We live in a period of constant changes: things move so fast that a new and technological device like a smart phone launched today may become obsolete less than six months later. Even architects whose works consist in designing static buildings that last for several decades, are rethinking the rules and trying to come up with transformative designs, creating spaces that question conventional structures, that give the impression of changing with the light of the day or contribute to the reduction of the environmental impact.
The theme of transformation is implicit in fashion: we may not dress up every morning to feel like heroes and heroines, but we dress trying to look our best, or to take up different roles in our complex society. In the history of fashion there have been designers experimenting with clothes that may cause body dysmorphia disorder and designers who have tried to suggest more wearable and versatile versions of transformative clothes.
The theme of transformation has always been on Hussein Chalayan's mind: while previous more conceptual collections looked at the possibility of turning furniture into clothes and take them away with you, his Autumn/Winter 2013 collection included more practical designs that transformed from day into evening wear.
The study of dynamic forces and transformative powers continues in Chalayan's new collection. Entitled "Breeze Corridor", the collection started with a navy-and-white striped strapless dress wrapped like a beach towel that opened onto a swimpiece, and ended with a surprising dress covered in colourful strips attached to a coat that could turn into tailcoats.
In between there were day dresses with blurred images of a tropical beach and seaside prints; summery separates with perforated patterns of palms in neutral colours; sophisticated one shoulder-draped full-length column dresses with sculptural bustlines inspired by the initial beachtowel and marine themes and by sand dunes, accessorised every now and then with transparent wide-brimmed hats carried like parasols on umbrella rods.
Quite often in fables clothes assume a transformative power: they have indeed the capacity for disguise, masquerade and deception (think about Cinderella empowered by magic clothes...). Chalayan's designs may not be made with fairy tale materials, but their transformative potential points towards new living solutions, active surroundings and modern dynamic women.
Many things have been written about the late designer Alexander McQueen. Essays about his work praised it, elevating his pieces to art; features characterised by an investigative slant tried to delve into his mind and find the truth behind his death; fans mourned his genius. Yet, since the designer was always secretive about his modus operandi, we very rarely saw images of McQueen in his studio, preparing a collection surrounded by models and staff. That's why the volume Alexander McQueen: Working Process (Damiani) could be considered as a unique book.
Together with Susannah Frankel, photographer Nick Waplington followed McQueen as he prepared his Autumn/Winter 2009-10 collection. Entitled "The Horn of Plenty!" and subtitled "Everything And The Kitchen Sink", the collection was showcased in March 2009 in Paris after five weeks of preparations.
The book chronicles those five weeks, opening with a model in a coif and corset; as things progress, we see moodboards with intricate references going from Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake" to Cecil Beaton's My Fair Lady and Nick Knight's images; fabrics and patterns; dressmakers and interns at work; sets and rehearsals; McQueen smiling or striking a model pose to show how a design should be interpreted; Philip Treacy making his extravagantly bizarre headpieces with lampshades, umbrellas, plastic bags, aluminium cans and rubbish bins. Anna Wintour makes a quick appearance and the tension during the catwalk is also chronicled. The book ends with the loneliness of the designer taking refuge on the balcony of his hotel after the show.
When the collection was showcased, some critics complained about the misogynistic look of the models who wore terrifyingly vivid red or dark lipstick that made them look like crossovers between inflatable dolls and Leigh Bowery, but McQueen used it with the same irony he injected in his pied de poule printed skirt suits with cinched waists evoking Christian Dior’s New Look or in the Harlequin print blouses with leg of mutton sleeves and goat hair coats à la Schiaparelli.
Ironic, parodic and extravagant, McQueen told us with this collection that past, present and future fashion is at its core a pile of rubbish, a Frankenstein monster built from trendy debris and random parts of previous collections by various designers.
Characterised by this dark and bitter irony, the collection was indeed a critique of consumerism, and a compendium of the last 15 years of McQueen's production in which some of his previous garments were dismembered, recreated and given a new life.
