in my accessories from shoes and bags to necklaces. I once did a catwalk show that featured ziggurat designs at the Church of S. Carpoforo in Milan accompanied by an installation by Brian Eno. It was a catwalk show and music event all rolled into one and, by pure chance and without me suggesting it, he designed for that event sound-emitting luminous ziguratts.
In 2011, the "Homage to Lévi Strauss dress" was bought by London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, officially becoming part of the extraordinary fashion design collection of this prestigious British institution. How did the V&A end up including your dress in the "Postmodernism" exhibition? Cinzia Ruggeri: They contacted me to check if I still had the dress and then Jane Pavitt came to see me. I still had it in my rather chaotic archive, among all my fabrics, sketches, books and garments. I was very honoured they wanted to buy it, I wouldn't have sold it to anybody else. They were extremely professional and showcased it in an excellent way during the "Postmodernism" event, on a dummy that perfectly reproduced the look of the original model who donned it on the cover of Matia Bazar's "Aristocratica".
Italian electro band Matia Bazar often appeared on television, live gigs or on their albums wearing your creations characterised by sculpted staircases and ziggurats (for the Cinzia Ruggeri's designs as donned by Matia Bazar check out the following videos; the second one from around 01:19; the third one from 04:42 and 07:18). How did you get to collaborate with them? Cinzia Ruggeri: Their singer Antonella and another band member asked me to create something for them and we reused some of my garments from my collection and I also designed the staircase ties the band member wear in the picture on the back of the "Aristocratica" album (View this photo). Studio Alchimia did the cover for that album that also featured a model in my "Homage to Lévi Strauss dress". The inside album cover featured the lyrics and I played around with them as well, highlighting some words. If you read them one after the other, they formed a fun text, it was a little joke, a sort of divertissement.
How did you get in touch with the Memphis Milano and Studio Alchimia groups? Cinzia Ruggeri: Some people say I was a member of these groups, but I actually wasn't as I had my own business and practice. The thing was that one day I saw on a publication the "living room of the century" by Alessandro Mendini's Studio Alchimia with the "Proust" armchair and the "Kandissi" sofa. I wanted to buy the pieces for my studio, but the designers didn't know where the pieces had ended up. I eventually recovered them and, in a way, that was the reason why they became famous. The Proust armchair that was in my possession travelled so much for photo shoots for interior design magazines that, in the end, because of the requests they kept on getting, they put it into production. I also met Mendini and the others and sometimes when they did an exhibition and they needed a dress we would collaborate together. Mendini also directed Domus and they sometimes used my dresses for the magazine covers. There was an affinity between our practices but I never worked for them and they never worked for me.
Did you also design garments suspended between fashion and architecture? Cinzia Ruggeri: In the early '80s Vogue published some features drawing comparisons between my collections and architecture. This was a first since before then they had never combined the two disciplines. There were themes in some of my garments that linked them to architecture, such as deconstruction, diagonal cuts, a garment with half a collar that hinted at asymmetry and so on. After that feature on Vogue about fashion and architecture people started producing ties with the Empire State Building and tried to make them pass as "architectural" accessories, but that's not architecture obviously since the real architectural reference in a garment is always hidden away in its structure.
Were you aware of such architectural connections at the time? Cinzia Ruggeri: No, not really, these were casual coincidences, but they were maybe prompted by a certain architectural mood that was hanging in the air at the time.
Which were your best markets at the time? Cinzia Ruggeri: The US and Japan, but also Germany, the UK and France. The collections were produced with the best textiles and they were all made in Italy.
Over the years some of your creations like the bed dress or the LED gown were reinterpreted and reappeared on different runways, did this bother you? Cinzia Ruggeri: No, I'm not usually bothered. In fact that makes me usually sigh and say "well, not everything went lost!" There was something that bothered me, though, and it was when a red leather round flat bag with an integrated glove - ideal to practically carry stuff, protect your hand and, in need, also slap somebody, it was indeed called the "Schiaffo Bag" (Slap Bag) - was stolen at an exhibition. I used to love it.
