Bruno Munari was mentioned in yesterday's feature about Lora Lamm. Let's continue the Munari thread for another day with this picture of his 1946-47 installation entitled "Concavo-Convesso" that we analysed a while back in a previous post.
The installation, a sort of cloud or shell-like structure referencing geometry and mathematical variables, is currently on display inside the Brazilian Pavilion at the 55th International Venice Art Biennale.
The pavilion hosts an exhibition entitled "Inside/Outside" featuring artists Hélio Fervenza and Odires Mlászho, plus other works of significance by established artists from the past.
Bruno Munari's "Concavo/Convesso "(Concave/Convex, 1947), Max Bill's "Tripartite Unity" (1948-49; the enigmatic and fascinating metal sculpture by the Swiss architect and designer won the first prize at the first Bienal de São Paulo in 1951) and Lygia Clark's "Obra Mole" (Soft Work, 1964; Clark, as some of you may remember, studied with Léger in Paris, participated in the Constructivist movement in Rio de Janeiro and became known for her sculptures with movable parts) are indeed also showcased to try and trace a history of the Möbius Strip.
Invented by August Möbius in the mid-1800s, the famous band consists in twisting a strip of paper 180 degrees and then taping the ends together.
The main theme of the pavilion - "Inside/Outside" - is a direct reference to the Möbius band, a one-sided surface with no insde and outside, but also hints at the collision between Brazil's own culture clashing and combining with other cultures (an interesting topic, considering the recent events in Brazil and the imminent papal visit as well).
Fervenza (images 4 and 5 in this post) employed hybrid techniques in his works "Pontuações para dentrofora (acercamentos)" (Punctuations for Insideout (Approaches), 2011) - a series of Möbius strips manufactured in different materials, such as satin, newspaper, money, magazines, photographic film, and so on - and "(peixe, sombra) dentrofora (do céu da boca) d'água" ((fish, shadow) insideout (the roof of the mouth) of water, 2013).
In his series of images “bauhausmachine" (2007, third image in this post) and "Skinner" (2009) Mlászho played instead with collages and the potentialities of new digital media. His works with altered encyclopedias transformed into sculptures based on the Möbius strip are actually more convincing as they interact pretty well with the architectures surrounding them and suggest new ways (based on weights, volumes and physicality) of reinterpreting and reinventing the classic Möbius band.
There are pioneers and innovators all over history and in different disciplines, but it's not that often that the two figures coincide in the same person. That is the case, though, with graphic artist extraordinaire Lora Lamm. The m.a.x. Museo in Chiasso, Switzerland, is currently celebrating a specific decade in her life with the exhibition "Lora Lamm: Graphic Design in Milan, 1953-1963".
"All the posters and materials I developed during my Milanese years are on show at the m.a.x., on a loan from the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, without them this event wouldn't exist,” Lamm recounts in an interview conducted via Skype from the m.a.x. Museo offices. Lamm is turning 85 this year, but her cheerfulness and the way she relates to a new medium such as video calls, prove that she has a contagious enthusiasm and passion not just for graphic design but for life in general.
Born in Arosa, in the canton of Grisons, Lamm studied at the prestigious Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Zurich under the guidance of Johannes Itten, the Bauhaus master, and of lecturers Ernst Keller and Ernst Gubler.
After working for an advertising agency in Zurich, in 1953 she moved to Milan, a city that seemed to appreciate the simplicity and clarity of Swiss graphic design. Lamm worked for a while at the office of Antonio Boggeri, who led a team of international graphic artists mainly working on store displays, brochures, catalogues and posters. While at Boggeri she designed the paper for the historical shoe shop Calzoleria San Babila. More experience followed when she took a job as graphic designer for the Motta confectionery company, creating sweet wrappers and boxes with iconic Italian landscapes and Commedia dell'Arte characters that were often used by children as collector's items.
In those years Milan was opening up to innovation and style, also thanks to the artists, architects and designers who worked there. "I remember going to a Picasso exhibition at the Museo del Novecento the year I arrived in Milan," Lamm says. "Seeing the Guernica in one of the rooms was a powerful moment that stayed with me forever."
Hoping to get more creative in her job, Lamm applied at the famous department stores la Rinascente and in 1954 she began working in their advertising office in Piazza Duomo. "I was very lucky as I was able to work there during a key period of time," Lamm recounts. "Everybody was eager to get back to work after the war - suppliers, employees and colleagues. La Rinascente was part of this positive mood and rebirth process that was also aimed at inspiring people to buy modern products and enter a new historical phase."
Between the '50s and the '60s la Rinascente became a symbol of modern living: quality, creativity and innovation were the key words at the department store that often organised fashion shows, home wares and garden events, or put together special displays dedicated to important celebrations such as Christmas and Easter. Exhibitions to promote the culture and style of other countries also became popular showing that the retailer actually had the vocation of a museum. All the events were accompanied by dedicated brochures, catalogues, posters and wrapping paper.
Apart from highly qualified internal staff, the department stores also counted on professional collaborators, among them photographers Aldo Ballo, Ugo Mulas and Serge Libiszewski. "There was a great sense of freedom at la Rinascente," Lamm continues. "At the advertising office there was Max Huber who had a neat and clean style and had created the corporate image of the department store with the 'lR' logo that is still used today. You could say that Huber put order in the store style."