The designer stated in a quote republished in the book that this wasn't a safe collection, but a critique to indiscriminate consumption, “It's a punked up McQueen It Girl parody of a certain idea, of a woman who never existed in the first place. It's Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany's. It's Dior. It's Valentino's ladies who lunch. It's the women you see in those old images by (Irving) Penn. They're caricatures of their time and I've pushed that caricature even further (…) everything is extreme. Extreme-d.”
In a way this volume - edited by McQueen who picked the order in which the images had to be printed - could be considered as revolving around two parts, workmanship and mise en scene. Waplington's images show indeed moments of hard work and the making of the spectacle behind a catwalk show, but his pictures are also intertwined with photographs of the waste grounds near where McQueen grew up.
While talking about this collection McQueen stated that the whole set in the show hinted at the fact that we live in a mess, adding “I want to throw that at the audience to make them think”. Suddenly his words accompanied by these images of demi-couture designs, landfill sites and recycling plants make more sense, while this book introduces fans to an intimate world capturing the essence of McQueen much better than a thousands essays written about him.
Read a biography of any famous artist, designer or writer and, at some point in their lives, you will bump into a muse. At times eccentric or extravagant, at others silent ghosts, male or female muses have had various roles in the life of numerous people. They have indeed been inspirers and understanders, creative facilitators and ideal or loyal friends. Quite often muses remain elusive and unreachable, mutable like the sea, troubling and hurting the feelings of the artists who worship them, who in turn stifle with their personalities and pressures their muses, almost erasing their identities.
Belgian designer Wim Bruynooghe found himself pondering about the artist and muse relationship while working on his graduation collection at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. A long and intriguing research process eventually led him to develop a collection entitled "Lena" based on architectural Haute Couture silhouettes and made employing materials such as polyurethane and fabrics like wool or silk crèpe as metaphors for the artist/muse relationship. The designer also trapped his own elegant drawings into polyurethane layers that he then employed to make armour-like corsets or jackets decorated with oversized bows.
Bruynooghe also injected in the collection his own experiences and maybe his own personal muse, the sea: born twenty-five years ago in Bruges, but raised in the Belgian seaside town of De Haan, while designing "Lena" Bruynooghe was also developing other projects involving the coastal town of Ostend, so he turned to his seaside roots to give the collection a sculptural edge informed by architecture and geography.
The collection - accompanied by a video made in collaboration with Laur Dillen Storms, starring Belgian model/actress Delfine Bafort and transgender pioneer Corinne van Tongerloo and following the vicissitudes of Lena, a young girl schooled in a secret institution to become the muse of a mysterious client - won the designer the “Knack Weekend” award for the most promising designer. Bruynooghe is currently busy with his showroom presentation of "Lena" during Paris Fashion Week.
Can you tells us more about the inspirations behind your "Lena" collection? Wim Bruynooghe: The collection is actually a study - not a solution or an answer - but a study about the relationship between the artist and his muse. I thought this relationship is quite interesting, if you think about references such as Leonardo da Vinci and Salaì, or Carel Willink with Mathilde Willink. I was quite intrigued by how the muse gets a role into the work of the artist and I made graphic drawings to create a little world to delve into that relationship and discover it a bit more.
Some shapes of your designs look quite Haute Couture, does high fashion enter into your designs? Wim Bruynooghe: Yes, I referenced '50s couture as a metaphor for the projection of the artist on his muse. There is also a duality in the under and upper layers: the underlayers hint at the personality of the strong muse and at her emancipation; the upper layers symbolise the artist's ideals projected upon her. Also the main material employed for the silhouettes - polyurethane - is a metaphor, because I moulded and poured the rubber myself and between the two layers I added graphic prints in Chinese ink. This is actually also a metaphor for time, for the muse's memory, because this material will never disappear, but the drawings will stay there forever. The drawings are important for me because they show the research behind the designs, and they are a reaction to the fact that quite often I do not seem enough research in fashion and in the world in general.
Is there one garment that really drove you crazy while you were making it? Wim Bruynooghe: The first piece that I moulded in rubber. It was the first time I worked with something like that and the rubber kept on ripping, so I had to mould it again. Quite often during the process I told myself "I need two years to make this collection!". It was a bit hellish, but eventually I got towards the end of the collection and that's when things got difficult again: I had to do the big dress and the pattern had a 4-metre diameter - as big as my flat - so that was a challenge!