Why did you stop designing? Cinzia Ruggeri: I never stopped creating for myself. Whenever I couldn't find something that I liked, even a tablecloth, I would make it for myself, as a reaction to global and mass markets. An example was my "Una sola moltitudine" (One Only Multitude) armchair. I would define it as a "democratic" armchair. It is characterised by a simple structure, but includes a series of different cushions stacked one on top of the other. You can change the cushions in accordance with your guests: you have a friend over for a cup of tea? Get the informal cushion with the chicken print out; a distinguished elderly gentleman is coming over? Opt for the tartan print and so on. Or you can change the cushions in accordance with your mood.
In your opinion, what's missing in today's fashion? Cinzia Ruggeri: Fluxus' Gianni Emilio Simonetti - the director of my catwalk shows - used to say that if you're a chef and you don't feel like cooking, your food will be tasteless, but if you have genuine passion then your food will always be amazing. If you feel like communicating something to other people, your efforts will always produce something extraordinarily postive, but it's clear that this is not the aim of today's fashion that could be compared to a mirror that is reflecting itself. I never came out on the runway at the end of my catwalk shows, even when the models would push me and drag me there, I would just turn and step away. I thought there was no point in doing it. I had just done my job and that was all. Nowadays there are dedicated fashion programmes on TV about the backstage of catwalk shows that follow the designer around. I saw one that featured Marc Jacobs preparing a Louis Vuitton show and I found it utterly ridiculous. He kept on ordering his assistants around asking to bleach this or corroding that and other silly things. It lasted for more than one hour and it ended up being a sort of vouyeristic trip through a crazy apparat established outside of the real world in which somebody good at chess and no slouch at bridge, either is elevated to God-status.
In the last few years you have been teaching in Milan, which are the main topics you focus in your courses? Cinzia Ruggeri: Accessory design. I do love my students, even though every now and then you meet the odd one out who doesn't seem to have very clear ideas about why they ended up in your course, but in general they make me happy. They work hard and, since my course is very practical, they get to work a lot with their hands. I prompt them to use different materials from natural to synthetic ones and we're always working on a lot of innovative designs.
Your work appeared at the Venice Biennale, and during iconic fashion exhibitions such as "Italian Re-Evolution" (Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California), "The Genius of Fashion", "Fashion and Surrealism" (both at FIT, New York) and "Postmodernism: Style & Subversion" (Victoria & Albert Museum, London). Would you ever do a fashion exhibition with your best designs? Cinzia Ruggeri: I would prefer an exhibition about life with different installations like the one I recently did. I remember with joy the crazy parties we used to throw in which even the toilets were installations. Once I did a party in a house with three different bathrooms, but only one could be used since in the second one there was an installation featuring live crabs, in the third one there was a red cushion on the toilet seat with a toy gun on top. I think I can say something about my life, that it gave me joy and that I gave joy to other people and that's what I would like to keep on doing.
Would you ever reissue some of your designs? Cinzia Ruggeri: Maybe I would reissue some of my designs after updating them a bit. There are certain concepts and ideas that I tackled and that would be equally valid today, but I think they should be presented in a different way. Besides, I always have hundreds of new ideas coming, and I love shoes and bags, so I guess I would like to design new things such as shoes that everybody could be able to afford and wear.
Cinzia Ruggeri's "Nerofumo" featuring Aldo Lanzini's Aliens is at E27, Via Edolo 27, Milan, until 29th May 2013.
All images courtesy of Cinzia Ruggeri. Photographs of Piero della Francesca dress and Italy boots by Aldo Lanzini.
I was playing with Processing and decided to merge its possibilities with another personal obsession of mine, Elsa Schiaparelli. This is the result, based on Schiap's trademark shocking pink shade and inspired by her tears dress. Who knows, maybe if she had lived in our times the trompe l'oeil tears and rips print Salvador Dali designed for Schiap's gown would have turned into slightly optical staple-like formations...
As promised in yesterday's post,here's the second part of the Fashion Glossary.