The department store management perfectly understood at the time the importance of building a solid identity and winning customer loyalty via ideas that could put a smile on people's faces while targeting the female audience: a Christmas advert designed by Lamm that appeared on the pages of Italian daily il Corriere della Sera featured for example a joint paper pupper of Santa Claus. Mothers bought so many copies of the daily to allow their children to get la Rinascente's paper puppet that the newspaper went sold out.
"Trends were changing and women who had traditionally made their clothes by themselves or with the help of a dressmaker were being introduced to ready-to-wear fashion, and la Rinascente had to find a way through their adverts to introduce them to an entirely new lifestyle," Lamm explains.
Influenced by designers such as Piero Fornasetti, Bruno Munari, Giovanni Pintori and Ilio Negri, Lamm developed her own unique style, characterised by pleasant colours, care for details, a muted elegance, and a lightness in the modern figures portrayed. Her clear lettering, including geometric sans serif and grotesque, Bodoni, Futura and Swiss linear fonts, revealed a training informed by modernist principles and proved vital to successfully communicate the department store messages.
Lamm's graphic identity revolved around immediacy, information, elegance with a pinch of optimism and positivity. "I never thought about my style," Lamm states. "I thought about the product and then adapted my idea to it, and the way I interpreted the product then became my style."
In some cases Lamm opted for photocollages that combined photographs and illustrations with letterings, in others she focused on drawings, but she always put emphasis on harmony.
Her female figures were often stylised, characterised by just a few lines and by a dynamic verticality: one poster advertising Marimekko designs featured an illustration by Brunetta of a woman dressed in a skirt suit with a vertical stripe pattern, her face hiding behind horizontal blinds to create a fun contrast.
Another poster has an interesting genesis: Lamm was always quite quick at coming up with ideas, but one day she found herself stuck. She made a drawing of a woman in a bathing suit swimming in the sea for a summer campaign, but wasn't convinced and threw it away. Yet the forlorn figure she had designed looked at her from the waste paper basket and inspired her a different approach: she prompty rescued the drawing and juxtaposed to the woman in the bathing suit another one, elegantly dressed and standing next to her.
Inspiration at times came from other countries and from foreign publications. "I never did the layout for any magazines, even though I think that would have been interesting, but we used to be inspired by American magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Fortune or The New Yorker," she states. "We loved them and found them and the graphic artists working outside Europe very inspiring, but we never copied them. I also admired Bruno Munari, Roberto Sambonet and other designers who worked as freelancers for la Rinascente as well. They expressed their ideas and vision in a different way, but they were great. Munari was simply fantastic, he was an inexhaustible source of ideas and had a great sense of humour.”
La Rinascente was an experimental laboratory for visual culture and soon Lamm passed from designing the wrapping paper to posters and packaging for the main exhibitions organised by the department store. For an event dedicated to Japan she came up with minimalist posters and invitation cards revolving around a photograph of a kokeshi doll. "They used to organise a lot of exhibitions about foreign countries at la Rinascente, the one about Japan was great," Lamm recalls. "It was 1956 and the advertising material we did was simple and modern; I would suggest visitors to pay special attention to that."
After four years at la Rinascente, Lamm became partner consultant for the department store, a role that also allowed her to take freelance work for other companies including Elizabeth Arden, Pirelli and Niggi. Her elegant graphic style was applied to other products, including car and bicycle tyres and hot water bottles.
In 1963 Lamm returned to Switzerland and continued to work there, "I drastically decided that it was time to change scene as I realised times had changed. So I left behind the 'paper women' of la Rinascente and moved onto advertising campaigns. It was a dramatic decision, but it came from my fascination with products. When you create advertising campaigns you have to speak to the company owners and the suppliers, and you can follow the manufacturing process as well to understand the product better. Even though you had to deal with radically different things, it was extremely interesting and utterly fascinating."
Though Lamm's work was already appreciated in countries such as Italy, Japan and Switzerland, her name started being officially recognised in books in the late '80s and '90s, while the materials she created for la Rinascente appeared in more recent years in exhibitions in Zurich and Milan.
Lamm doesn't seem to have any regrets career-wise, and, even though she thinks that television made us lazy and contributed to kill our collective creativity, she doesn't disapprove of new means of communication. "The world is constantly changing, and nowadays people can easily make posters, videos or films, but it's only when they are made with passion and with a bit of humour - a key component - that you can say they are well made. For example, I quite often find that modern adverts are not inspired at all as they advertise watches, perfumes, and luxury items by big brands that ordinary people can't afford and that's why these ads end up being quite abstract and meaningless."
Would she ever teach young people graphic design? "It's important to have a solid foundation in your career, since, if that's missing, it will show in your work, but I think that the most important principle that young people should learn is that they must have passion for their job if they want to do it well, and I wouldn't be able to teach that," Lamm promptly answers with a smile.