Apart from art, did any other discipline inform your collection? Wim Bruynooghe: During the year I was also working on a project in Ostend about the horizontality of the sea. The lines and planes in the drawings in my collections are references to the coastline of Ostend. I really thought it was going to be interesting to let the research I was doing in another field enter this collection, I reckoned it was a very honest and natural way to work.
Do you feel you may be able to put the same level of research you did for "Lena" also in more commercial collections? Wim Bruynooghe: Actually that's my purpose. I think I will always make fashion collections that involve other mediums like paintings or sculpture, while coming up with my own story and translate it into fashion.
In your graduation collection you also included a bag inspired by the Pentagon shape of Fort Napoleon: would you like to do accessories as well? Wim Bruynooghe: I guess so, but I need to work with the right people who know what they are doing and are capable of working as a team on one project.
Is there a material you'd like to work with in future? Wim Bruynooghe: I would like to start any of my future collections with a material that I don't know anything about, because this allows you to sometimes make mistakes and from mistakes you learn and come up with something that is innovative and cool.
Experimenting with new materials implies researching, but contemporary fashion has got relentless rhythms that do not allow designers to properly carry out their researches: where do you see the fashion industry going? Wim Bruynooghe: I'm a big fan of slow fashion and I think that we will draw a line at some point between the really fast fashion and slow fashion that involves a higher degree of art and research. The difference between commercial and slow will become bigger eventually: the former hasn't even got a message anymore and there are obviously quality issues involved. Besides, I also think that certain choices in powerful fashion houses are not made by artists, designers or fashion connoisseurs, but by managers, and this will be a problem in the long run.
What are your plans now? Wim Bruynooghe: I've been busy preparing more pieces for my showroom presentation during Paris Fashion Week. I was very honoured and surprised to be asked to do so, because this wasn't planned at all. I hope I will meet some buyers in the next few days, but, in the meantime, it's exciting as it's something completely new and unexpected.
Wim Bruynooghe will be showcasing his "Lena" collection at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 103 rue de Rivoli, Paris, until 30th September 2013.
Though that's quite rare, every now and then you hear fashion-related stories that make you want to smile or cry for joy. Loes Veenstra's is one of them. Since 1955, Veenstra has knitted over 500 sweaters that she stored in cardboard boxes in her home at 2e Carnissestraat, Rotterdam. Veenstra made them to keep herself busy, creating patterns in every kind of colour and style, but the sweaters were never worn.
After discovering them, Museum Rotterdam in collaboration with Wandschappen invited designer Christien Meindertsma to develop a book. The result was Het Verzameld breiwerk van Loes Veenstra (The Collected Knitwork of Loes Veenstra).
So far Dutch designer and artist Meindertsma has developed quite interesting projects that try to trace the origins of products and raw materials while understanding the processes behind industrialisation. Her projects have been featured in different exhibitions and her book PIG 05049 (2007), including a series of images that documents an array of products that different parts of an anonymous pig called 05049 could support, won three Dutch Design Awards (2008) as well as an Index award (2009).
From today until 31st October 2013, Droog will be presenting the book in Amsterdam. the sweaters will be available for purchase during an auction on 31st October at Roomservice cafe and tearoom at Hotel Droog. Visit the site for more details and in the meantime watch this fun video filmed to pay homage to Veenstra and her work and showing how fashion and knitwear can turn into a joyful community event, a flashmob oozing happiness and fun (that's a genuine multitude, dear Miuccia).
Credits Het Verzameld breiwerk van Loes Veenstra Design: Christien Meindertsma Photography: Mathijs Labadie, Roel van Tour, Commissioner: Wandschappen, Museum Rotterdam Publisher: Stichting Kunstimplantaat
If you grew up in the '80s you certainly remember early videogames for the Spectrum or the Commodore 64.
Though their graphic details weren't obviously so perfect as the ones in hyper-real modern games, those crude and raw sprites representing characters, objects and sets were still quite engrossing, especially if you had never seen anything like them before.
Maybe also Julien David was a fan of early videogames or of the Print Magic programme, passions that somehow entered into his Spring/Summer 2014 collection.