Fashion Education: No fashion designer used to go to college in the past and the best way to become a tailor was starting from the lower step of the tailoring pyramid: picking the pins from the floor of the master tailor's workshop. Now it's all about avant-garde fashion colleges quite sadly producing graduates that may or may not find a job in a saturated market. Condé Nast even founded a college of Fashion and Design in London. Promised to do for people who want to get into the fashion industry what Hogwarts did for Harry Potter, the college looks like an aseptic environment in which students are taught topics that are not explained in the prospectus or on the college site. What do they teach there? Who knows. But a good testimonial for it would have been Darth Vader, obviously accompanied by the slogan "join the Dark Side".
Fashion Show Notes: See Catwalk/Collection Press Release in yesterday's post.
Fêtes/Fêted: Ordinary beings celebrate something or someone. Celebrities, models, fashion designers do not celebrate, they "fête". A term mostly abused by WWD to indicate a certain degree of pretentious endorsement from that specific celebrity to that specific party. Example: "Pucci Fetes Coffee Table Book". Enter "wwd + fetes" in google and you will get over 90,000 results. Cringing.
Holistic: A term that should worry each and every one of us as press officers are growing very fond of it, even though they aren't completely sure about its meaning. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary "Holistic" literally means "relating to holism, the theory that the universe and especially living nature is correctly seen in terms of interacting wholes that are more than the mere sum of elementary particles" or "relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts". People working in the fashion industry employ it in a confusing way, almost to describe something relaxing, purifying, meditative and therefore holy, possibly with an aura of "sustainability" about it. So you get terms such as "holistic approach", "holistic imprint", "holistic collection", "holistic designs". A solution to the proliferation of the "holistic" adjective? Do not trust any kind of products preceded by it. And don't forget to burn the press release you were given that contains this term.
I want to be a fashion designer: A sentence usually pronounced by your 3 year old cousin during her birthday party after receiving a new Barbie doll with hundreds of new little dresses. Now quite often pronounced by pop stars, celebrities and assorted icons of style, most of them thinking like Dita Von Teese that you just need to visit a vintage store and copy some successful garments from the past to be a fashion designer. In some cases this statement culminates in "I want to design furniture and offer my customers a 360° degree lifestyle". Considering that it was extremely difficult even for well-established and well organised fashion houses to design successful interior design objects, these statements are usually the proof that the society we are living in is full of deluded narcissists.
(To) Lens: Mainly employed in sentences such as "(Name of famous Photographer) lenses campaign for (Name of Brand, Fashion House, etc)". The origins of this cringy expression are unknown, but it is thought that this hip verb was made up by some illiterate PR agent. Warning: Do not use this expression outside pretentious fashion/style circles as it understandably gets on the nerves of sensitive people who hate language being butchered by a PR agent.
Luxurious Uselessness: Not a word, but a concept or rather an innovative idea. An innovatively demented idea because designers, marketing officers and PRs think that in fashion consumption, demented ideas are extremely successful. Example: after Alexander Wang's $150 croc embossed rubber yoga mat with lamb leather strap, in March Havaianas announced it was "teaming up" with luxury French label Pinel & Pinel on a limited edition flip-flop (40 pairs) featuring a rubber sole with a hand-dyed and hand-picked crocodile skin strap. Retail price: £450. Yes, we all need at least one pair. Now we know it is exactly what we will be wearing come armageddon.
(Uselessly Grand and) Magniloquent Language: The fashion industry deals with something very superficial, clothes and accessories and not with open heart surgery. Yet press releases (see also Catwalk/Collection Press Release in yesterday's post) are peppered with a grand and magniloquent language, copious amounts of exclamation marks and other useless words. A pastiche of melodrama and a combination of terms derived from different semantic fields, ravaged, raped and remixed by an ignorant PR officer who read two books in his life (and one was an Ikea catalogue), this sort of language can cause massive cringing fits. Example (from a recent Diesel press release): "Hell yes! Diesel ignites yet another firestorm by appointing Nicola Formichetti to be the new commander-in-chief of the brave army that will spread Diesel's marching orders far and wide." I'm tempted to start a petition to find the culprit.
Must-Have: Indicates something that you don't really need but that women's magazines aggressively manage to convince you desperately want, reminding you that a particular celebrity owns it. Since consumers have started switching on their brains more often, sales of specific must-have items like Alexa Chung's Mulberry bag went down, causing profits to plummet. Must have? Say, no, thanks.