Even from behind the computer screen that separates us it's clear that Lora Lamm has still got all the enthusiasm and positivity that she used to have when she first arrived in Milan: in a way, even at 85, she's exactly like that woman in a bathing suit she designed for a 1956 Summer poster for la Rinascente, forever looking in front of her at the distant horizon and at the future.
“Lora Lamm: Graphic Design in Milan, 1953-1963” is at the m.a.x. Museo, Chiasso, Switzerland until 21st July 2013. The exhibition catalogue, edited by Lora Lamm and Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini, m.a.x. Museo Director, is published by Silvana Editoriale.
Image Credits
All images by Lora Lamm, courtesy of m.a.x. Museo, Chiasso, Switzerland. The numbers refer to the images in this post:
1. Estate e mare - La Rinascente / Summer and Sea – la Rinascente, 1957.
2. La moda si diffonde con - la Rinascente / Fashion spreads with la
Rinascente, ca. 1960. From the collection of the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
3. Portrait of Lora Lamm by Serge Libiszewski for the article published on the journal "Graphis", 1960.
4. Apertura di stagione – lR / Start of the Season – lR, 1957. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
5. Il giardino - La casa di campagna - Il terrazzo di città - La
Rinascente / The garden, the country house, the town terrace, la
Rinascente, 1957. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
6. Grande fiera del bianco - colore dall’America – lR / Linen Fair, la Rinascente, Colour from America, 1961. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
7.
Volentieri a scuola - La Rinascente / Willingly Back to School, la
Rinascente, 1956. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
8. Arredate la vostra casa d’estate - La Rinascente / Furnish Your
Home for Summer - la Rinascente, 1956. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
9. I Grandi Mercati Estivi - la Rinascente / Big Summer Markets - la Rinascente, 1960.
10. Estate e mare - la Rinascente / Summer and Sea - la Rinascente, 1958. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
11. Pirelli per lo scooter / Pirelli for the scooter, 1960. Archivio Storico Pirelli.
12. La Rinascente - Grandi Manifestazioni - Il Giappone / la Rinascente - Major
Events - Japan, Milan, October 1956. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung,
Zurich.
13. Pneumatici Pirelli per biciclette / Pirelli tyres for bicycles, 1960. Archivio Storico Pirelli.
14. Rolle - Pirelli / Tyres - Pirelli, 1961.Photography by Serge Libiszewski. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
15. Pirelli scooter trasporto - per i furgoncini / Pirelli scooter
transport for vans, ca. 1960. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
16. Pirelli borse per acqua calda / Pirelli hot water bottles, a. 1959-1963. Collection: Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich.
17. La nuova modernissima Rinascente Piazza Fiume si affianca alla
tradizionale simpatica Rinascente Piazza Colonna - Apertura 18 settembre
/ The new modern Rinascente in Piazza Fiume joins the charming traditional
Rinascente in Piazza Colonna, opening September 18 1960. Collection: Museum
für Gestaltung, Zurich.
I have recently been carrying out a research about three themes - aggregates, accumulators and artefacts. A while back while walking around Rome's city centre I took a picture of this window shop (some readers wrote asking what it is, well, it's the dolls hospital, not far from Piazza del Popolo). I found it interesting since it seemed to summarise pretty well all the main points of my research.
The owner acted as accumulator, while the mass of broken dolls and porcelain items on display are the aggregates and the artefacts as well since some of them may have been made by hand. Could this theme - aggregates, accumulators and artefacts - be good enough for a fashion design or accessory collection? Fashion students out there put your thinking cap on.
To create the image entitled "Forest Square" (currently on display inside the Finnish Pavilion at the 55th International Venice Art Biennale) Finnish artist Antti Laitinen felled an area of forest, removed the undergrowth, trees and roots and the surface soil, leaving in its place a black square of soil. He spent five months sorting out the stored materials, reorganising them into new units and colours and dividing all the pieces into different categories, from wood and bark to sticks and rotten wood. Laitinen then rearranged the materials onto an area divided in squares and rectangles, recomposing them according to colours and textures into a new image characterised by the geometric precision of a De Stijl arrangement.
In his small "Untitled (Nails and Wood)" sculptures, made from pieces of wood with their surface covered in the shiny metal flat heads of ordinary nails, Laitinen instead reinterpreted a building. The nail as an instrument for fixing things is indeed turned into a shielding and covering agent that entirely transforms ordinary wood into an armoured surface.
Stripping bare and constructing/reconstructing go hand in hand in Laitinen's work, but also in the collection created by menswear designer Youngjin Shin and textile designer Hsin Lee, graduates of the School of Fashion at San Francisco's Academy of Art University.
The collection, that mixed Jackson Pollock's style with the moods of the Great Depression, was showcased in May during the school's fashion show.
This fashion and textile design collaboration was filtered through geometric architecture, a reference that was clean in the boxy shapes and silhouettes.
Rather than finding the most appropriate relationship between the components of a building, Shin focused on pattern construction to determine the geometric relationships between body and clothes and find proportioned geometric forms for wearable garments.
Can you please introduce yourself to our readers? Youngjin Shin: I was born and grew up in Seoul, South Korea. I came to AAU in San Francisco four years ago and graduated this Spring. I'm ready to jump into the industry, so I'm looking for a job at the moment!