Entitled "The Tribe of the Seven Seas" the collection was based on marine themes in general. Though this is a rather trite subject, the designer approached it from a sort of Elio Fiorucci perspective, interpreting them in a simple yet clever way.
The life buoys, desert islands complete with palm trees and seaweed leaves may have been taken from "Treasure Island - Dizzy", a popular '80s game that followed an egg-shaped character in an adventurous trip.
Wherever that inspiration came, it was interesting to see how David recreated on sweaters these sprite-looking motifs using intarsia techniques, or printed islands and colourful fruits here and there.
The designer also embroidered marine motifs on tulle veils (layered on tops and sweaters - this was maybe a bit redundant, while it would have been nice to see those veils used for irreverent hats and headpieces...), filling the holes of the tulle in the same way you would create sprite graphics on a screen (did he spend hours as a child colouring in the squares of graph ruled paper notebooks to draw his paper sprites like many of us used to do? the mystery remains...).
The seas that inspired the designer - from the Mediterranean to the the Red and Black Seas - were evoked also through fabrics: holographic polyurethane was employed to call to mind the changing colour of water; different fabrics were used to form undulating arcs reminiscent of waves and a blue fabric with jacquard-like effects seemed to incorporate in its texture glitch motifs.
In most of the Spring/Summer 2014 collections seen so far, sport and informal garments prevailed (in Julien David's case there were various examples, from varsity jackets to hoodies), suggesting that, come next Spring, we will be moving, travelling, working and generally be more dynamic and active than we have been so far (a reaction to the general psychological and financial paralysis that has gripped us in the last few years?). The casual and playful elements in David's collection had an added youthful edge, but its links with vintage sprites may prove a hit also with those more mature buyers (and consumers) gripped by nostalgia for '80s computer graphic.
Let's continue the Lina Bo Bardi's thread for another day and look at it in connection with geometry and fashion. To do so let's move from this picture showing an illustration of a dodecahedron designed by Bo Bardi. The wooden sculpture covered in brightly printed cloths decorated the entrance of the theatre during the show "Ubu – Folias Physicas, Pataphysicas e Musicaes" (1985), directed by Cacá Rosset with set and costume designed by Bo Bardi.
Designers Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi from British label Preen moved once again from geometry for their new collection. This time, though, they also looked at architectural interiors, an inspiration that resurfaced here and there in their creations.
The S/S 2014 collection features designs characterised by a patchwork of geometries and graphic polyhedra on white, pink or blue backgrounds, at times combined with a delicate floral print.
In the duo's A/W 2011 collection dark shades and elegance prevailed, but for their S/S 2014 designs they favoured a sense of sporty dynamism that they injected in functional fitted dresses, folded skirts and anoraks in silver foil-looking tech fabrics. In some cases the geometrical figures reappeared not as prints on the fabrics, but quilted on shocking pink mini-dresses and skirts or were employed as motifs to create cut out elements along the hem of a skirt or a dress.
Though saleable, as a whole the collection didn't bring any desperately innovative elements in Preen's style, and the duo would have maybe managed to produce more original pieces if they had looked more at their "architectural interiors" inspiration or if they had remembered that geometry is a versatile subject (Lina Bo Bardi opted in this case for the dodecahedron since it's a more versatile figure compared for example to the icosahedron...) that can lead to more interesting experiments when it comes not just to prints and surface, but also to volumes, angles, vertices, planes and three-dimensionality.
As inspiration for further geometry-inspired designs I'm leaving you with this image (from the Met Museum archives) of a cute, futuristic and architectural geometric hat designed in the '80s by Krizia.
There is a lot of talk at the moment about Zaha Hadid, the queen of parametric design. Yet come next year we may finally rediscover Lina Bo Bardi, who, born in Rome in 1914, spent most of her time in Brazil, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy as an architect, set and costume designer, editor, illustrator, furniture designer and curator.
As mentioned in a previous post, in 2014 we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of her birth, though in some countries the homage and tribute events have already started.
As part of the British Council’s Transform programme - a series of arts and cultural exchanges between the UK and Brazil in the run up to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games - last Autumn the British Council organised in London an ehibition entitled "Lina Bo Bardi Together".