New Book Out: Mainly in the sentence "I have a new book out". Abused by fashion designers, models and high profile bloggers, it usually refers to a volume with more pictures than texts about how to dress - pardon - "how to style yourself" (because we all know how to dress, but we don't know how to style ourselves, see the difference?). The dilemma: what would have happened if each picture taken by The Sartorialist would have portrayed a celebrity rather than an ordinary person with no personality rights attached and would have therefore been a very expensive book to publish? Would Penguin have invested on such a book. The doubt remains, but for the time being your vanity may have made this man rich.
New Line/Spin Off Brands: Another day, another launch of another line/spin off brand. This bulimic mania (you can have a new eco-conscious line, a new line designed by a model, a celebrity, etc - it's potentially endless!) may destroy many high street retailers and some fashion brands. Yet the key is not produing more, but producing fewer garments in sizes that truly fit. Or have I just launched a new line? The Fitted?
Oh...!: A title of a piece, a blog post, a feature of dubious journalistic value, usually followed by the name of the protagonist of that story. Very much abused by English native speakers writing about a designer from another country or with an exotic name to prove their language skills. Denotes lack of originality, frustration and high degrees of naivety. Examples: "Oh Dolce!" (for Dolce and Gabbana), "Oh Gianni!" (Gianni Versace), "Oh Giorgio!" (Giorgio Armani). Oh shit, how much I hate it.
Patron: A sponsor, a benefactor, one that supports, protects, or champions someone or something, such as an institution, event, or cause, now a term indicating two roles, that of pimp (ever met a young designer and his/her "patron" at a hotel reception?) or a socially/politically useless role. Example: Sophie, Countess of Wessex has been announced as the first ever patron of the London College of Fashion. Did the students really need the countess as their patron? No.
Partnering/Teaming Up: A collaboration between two brands quite often implying a certain degree of prostitution. See also "collaboration" in yesterday's post.
Polymath: A term originally employed to indicate brilliant thinkers, human beings who excelled at multiple fields of the arts and science, like Leonardo da Vinci. "Polymath" is currently employed by a generation of PR officers and bloggers with no knowledge of etymology to indicate tremendously trendy and fabulously hip modern artists, musicians, fashion designers, directors and more or less confused creative minds possibly displaying some kind of dysfunctional behaviour or addicted to alcohol/drugs/anti-depressants (erase accordingly).
Pop up: An antidote to the crisis and a fun idea up until 6 or 7 years ago when it consisted in seriously endangering your life to try and find a pop up shop. Probably half of the people who intentionally set to visit Comme des Garçons' Guerrilla Store in Glasgow are still missing. Now pop up shops mushroom even inside large boutiques or in prime locations (Armani's pop-up restaurant opened yesterday on Cannes's Croisette), so there's no risk of aimlessly wandering or going missing while looking for them. Yet that was the entire point of the pop up place, going off the beaten track (and getting lost) to find a true gem.
Signature style: Previously applied to historical fashion labels or designers as in "Chanel's signature style" to indicate her tweed jackets or multiple pearl necklaces. Now often applied to young graduates by PR officers. The problem is that it is only with hindsight that you can say if somebody has truly developed a signature style. When a student develops a signature style in his/her graduate collection that student may be a one hit wonder.
You look amazing: Ordinary people extend their hand and say "Hello/Nice to meet you" when meeting somebody they do not know. An ordinary person will answer to this warmth gesture by smiling back and doing the same. A person working in the fashion business quite often acknowledges you with the sentence "You look amazing", pronounced in an envious tone of disgruntled hate. Yes, humanity is a rare thing in fashion.
Stylist: Who could ever think that this job that enraged your parents and almost prompted them to kill you when you were fifteeen (You: I want to be a stylist; Your Parents: Go and find yourself a proper job!) could become a credible career for some of us? In some cases being a stylist is an underpaid job; in others (Anna Dello Russo) it's a disgustingly overpaid job. Ah, the mysteries of fashion.