What's the most important thing you learnt from your years at AAU? Youngjin Shin: Simply...fashion! From the idea to developing a collection and creating real garments, so the total picture.
Who has been the greatest influence on your career choices? Youngjin Shin: After I watched JUUN.J’s collection at Seoul Fashion Week I decided I wanted to be a fashion designer. My family approved my choices and supported me when I decided to come to AAU. Chris Applegate, Menswear Construction lecturer, and John Bauernfeind, Menswear Design coordinator, helped me finding my path and become a menswear designer.
Can you tell us more about your creative process? Youngjin Shin: I normally start with a muse - a guy - and incorporate my inspirations into him. The inspiration could come from what I see in my daily life, or in a book, on the Internet, or the people on the street. I then research about the inspirations to get a deeper meaning behind them and start turning my ideas into sketches, thinking about colors and grabbing fabric swatches to see how the combinations of fabric and colors work. As I process these steps and they evolve, the collection develops.
How did you feel at showcasing your collection at the Academy of the Arts fashion show? Youngjin Shin: I felt very honored to be showing my collection there. It was really a great opportunity to challenge myself.
What inspired your graduate collection? Youngjin Shin: One of the first inspirations was the way Jackson Pollock dressed. Then my inspirations went on to incorporate ideas from men's wear designs from the '40s and the '50s. The silhouettes were inspired by the geometric shapes of architectures.
What kind of materials did you employ to recreate the rigid shapes and silhouettes of your designs? Youngjin Shin: I used basic cotton, denim and wool to create the shapes and silhouettes I wanted. The clean lines derive from the patterns. As I said, the inspiration for the silhouettes came from geometric architecture and, to make sure geometry was properly adapted to the human body, I needed a lot of mathematical calculations so that all the seams matched perfectly and the clothes hung straight.
What are your future plans? Youngjin Shin: My next step would be to jump into the industry with the set of skills that I acquired. My design method is focused on creating wearable menswear for an active consumer characterised by clean, precise and modern yet classic lines at the same time. I have a vision for designs that are athletic yet elegant, characterised by a streetwear twist, but featuring classic elements. This is why I would like to work for a sportswear company and try and understand more about functional sport designs, while getting more experience on a professional level and becoming a better designer.
Images of Youngjin Shin and Hsin Lee's collection in this post by Randy Brooke/WireImage
There is a clear architectural dimension in the works of Mark Manders. The Dutch artist builds situations and atmospheres that envelop his sculptures engaging them with the surrounding spaces. Manders also has a talent for merging disparate materials - such as wood, epoxy resin, plastic, bronze and ceramic - into a single entity.
Recent examples of his works are currently on display in the Dutch Pavilion at the 55th International Venice Art Biennale: at times divided in spaces defined by plastic sheets, membranes that make semi-visible to visitors the works of arts surrounding them, the pavilion, designed by architect Gerrit Rietveld, includes a piece made this year entitled "Working Table" (first image in this post).
In this work a large head is wedged between a series of vertical elements - wood staves, two paintings, newspapers and pieces of fabric - held together by leather bands and supported by working tables.
At the rear of the sculpture there is a small table with a chair, so that the sculpture is a work of art, but it's also a symbol of study and labour.
Manders' works tend to escape historicity and any designation in time, so that often they become more actual when and if they are projected in a future context.
Manders' synthesis of material and form, his attention for vertical compositions and his focus on the future indirectly characterise the menswear collection by fashion designer Ran Bi and accessory designer Alexander Toy, both graduates from the School of Fashion at San Francisco's Academy of Art University.
The collection, presented in May during the school's fashion show, was based on strong architectural lines and revolved around a limited range of tones, while focusing on a wider range of materials, from natural wood that hinted at solid office furniture, to more futuristic plastic that, breaking the temporal barriers of chronology, gave the collection a timeless edge and an enigmatic visual impact.
Can you please introduce yourself to our readers? Ran Bi: I come from Nantong, China. I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts High School in Hangzhou, China, for three years before moving to AAU. My background was actually quite helpful in developing the process behind my fashion pieces. Alexander Toy: I was born and raised in San Francisco; both my parents are immigrants, my father comes from China and my mother from Europe.
What's the most important thing you learnt from your years at AAU? Ran Bi: A lot about practice and taking time to make things at their best, while also getting better and better in making them and managing time as well as you can. Alexander Toy: It’s hard to say. A lot, for sure. I was fortunate that I was able to take classes that were outside of my major. I started as an animator, then I took a bronze class, which really got me into sculpture. I think maybe the most important thing I learned is to grasp as much as you can. Being able to take so many different classes really opened me to a lot of techniques and skills.
How did you feel at showcasing your collection at the AAU fashion show? Ran Bi: Excited and nervous. I still had a lot of alteration to do before the show started as my pieces were mainly fitted and the models' measurements didn't match even if we had fitting every week. Alexander Toy: I didn’t know what to expect at first to be honest. I heard a lot of rumors about collaborations being stressful and tough. When I was asked to do it, I was nervous as I knew it would be hard, but I was also aware that, if I did do it, it would be a great professional experience.