This year the British institution has launched instead the Lina Bo Bardi Fellowship: the latter gives architects and designers based in the UK the opportunity to travel to Brazil and explore Bo Bardi's work and legacy, while raising awareness and understanding about her work and her contribution to architecture, culture and society.
Architect Jane Hall is the first recipient of the Fellowship, as announced yesterday in a press release. Hall, who studied illustration at Central Saint Martins and then graduated in Architecture from King’s College Cambridge in 2009 and The Royal College of Art in 2013, is currently working as an Architectural Assistant at Studio Weave Architects in London.
There are similarities between Bo Bardi's works and Hall's interests in infrastructure, in the social value of architecture and in collaborative methods of design. Apart from being an admirer of Bo Bardi's architecture, Hall would like to explore the impact of Lina Bo Bardi’s work on the practice of architecture in Brazil, and hopefully she will manage to discover more in her research trip to Brazil that will take place from November and that will last for 4-6 weeks.
In a press release Hall said that the Lina Bo Bardi Fellowship offers a unique opportunity and that she hopes to focus her research on how society, culture and the notion of "Brazilianess" affect architectural practice in Brazil today, working with and recording the work and aspirations of students and young practices.
“Lina's ideas on this subject - given her adoption of Brazil and passion for the country's way of life - indicate the power that identity and culture can have on the development of new methodologies for design and construction," Hall added. "I intend to re-visit Lina's progressive and social ideas concerning the practice of architecture. I feel this especially relevant in a 21st century context, given the challenges faced by Brazil to modernise and implement infrastructure as the Olympics and World Cup approach."
Bo Bardi often argued that a country should build its identity from the foundation of its own roots, this is the main reason why she studied Brazilian history and culture and often organised exhibitions that celebrated popular culture, while keeping firmly in mind the importance of integrating social values in her designs such as the SESC Pompeia - a social-culture leisure centre which opened in Sao Paulo in 1982.
Hopefully Hall will also also get the chance to study a bit more Bo Bardi's contributions to film and theatre through her costume designs and set decorations as these topics would indeed open new and more exciting paths to rediscover Bo Bardi's heritage.
The
fashion circus moves to Paris this week, but if you're not part of the
industry, you like art and typography and you're planning a trip to
France later on this year, write down in your diary the Typorama
exhibition at Les Arts Décoratifs. The event, opening in November, will
celebrate thirty years of works by French graphic designer Philippe
Apeloig.
Born in Paris in 1962, after his studies at the
École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués , Apeloig developed a passion for
typography while interning in the '80s at Wim Crouwel's Total Design
Studio in Amsterdam. This experience opened him new perspectives on
contemporary and experimental uses of typography: while Crouwel's
approach prompted him to experiment with grid-like structures, his
experience in the Netherlands allowed him to discover at the Stedelijk
Museum paintings by Mondrian and Malevich.
Hired as a graphic
designer by the Musée d’Orsay in the mid-'80s, Apeloig created an
iconic poster for the exhibition "Chicago, Birth of a Metropolis". For
this event about architecture and American urbanism, Apeloig applied to
typography new technologies discovered at Total Design including
computer aided design.
Upon his return from Los Angeles Apeloig established his own studio in Paris and became a design consultant for
the Louvre, and its art director until 2008.
More recently, he designed
posters for exhibitions and events linked with fashion such as "Yves
Saint Laurent" at the Petit Palais in 2010.
This poster is a sort of
collage combining the YSL logo created by Cassandre in 1961 in its
original version, the colours of the "Mondrian" dress created in 1965 by
the designer and a detail of a photograph by Pierre Boulat taken in 1962.
Apeloig
has also worked with publishing houses Robert Laffont and Phaidon Press
and designed throughout his career numerous posters and logotypes for
various institutions such as the Louvre, the Theatre du Châtelet, or the
Fête du Livre in Aix-en-Provence.
Theatre and contemporary dance
actually inform his work: a fan of Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch,
Apeloig considers each letter as a body to be choreographed. This is the
main reason why in his compositions letters assume a dynamic dimension
and structure.