Wunderkammer (wonder cabinet or cabinet of curiosities): Originally describing an encyclopedic collection of embarrassingly tacky objects like taxidermied animals, random bits and pieces of unicorns and dodos, with the occasional mermaid thrown in (usually assembled from other random bits and pieces of animals...), this term is currently considered as a safe brilliant reference that proves you are painfully hip (and possibly also painfully confused...). A reference generated by the fact that thanks to the Internet we have all turned into experts about everything without knowing really anything (in a nutshell, we are living "wonder cabinets" of useless knowledge). In case your mind has gone blank because you've been partying too hard or you know you are extremely ignorant, and somebody suddenly asks you what has inspired you/your collection/your artwork recently, just answer "The Wunderkammer" in a fake German accent, then gravely nod and go silent. The ignorant on the other side will usually pleansantly reply "Ah! So wonderful" and call you a polymath (see the term "polymath" in this same post).
Art is a pretentious business and those of us who had the pleasure of going to certain press previews and receiving a release trying to explain the main themes behind a particular exhibition perfectly know that at times the description didn't make any sense, but just featured a jumble of complicated words forming sentences without any proper meaning (a good idea if you're bilingual is trying to translate certain documents into another language...ah, the fun!)
The same can be said about fashion: I quite often deleted from my email box or tore to bits the press releases of certain fashion shows, but I can assure you that collecting these rare pieces of nonsense can give much more pleasure and provide endless hours of fun on a boring day.
Prompted by this passion for nonsense that the fashion industry has been displaying for quite a few years now, I decided to work on a glossary of the most abused terms and concepts in fashion (and one day I will put together a list of bits and pieces selected from the most hilarious press releases...). What follows is just an extract. Enjoy.
Archive: This magic term indicated up until a few years ago the Sancta Sanctorum of a fashion house or a particular museum. A prestigious archive was usually preserved in a dungeon-like location, dedicated space or even a bank vault and accessing it was a long and laborious process in which you were usually accompanied by an archivist who made sure you were wearing white gloves and who was authorised to shoot you if you ever sneezed on a precious piece or tried to take pictures and notes. In modern language an archive can even consist of a pile of dusty cardboard boxes stacked in the corner or a PR office. Besides, in our times creative directors are authorised to visit the archives of the fashion house they work for and pilfer - pardon - take inspiration from the drawings, illustrations, pictures and garments they find there. At times this word is pretentiously used in connection with young brands who may have been showcasing their collections for very few years (think 2 to 4). Critics will say that the young creative director turned to "the brand's archive", but what they essentially mean is that, having already finished the good ideas and not having enough time to think about better ones, the creative director decided to revomit some garments from the previous collections adding slight variations to them.
(The) Bauhaus: Originally the German school that, operating between 1919 and 1933, became known for its refreshing approach to design that combined crafts and the fine arts, now widely used by clueless fashion designers with a limited art and craft knowledge to silence journalists and convince them they are not only tremendously hip but also tremendously knowledgeable. Example of a dialogue mentioning The Bauhaus: "Journalist: What inspired your collection? Designer: The Bauhaus; Journalist: How delightful!" Riccardo Tisci has by now referred to The Bauhaus as an inspiration in interviews so many times that it's amazing we still believe him without ever asking him which works/artists he has been referencing.
Building a sustainable future: Exploiting Africa. Having exploited most of Asia, the fashion industry is currently diverting its deadly gaze somewhere else.
Capsule Collection: Incoherent selection of 6 garments or accessories by a specific fashion designer for a high street retailer or a brand. It is usually driven by the unquenchable desire of generating money and pollution, masked as a fun "collaboration" (see also collaboration).
Catwalk/Collection Press Release: Don't touch it, don't try to decipher it, you have just come across the Da Vinci Code of fashion, in a nutshell, a pile of utter nonsense. Don't even try to read it because your surprised face will automatically mean that the PR officer in charge will smell your fear and confusion and take advantage of the situation. In doubt, call a linguist who will explain you that casually assembled sentences/descriptions like "The designer delved into the dark recesses of his childhood investigating the inaccessible fragmented shards of memory and of an oppressively obscure Catholic education, traversed by the metaphisical notions of philosophy. The result is a collection conceived as a multi-sensory experience" do not mean anything at all.