Can you take us through the creative process behind your graduate collection? Ran Bi: I started this project with architecture in mind and in particular with The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco and Tadao Ando's Koshino House. I looked at how natural lights enters in a room, breaking a silent space, and how it creates layers of shadows as time passes throughout the day. I used vinyl, clear plastic, off-white wool, walnut wood and leather to give the collection an '80s-'90s furniture feel, mixing it with the elegance of a dapper man from 1915 to create a tailored and modern vision. Alexander Toy: When Ran’s collection was explained to me, I had a pretty good sense of what I wanted my part to be like. When I think of men’s wear, I always think it should be very clean and very functional. At first we thought of making badges and hats, more fashion accessories, but, as the ideas grew, we thought of making practical bags and cases. I wanted to do something new when it came to the cases but I also wanted to do something recognizable. For work reasons I go to the Financial District and on my way I started spending time looking at the business wear of commuters, this is where I got the inspiration for the collection. Each of the cases is based on some type of office container. The four cases are based on an envelope, a file folder, an accordion file, and a suitcase. From there, I tried abstracting them, giving them a modern look to match Ran’s collection. I tried to change the seams and plane breaks to match Ran’s seamwork on the garments.
In which way does architecture inform your futuristic rigid shapes and silhouettes? Ran Bi: I look at those shapes, at the structure of architectural forms and create my garments accordingly, playing with the seams as if I were designing a building. Alexander Toy: Architecture heavily influenced the shapes of the cases. I’m lucky to live in San Francisco where there are a lot of buildings to look at. I wanted everything to look very sharp. I knew the wood was going to be very organic with sweeping grains and I wanted to contrast this with very sharp lines.
Do you feel that playing with patterns is the best way to create innovative shapes in menswear? Ran Bi: I like to imagine 3D structures in my mind to foresee a sort of draft for the patterns. I take a lot time to think about patterns in detail. In the case of this collection I added details to patterns such as pocket made using transparent plastic as I thought it would have been nice to look inside from the outside.
What kind of materials did you use for your accessories? Alexander Toy: Almost exclusively walnut. We wanted to have a wood that was beautiful without being overwhelming in grain or in color. I opted for walnut as it is one of my favorites, it is also very American, even though, for some reason the smell of it when it's sanded always reminds me of my grandparents. I'm not sure why, but for this reason walnut has always had a very comforting appeal to me.
Did you find any stages of your collaboration challenging? Ran Bi: It was actually what I expected. We did pretty well with this collaboration. I was really lucky to have Alexander working with me. Alexander Toy: The beginning was hard. We had to build a collection based on both our styles, but we never met each other before let alone worked together. The first few months were just a lot of brainstorming, and getting a sense of each other's styles to have them mesh better. This was tough for me because, if I design something, I usually stick with the idea until the end. In this project, I not only had to have something that matched with my style, it had to fits Ran’s own style, and the collection as a whole. So in the early stages I spent a lot of time designing, redesigning and prototyping different ideas before I actually got to begin on the finished product.
Is there a designer you particularly like? Ran Bi: Nicolas Ghesquière. I just like everything what he did for Balenciaga - sophisticated and chic. Alexander Toy: There are a lot of designers I like but one has really been influential to me, Mark Reynolds. Mark was a teacher I had at the Academy of Art. I took his "Golden Section: Sacred Geometry" class a few years ago and ever since almost every line I draw is inspired by him. I have put into every project I've done what I learned about lines and design from him.
What are your future plans? Ran Bi: I'm preparing my portfolios to find work or internships in the real fashion industry. I wish to adapt my conceptual point of view to functional and accessible clothing for a variety of markets. My vision is that of an elegant dapper man, well dressed in modern tailored yet slightly casual and sporty garments, so my focus is on minimalist and futuristic shapes styled on classic pieces. I would like to work for different companies to get a total picture about the fashion industry, from development and manufacturing to distribution. Dream companies include Balenciaga, Theory and Jil Sander. After that I hope to develop my own label and sell globally to important retailers. Alexander Toy: I will just be working in the summer, afterwards I'm not sure. At the moment I’m doing small commission work, nothing too crazy, just to keep me working. In the Fall I plan to have a few more projects going. Ran and I had a really good time working together on this collection and we both want to do another collection together.
Images of Ran Bi and Alexander Toy's collection in this post by Randy Brooke/WireImage
Associated in the '90s to the Young British Artists, Sarah Lucas distinguished herself in the following years also through her sculptural assemblages made with nylon stockings that called to mind Louise Bourgeois' works.
Lucas' sculptures, rendered into bronzes, are currently on display at the 55th International Venice Art Biennale inside Carlo Scarpa's Sculpture Garden, part of the Central Pavilion in the Giardini section of the biennale.
In the microcosm of the garden Lucas' corporeal works turn into twisted and knotted bodies, their shiny and smooth bronze surfaces creating perfect contrasts with the severe and sharp lines of Scarpa's architectures.
There are similar conflicts in Leslie Dilloway's menswear collection, though in her case the contrasts are replayed between solid fabrics and metallic coatings. A graduate from the School of Fashion at San Francisco's Academy of Art University, Dilloway presented her collection in May during the school's fashion show.