Typorama
will allow visitors to discover the inspirations behind Apeloig's work -
from Constructivism and Bauhaus to De Stijl, from oil painting, to
performing arts and literature. The event will feature indeed more than 150 posters, logos,
fonts, and preparatory studies, that will help design fans understanding better the approach of this
graphic designer and his innovative visual solutions.
Typorama:
Philippe Apeloig, Les Arts Décoratifs, 107 rue de Rivoli, Paris, November 21, 2013 to March 30, 2014.
In a way Dolce & Gabbana have been very unlucky recently: soon after they showcased their richly embroidered Autumn/Winter 2013-14 womenswear collection inspired by the Cathedral of Monreale, Pope Francis appeared on the scene redefining through humility the wealth of the Catholic church.
A day before they showcased their Spring/Summer 2014 collection featuring images of ancient coins, Pope Francis stated money is the root of all evil (in Italian he actually said money is the "sterco del diavolo", that is the "dung of the devil"...), adding that this false idol sickens our minds, and poisons our thoughts.
Funnily enough, as the popularity of Pope Francis keeps on rising day after day even with non-religious people, Dolce & Gabbana's popularity has been falling, tarnished by their fame of tax evasors (a fame some of their supporters such as the British Telegraph tend to avoid mentioning to secure an invitation at the duo's exclusive high fashion shows...).
Trying to maybe recover their fame and reputation, the design duo opened their S/S 2014 collection with ethereal dresses with hand-painted or appliqued almond blossoms alternated to prints of ancient ruins, temples and theatres that linked these designs to the S/S 2014 menswear ones (there were also references to the shapes, silhouettes, and general looks of the Autumn/Winter 2013 collection). Ionic columns also appeared as heels or were replicated onto raffia handbags.
Yet, right when you thought they could maybe recover their passion for craftsmanship through idyllic scenes, they turned to money. The latter reappeared in the form of ancient coins (reminiscent of some early designs by Gianni Versace...) that you may find during an archaeological excavation, though it was maybe a Freudian nightmare of tax evasion that inspired this theme (bizarrely enough, one skirt also featured a prickly pear cactus motif and while that's Sicilian, it also became the symbol of the duo's "We are innocent" protest a few months ago, after the court issued the tax evasion sentence, D&G remained indeed defiant and posted pictures of the prickly pear cactuses in their window shops in Milan).
Soon gold took over with coins printed on mini-dresses and framed by the motifs of Sicilian ceramic decorations. Coins were also blown up and employed as the decorations for belts and corset-like waist cinchers, used as chain-mail for mini-dresses, or incorporated in the jewellery and hair pieces.
Even without press releases or official statements from the design duo, Italians may have spotted in some of the looks elements from Fellini's Satyricon. Actually this was an almost obvious connection: last October Dolce & Gabbana hosted indeed a private screening of the restored Satyricon at the 50th New York Film Festival, so they had the film firmly in mind.
Danilo Donati, Federico Fellini's costume designer, created great pieces and accessories for this film, reusing very poor materials (his mosaic made with Charms candies entered the history of Italian costume and set design...) and while foreign editors may have found it difficult ro reconcile the furry alpaca separates in bright shades that appeared at a certain point on the runway, if you knew the film, you would have probably remembered the vivid colours of Donati's costumes.
The pieces that created moments of confusion in the collection weren't indeed these designs, but the patent-looking lacquered silk dresses with gold coin belts that looked more Tinto Brass's Caligula than Fellini's Satyricon, and the polkadot dresses reminiscent of the blouses donned by Sophia Loren in Marriage, Italian Style by Vittorio De Sica.
The Loren-inspired designs were indeed a further cinematic tribute to a different kind of film and style of costumes, while the red lacquered pieces that preceded an army of models covered in gold dresses, rather than female empowerment brought back to mind the kitsch Roman orgies of the toga parties organised a few years ago by the rich and vulgar exponents of the Italian right wing party.
While all that final ostentatious gold shower (excuse the pun...) maybe hinted at Trimalchio the rich and impotent, the tenuous link with Caligula also brought to mind Francesco Vezzoli's trailer for the imaginary remake of Tinto Brass’s film with Helen Mirren donning a Versace toga - in a nutshell, there were more than just a couple of moments of undesired decadence.