Collaboration: Once upon a time in a galaxy far away collaborating meant working with somebody else onto the same project or developing something together. This word has now mutated becoming a genetically modified octopus with multiple meanings at different levels: it can hint at a fashion house doing a product/a collection for a specific high street brand; a celebrity endorsing a product; a high profile blogger doing some kind of projects such as illustrations, photo shoots, styling and so on for a brand, and the list of collaborations goes on and on. In most cases it is an umbrella term that may mean "anything you do with or for a specific client" and it usually involves the client paying you. Sounds like prostitution you say? Then you got it, it can be a form of legalised glamorous prostitution with no sex involved. Most collaborations are actually endorsements: if you're collaborating with a brand to organise an exhibition, the PR officer of the brand may have already chosen what they want you to exhibit, and you will just to have to nod and say yes. Then you have "collaborated" together.
Costume Designer: A serious profession before a wide range of designers and labels infiltrated cinema, theatre, opera and ballet and turned these fields into a product placement game. Luchino Visconti used to joke about using Louis Vuitton trunks in his films because they carried his initials, but Louis Vuitton never designed the cases appearing in his films. Do you really want to be a costume designer? Then be ready to compete with Prada, Givenchy, Valentino, Rodarte, Altuzarra, Stella McCartney, Gaultier, and many more. Cheer up, though: most of them don't have the sensibility to do your job and think that designing a tutu consists in piling up a lot of tulle layers one after the other. Repeat the mantra: Prada is not Danilo Donati; Prada is not Piero Tosi.
Curator/To Curate: Definitely the most abused term in the creative arts world. A curator used to be a highly educated person who took care of cataloguing a collection or who put together an exhibition. Now everybody can be a curator and everybody can curate everything, from an exhibition to a window shop, from a film festival to a magazine, a photo shoot or an advertising campaign. One of the most popular fun T-shirts seen at assorted art events all over the world just spells "CURATOR" and I'm sure that, if Ikea did toilet signs with the words "Curated by..." and some space left to add the name you want, they would sell millions. A very obnoxious example of how this word has been abused: the press releases to some fashion shows include the section "Music curated by" and quite often the musical selection ends up being a pile of vile tracks (Burberry shows anybody?).
Customisation: A word with the potential of killing the fashion industry and the mass marketed economy used by big brands to convince consumers they can be the "curators" (see curator) of their own wardrobes. With this aim in mind they offer customisation services on expensive branded items. Remember that you are already the "curator" of our own wardrobe and that you don't need a powerful brand to brainwash you.
Democratising fashion: The vague impression that many young people have (reinforced by a bunch of lying fashion editors à la Franca Sozzani) that fashion has bene democratised since they can buy at an affordable price a piece produced by a high street brand but pilfered from the collection of an expensive fashion house. Now, there would be a genuine democratisation when everybody could afford high quality garments produced respecting certain labour and manufacturing standards, rules and regulations. There is nothing democratic in producing cheap garments in sweatshops and making them pass as a collaboration between a famous fashion house and a high street retailer. There is nothing democratic when only a fraction of the society can afford certain items, while all the others can only buy cheap copies.
Heritage: Usually employed in conjunction with historical (at least 50 years old) fashion houses and institutions, now often used together with the term "archive" to define the "signature style" of extremely young brands (including Victoria Beckham, ah, the hilarity...).
Icon of style: In the past an actor or actress, but also artists who effortlessly represented style even when/if dressed in rags. Think about Marcello Mastroianni or Audrey Hepburn and you get an idea. In most cases these icons were also gifted with other talents (actors and actresses could actually act!), now this definition can be applied to pompous bastards (Karl Lagerfeld), obnoxious dead politicians (Margaret Thatcher), useless celebrities (Kim Kardashian) and assorted actors/actresses/models etc. In most cases, the title "icon of style" refers to the fact that the icon in question just dresses well or as a good stylist. Quite often modern icons of style do not relate well to other fellow human beings and display aggressively non-iconic behaviour towards those who do not admire them or who do not fit their own canons of beauty (see for example Lagerfeld's comments on people he may not like à la Adele).