Inspired by a fictitious character, a Turkish cab driver living in London in the late '80s, the collection was a mix of classic menswear reworked in wild fabrics with injections of metallic nuances here and there, the whole accessorised with fanny packs and backpacks in matching fabrics that added dimension to each look.
Can you introduce yourself to our readers? Leslie Dilloway: I was born in Santa Barbara, California, but I grew up in the northern mountains of Grass Valley. I went to the Academy of Art University to study women's wear originally, but fell in love with tailoring and pattern drafting, so I switched to menswear. I'm still currently based in San Francisco; however, I will be traveling through Eastern Europe this summer, and then I'll be off to the next adventure.
What's the most important thing you learnt from your years at AAU? Leslie Dilloway: I learned to not second-guess myself or my art by comparing it to the people around me.
How did you feel at presenting your collection at the AAU fashion show? Leslie Dilloway: It was an incredibly surreal and proud moment - so many years of all-nighters and continuous work (and re-work) led to that experience. I was even more honored to be chosen for the show because I had just switched to menswear the previous semester. And we were really lucky this year to have the show at the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
Can you tell us more about the main themes that inspired this collection? Leslie Dilloway: It was mainly from my obsession with mixing prints, colors, and textures that normally would not be put side by side. During the pre-collection phase I was experimenting with Medieval themes like Game of Thrones and welding my own jewelry and accessories. These themes took on many transformations through the design process as I was still new and absorbing menswear. The fabrics ended up being so wild that the designs themselves had to be really classic menswear pieces like the suit. I ended up making several fanny packs and backpacks in the same fabrics to add dimension to each look.
Was the Turkish cab driver living in London who haunts your collection inspired by a novel or a film? Leslie Dilloway: That would have been a simpler way to put it, but no! It came from some pre-collection looks that I made in real fabrics for the first time. Someone said they reminded them of a cab driver they met while in London. As the collection developed and we added '80s and '90s sportswear details, it just became a story around a very specific character and his lifestyle. We joked about him selling drugs out of his fanny pack when he wasn't driving taxis all over London in the late '80s...
Do you feel that we are just putting barriers on creation when we say it's impossible to innovate menswear? Leslie Dilloway: Menswear has constantly been innovated through fashion's history; it has just become more and more practical throughout the years. I don't think that there are any limitations on creativity, and that you just have to understand what or whom you are designing for. I find that those "barriers" are actually a more interesting challenge to design for - 'rules are made to be broken' kind of thing. Also, the point of fashion is for people to wear it. I find that a lot of women’s wear gets too over the top, and, while its all great for the runway show, no one is actually ever going to wear it.
Which was the most challenging part of creating this collection? Leslie Dilloway: For me, it wasn't the endless hours sewing and drafting patterns - I actually enjoy that. The challenging part was narrowing down the story into six cohesive looks that worked great together and make sure that each design stood out on their own.
Is there a menswear designer you find particularly inspiring? Leslie Dilloway: I find Issey Miyake to be really innovative and experimental and yet classic in his menswear designs. Also, I've always adored the rebellious attitude of Vivienne Westwood.
What are your future plans? Leslie Dilloway: I just graduated from AAU so I am done with my studies for the moment. Currently I am dyeing my hair pink, moving my things out of San Francisco, planning my trip through Eastern Europe, and then off to probably Los Angeles or New York to get into costume design. My future plans are still up in the air, like most other recent graduates.
Images of Leslie Dilloway's collection in this post by Randy Brooke/WireImage
One of the most recurring problems in our everyday lives is the fact that, not knowing how ordinary appliances work, when they break down we often opt for the easy way out - buying new ones. Todd McLellan is not fascinated by the disposable culture we live in, but by the art of disassembling the items surrounding us to make us realise what we are throwing away.
The volume Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual for Modern Living, recently published by Thames & Hudson, is a record of McLellan's obsession, developed as a child when he would disassemble his toys to see how they were made.
The author proceeded to take 50 designs - among them brand new or vintage items that he divided in four categories, small, medium, large and extra-large - disassembled them till their last screw and took pictures of them with their parts lying flat on a surface or suspended in mid-air.
The book opens with a mechanical pencil, but features (among the others) a digital and a mechanical watch juxtaposed one to the next; game consoles; an iPad and iPod; a smartphone; a handheld GPS unit (that has actually got just a few more components than a basic torch...); an external drive; a record player; a mantel clock from 1928; a classic flip clock from the '70s; a rotary telephone from the '80s, a telescope and domestic appliances such as a hair dryer or a toaster; a basic desk lamp and a power drill, a snowblower, and even musical instruments (did you know that an accordion includes 1,465 components?). You name it, McLellan has probably dismantled it.
Leaf through the book and you will discover that a walkman featured hundreds of components, obviously many more than our tiny digital music players; a camera from 1973 has instead almost the same number of components than a digital camera made last year (576 against 580); a children's wagon is more complicated in terms of components than a push lawnmower, while a laptop computer has got slighty more pieces (639) than a classic typewriter from the '60s even though, once dismantled, the latter is visually more pleasing, with its 621 components forming a rather striking display including zigzagging typebars.