Gold may cure the instant fashion needs of D&G's fashion aficionados and over the top clients, but the ostentatious coins rather than a provocative statement suddenly seemed to reinforce the words of Pope Francis: "(...) money begins by offering a sense of well being. Then you feel important and vanity comes (…) This vanity is useless, but still you think you are important. And after vanity comes pride. Those are the three steps: wealth, vanity and pride."
Next time it would be better to tone down all that gold or maybe call as consultant Pope Francis. After all, if he keeps on rising in popularity, come next Spring, he will be terribly à la mode. As for garish, grandiose and pompous looks, well, they may be out of fashion by the end of this year, so be really careful before investing in this trend.
There are two things that profoundly disturb and annoy me: living in the past and hearing somebody rolling in their grave. Both these things happened when seeing Moschino's Spring/Summer 2014 collection.
The show was supposed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Italian fashion house, so it featured iconic models such as Pat Cleveland, Erin O'Connor, and Gisele wearing archival pieces including the "Bull Chic" matador-style outfit with a black bustier and long skirt featuring prints of a cow on a red background, the teddy bear coat and an evening gown made with bin bags.
The archival pieces - some of them seen in June at the Moschino's S/S 2014 menswear and womenswear Resort collections presentation in Shanghai - were followed by the new designs.
Models came out on the runway in pairs, to hint at the "good/bad girl" dichotomy. Further pieces from the archive - among the others a sequinned question-mark mini-dress and the Gazzetta dello Sport (i.e. the Italian sport daily printed on pink paper) trouser suit, a design inspired by Schiaparelli's iconic newspaper print - closed the show.
One of the main problems of the new collection was that the Spring/Summer designs looked tamed and empty compared to the archival designs, while others, rather than mocking fashion classics such as Chanel's jackets as Franco Moschino used to do, seemed to copy them.
The comparison was a bit merciless showing that Franco Moschino's surrealism or his rebellious attitude to a system that reduced fashion fans into victims (remember his "fashion victim" straitjacket?) do not inform the clothes and accessories of the fashion house at the moment.
But the real cue to unlock the show was Gloria Gaynor who turned up to sing "I Am What I Am", a hit loved by Franco Moschino.
Now find a comfy chair, sit down and watch a copy of Carlo Vanzina's Sotto il vestito niente (Nothing Underneath, 1985), a film based on the eponymous Italian novel published in 1983 under a pseudonym.
The story takes place in Milan just before the ready-to-wear catwalk shows for the Spring/Summer 1984 season and starts with the discovery of the body of an American model in a hotel room. While the body mysteriously disappears from the hotel, a fashion magazine editor is kidnapped by a group of terrorists.
At a certain point of the film you will see a catwalk show staged around Milan Central Station and featuring Moschino's Spring/Summer 1984 designs. The show caught in the film opened with the "Bull Chic" outfit and featured models walking down the runway in pairs in good/bad girl style. And, the background music was "I Am What I Am" by Gloria Gaynor.
The fashion house may justify these coincidences saying that they will be celebrating their 30th anniversary come next Spring, so this was a way to have fun and remember, but it looks as if, rather than moving from the past to learn from it and finding a new and more exciting present with an eye hopefully looking at the future, Moschino is firmly resting on its laurels.
We know that conjuring up visions of the past is safer and easier than coming up with new, innovative and clever slogans and designs, but this feels more like revomiting a legacy than carrying it forward.
Who knows, maybe they think Franco Moschino was so good that there is no point in trying to outdo him, but then why not trying to move from other passions that Moschino had in his life, such as cinema and ballet?
Probably the answer to all this is that fashion really hasn't got anything left to say (you wonder what Franco Moschino himself would think about it if he were still alive or what kind of anti-fashion slogans he would have come up with to mock this ruthless system...), though referencing a specific catwalk show included in a 25 year old pseudo-giallo B-movie, is maybe hinting at something else - the crimes of the fashion industry and of the shifty characters and shady relations ruling it. Holy Chic. Holy C(S)hic(t) indeed.