Empowering: Usually followed by the words "women", "silhouettes" and "collection", but the next step is "empowering imagination", at least according to former PPR, from mid-June this year Kering. Imagination is something naturally empowering, right because it's called "imagination", if you need to empower it, you must be really desperate.
Ethical: Guilt-free label often used by high street retailers. Fashion is not ethical, in fact there is nothing ethical in fashion and when this word is used, it usually implies that something is highly immoral. H&M's "ethical" evening wear range "Conscious Exclusive" automatically implies all their other lines are, well, simply unethical.
Eco-conscious/eco-friendly: Another guilt-free label overemployed in fashion. If fashion were eco-conscious or eco-friendly we wouldn't be depending on fast trends and companies producing more items than they can sell. Wouldn't producing fewer T-shirts with vapid slogans about saving our planet (or not producing them at all) be less damaging to our planet than actually proving with a toxic T-shirt that you love trees?
See you tomorrow for the second part of "A Brief Glossary of the Most Abused Terms, Expressions and Concepts in Fashion".
Charles Correa is internationally considered as a major figure in contemporary architecture. An exhibition at London's RIBA entitled "Charles Correa: India's Greatest Architect" is currently celebrating his work and his role in the creation of an architecture for post-Independence India.
Born in 1930 in Hyderabad, Correa studied archtecture at the University of Michigan and at MIT, returning to Bombay in 1956 to set up his own practice. He soon started focusing on projects that could improve the life of many people rather than just the life of a few private and wealthy clients, and began planning and designing new towns across India such as New Bombay, for which he became the chief architect.
Many of his projects, including the Kanchanjunga Apartments tower in New Bombay (1983) with its verandas and double-height terraces, were based on the architectural solutions dictated by climate and necessity that he learnt from rural builders and slum dwellers' shacks.
The architect, planner, activist and theoretician worked throughout his career on a wide range of buildings that include the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial at the Sabarmati Ashram, the Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur and the Madhya Pradesh State Parliament Building in Bhopal (a successor of Louis Kahn's Dhaka National Assembly), plus townships and affordable public housing projects in Delhi, Bombay, Ahmenadabad, Bangalore and other cities in India, all of them grounded in Indian culture, spiritual and symbolic themes.
The Parliament Building features for example a circular lower chamber sitting under a dome inspired by a stupa, the Buddhist symbol of enlightenment, while the Jawahar Kala Kendra art centre references the old city of Jaipur and is based on a nine-square mandala that corresponds to the Navagraha (mandala of the nine planets).
Correa's philosophy is rooted in the rich traditions of India and is also informed by an intimate understanding of place. In his essay "Blessings of the Sky", Correa looks at the Indian relationship to space and sky. As he highlights in the text, "in India, the sky has profoundly affected our relationship to builtform, and to open space. For in a warm climate, the best place to be in the late evenings and in the early mornings is outdoors, under the open sky. Such spaces have an infinite number of variations: one steps out of a room...into a verandah...and thence on to a terrace...from which one proceeds to an open courtyard, perhaps shaded by a tree...or a large pergola overhead. At each moment, subtle changes in the quality of light and ambient air generate feelings within us – feelings which are central to our beings."
Correa's statement is vitally important to understand his aesthetics that rely on the relationship of humanity to the environment and his pioneering work on urbanism issues and low-cost shelters in the Third World, a key topic of discussion especially if we think about the natural disasters that every year affect different areas and countries all over the world (and this should maybe prompt us to refocus a bit on Correa's low-cost shelters, Buckmister Fuller's high performance shelters or Jean Prouvé's prefabricated structures and mix them maybe with more advanced techniques like self-assembling materials).
Curated by Dr Irena Murray, RIBA Sir Bannister Fletcher Curator and designed by internationally renowned architect David Adjaye, "Charles Correa: India's Greatest Architect" features many highlights from the architect's archive (Correa donated thousands of his sketches to RIBA) including signature projects, images, drawings, photographs, models and films, charting a career spanning over five decades.
Charles Correa: India's Greatest Architect, RIBA, London, until 4th September 2013. The event is accompanied by a series of talks and debates, you can check the complete programme here.