Some images are genuine works of art as the author assembled the various pieces with the careful eye of a painter (see the picture of a disassembled bicycle from the '80s with its components lying on a flat surface in a visually pleasing way). Other pictures highlight the difference between old and new items: the former were assembled by hand and were made to be repaired and last. This is proved by latches that could easily be opened; new items are instead too often made to break down and are not produced with a fixer in mind (anybody who attempted to repair a new generation game console for the first time found themselves in front of oddly shaped proprietary screws that need special screwdrivers to be unlocked...).
The author is not encouraging readers to go berserk and tear down assorted appliances, tools and machines, but to try and understand them and learn in this way to be more active while also saving money and protecting the environment. To this aim, the volume also features four essays by different experts: Kyle Wiens, co-founder and CEO of free online repair community iFixit, known for product teardowns and open-sorce service manuals, tells the fascinating story of Japanese doctor Mitsunobu "Kodawarisan" Tanaka who started taking things apart and photographing them as a hobby, to remind us the importance of knowing how something works to be able to repair and adapt it.
Software engineer and computer scientist Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School that organises week-long camps for children to teach them how to use power tools, and build and solve problems, recounts us his personal experiences in this successful and slightly crazy venture; Penny Bendall, ceramics conservator, unveils the secrets of restoring the Chelsea Group, highlighting how fascinating it is to deconstruct and reconstruct a work of art.
The last essay is the most fascinating from a technological point of view as its author, Dr Joseph Chiodo, inventor of the Active Disassembly technology, explains readers how new techniques and materials can facilitate the processes of separating and recovering components during recyling phases. Chiodo writes about Thermoplastic Hot-Melt Adhesives for Disassembly (THMAD), Hot Wire Adhesive Release (HWAR) and the fascinating Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) and Shape Memory Polymers (SMP) hinting at the fact that these new technologies may help us preserving the environment while creating new jobs.
McLellan closes the volume with deconstructed displays of large items: an upright piano from 1912 (1,842 components) and, believe it or not, a Zenith CH650 aircraft (7,580 components), that the author photographed at the manufacturer's hangar. McLellan's journey through 21,959 components is fascinating but it also proves that, while what surrounds us is disposable, most of the times it is not necessarily transitory, but could be fixed or reused to create new products - if only we had the will and knowledge to do so.
Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual for Modern Living by Todd McLellan is published by Thames & Hudson.
All photographs in this post by and courtesy of Todd McLellan.
The list of tomboys in literature, film, videogames and comics is extremely long and features very different young women, from Jo March out of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women to the indomitable rebel Tank Girl from the eponymous comic by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin.
The character of a girl behaving like a boy actually worked pretty well in comics and fiction especially during the '50s when women's roles were mainly staying at home and taking care of the family. The story behind the novel Tomboy by Hal Ellson, published in 1950 in the States and released by Corgi in Great Britain in 1952 (and quite often reprinted in later decades) was for example a classic tale of juvenile delinquency and gangs.
The comic Tomboy debuted instead in 1954, and it was first drawn by veteran comic artist Mort Meskin and later on by Edvard Morit. The story in this case focused on a masked and caped teenage female heroine, the enemy of gangsters, villains and thugs. Less heroic Li'l Tomboy by Frank Johnson (published in the late '60s) was instead the classic brat who disobeys her parents, favours boyish sports rather than traditonal girls' activities and plays pranks against teachers and friends.
One of the latest "Tomboy" references appears in a fashion-related comic, Alan Moore and Malcolm McLaren's Fashion Beast. The gender bending assistant of designer Celestine that (the gender bending) protagonist Doll Seguin meets at the fashion house wears indeed throughout the story a sweatshirt and a sleeves top emblazoned with the "Tomboy" slogan.
Funnily enough the "tomboy" is trendy again: quite a few celebrities out there - Rita Ora, Jourdan Dunn, Lou Doillon - have recently been photographed sporting "Tomboy" sweatshirts, swimwear and accessories from the Spring/Summer 2013 collection of label Filles à Papa, founded by Belgian sisters Carol and Sarah Piron.
The design duo find their inspiration in punk and rock'n'roll, but it's disappointing to see that today's "tomboys" do not actually have any connections with the daredevils who preceded them, they not execute any incredible airplane stunts, do not catch any criminals, do not punch guys and, above all, though talented in their own ways, do not have anything vitally interesting to say to the world.
It's as if "tomboy" has turned from a dreaded young woman behaving like a boy to a dreaded vapid trend for young women - quite sad in a world in which there are incredibly strong women such as brave and determined Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai who last Friday addressed the UN in her speech - the first since being shot by Taliban militants last October 2012 - inspired by Mahatama Gandhi's path of non-violence and asking the right of education for every child. The time has definitely come for fashion (and not just for it...) to start looking at more inspiring and stronger role models...
Images of trail maps were framed like paintings and employed to decorate the spaces of the Cariaggi stand at last week's Pitti Filati. The hiking trails were also embroidered on white canvases to symbolise the well-defined paths that fashion designers and yarn manufacturers should follow in future.
The company, based in the Marches region and specialised in cashmere, vicuña and super-fine wools, focused for the Autumn/Winter 2014-15 season on warmth and comfort, luminosity, colour and a sort of intangible finish for all its yarns.
While the weight has been miminised, for the next autumnal season size, volume, softness and smoothness have been highlighted. The palette revolves around aseries of golden hues, and features a selection of natural shades juxtaposed to more modern tones.
New yarns for the next season include "Nuage" (74% cashmere, 26% silk), a specially structured yarn with a brushed finish for multi-layered softness and a plush, slightly frosted surface also available with sequins and lurex; "Bouclé" (93% cashmere, 7% silk), a cashmere bouclé yarn available in 35 different tones; "Wave" (87% cashmere, 13% silk), a yarn produced using a special technique which joins the two fibres together to create unusual printed effects, and "Alps" (54% silk, 36% cashmere, 10% polyamide), a specially treated yarn so that the cashmere fibre is revealed, creating a brushed knitwear effect that enhances the three-dimensional qualities and depth of the colour.
Despite the crisis, Cariaggi is doing well: its first-semester results show a 1% growth in sales as forecast in its budget. Current performance points to a year-end result of some 103 million Euros, an increase of 2% on last year.
Quite interestingly, the markets which recorded the highest growth over the first half of 2013 were the US (+ 6%) and, even more notably, France, with an increase of 16% (a piece of news that confirms the French market is interested in made in Italy luxury).
In order to promote its growth, Cariaggi plans to invest some 1.8 million Euros in 2013 in targeted innovation projects. Tech-wise investment is actually already underway: the company has indeed been focusing on two projects - the Filato Digitale (Digital Yarn) and the eBiz initiative.
The former is developed with Shima Seiki Italia and consists in making digital colour charts available to Cariaggi clients who use the Shima system. The yarn is scanned with an Epson scanner and with the "Proper Gauge" tool developed by Shima Seiki and the software then creates the different colour variations. This process will allow clients to quickly get the requested colour charts.
The European eBiz iniziative, on the other hand, will help optimising the quantity of data exchanged between suppliers and clients to save production planning and programming staff their time and cut in this way organisational costs.
What's the connection between fashion, vampirism, aging and death? The answer may be Tony Scott's first directorial debut, The Hunger (1983).
The film is actually on tonight at the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum in Getaria, Spain, (at 7 p.m. - free admission) as it closes the retrospective the museum organised on famous fashion designers who contributed to the big screen.
Cult vampire horror movie The Hunger featured one of the most respected costume designers around, Milena Canonero (who also turned to the Tirelli tailoring house to find the historical costumes for some of the scenes included in the film and even sourced in Italy the proper material to put in the top pocket of David Bowie's beige suit as she couldn't find it in London...), while Catherine Deneuve's wardrobe was by Yves Saint Laurent (also worth mentioning the special effects by Graham Longhurst; makeup illusions by Dick Smith and special makeup by the late Antony Clavet, who worked a lot for Italian Vogue).
The film opens with Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie as Miriam and John Blaylock, scouting for their next victims in a club while The Bauhaus' Peter Murphy sings "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (a currently trendy scene with the David Bowie revival and exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the just opened "Club to Catwalk" exhibition also at the V&A).
Miriam is a centuries-old vampire, but John was human before meeting her, so his aging process was just slowed down. One day John starts aging, a process that transforms him in just a few hours from young and sexy into elderly and repulsive to Miriam's eyes.
As her passion for John dies, Miriam reveals him he will be aging but will be unable to die, so she puts his body in a coffin like she did with all her former lovers, and sets her eyes on premature aging researcher and doctor Sarah (Susan Sarandon).
Based on the novel by Whitley Strieber, the film tackles quite serious themes - love, passion, sexual desire and, above all, our fear of aging and death, issues that could also be analysed from a fashion-related point of view.
While fashion never dies but constantly resurrects itself season after season, quite often fashion houses keep on being alive even when their founders die or are revamped a few decades after their deaths. Besides, current fashion is also displaying a vampirical desire for more and more runways and more and more customers - three days ago, for example, Dior organised a fashion show in Moscow's Red Square.
For what regards the choice of Yves Saint Laurent, in this case it's just perfect not only for the designer's connection with Deneuve, but also for her role. In the film she is a refined immortal creature very different from her more sinister fanged ancestors clad in dark capes and travelling in coffins from Eastern Europe.
She is elegant, enigmatic and stylish, and lives surrounded by rare art pieces in a beautiful house in New York in which lights create mesmerisingly sensual yet scary chiaroscuro effects; Saint Laurent's designs had a timeless quality about them (at least until Saint Laurent himself created them...) and are perfect to hint at the vampire's glamorous immortality (apart from the YSL connection, another fashion-related point to investigate in this film would be the Maripol-like Polaroids...).
Dismissed by critics, The Hunger was not a huge success, though in later years it became a cult in certain circles. The film is definitely worth rewatching not just to ponder about our collective fear of getting old, but also to consider the vampirical role of contemporary fashion, the power of costumes in films and the fact that current designs by Yves Saint Laurent aren't as timeless and cinematic as the ones Catherine Deneuve wears in this movie.
With many thanks to Kutmusic for lending me a copy of this film from its archives to do the screenshots for this post.