The fast rhythms of our lives quite often mean that we see an image, look at a drawing, hear a new word and we instantly forget about it, store it in our minds only to reference it later, when, having forgotten we already saw/heard it, we suddenly think we actually created it. Rather than "creators", we should therefore consider ourselves as "borrowers", though there are "borrowing minds" among us with enough skills to reinvent a theme and take it to the next level.
A clear example of this phenomenon manifested for example last year at the Architecture Biennale in Venice: there were so many designs, projects and buildings that seemed to move, borrow or reinvent Zaha Hadid's futurism, her forms, shapes and fondness for parametric patterns, that you wondered if all our cities are going to look the same in a few decades' time.
A year has gone since then, in the meantime this process of borrowing and appropriating has become the rule in many different disciplines. From what we have so far seen on the New York runways, the Spring/Summer 2014 collections are not immune from the borrowing exercise, with some collections displaying on top of that the so-called Zaha Hadid syndrome, consisting in indirectly referencing architectural themes and motifs that by now have entered our minds and imaginations.
The shape of the female body may have been Victoria Beckham's preoccupation when she first started producing her designs, but the focus of her new collection moved onto shape in general involving rigid ruffle hems, diagonal lines and boxy tunics. Yet the geometric form that linked her the most to Zaha Hadid was the architectural triangle, a motif many designers rediscovered in the last few years.
In her case, the triangle was replicated in double-crepe and bonded to organza tops and blouses, reminding of the spatial folded plate triangular lattice structure employed by Hadid in the design of Guangzhou Opera House to provide a sense of seamlessness that emphasises the crystalline nature of the design including in its perimeter structure 64 spatially oblique triangular or quadrangular plates, generating 104 spatial ridge lines.
Threeasfour explored the possibilities of 3D effects, at times coming up with three-dimensional geometric forms, at others laser cutting them into white silk, leggings and coats or 3D printing Iris van Herpen-evoking cocooning structures around the body of the models.
The design trio developed their 3D printing designs in white resin (also employed to create overstructures for the footwear) with architect Bradley Rothenberg. Sculptural and geometric shapes and platonic solids prevailed in most of the dresses, triumphing in the final one with cubes and octahedrons that seemed as if they were growing from the fabric.
The collection - entitled "Mer Ka Ba" and aimed at promoting unity among religions - integrated elements of mosques, churches, and synagogues. The patterns borrowed from religious places called to mind a futuristic structure by Hadid, King Adbullah Petroleum Studies & Research centre in Riyadh. The latter is a cellular structure of crystalline forms that emerges from the desert landscape, shifting and evolving, and its research room represents a sort of modern take on Islamic mosque architectures.
There is an interesting dichotomy in this structure that calls to mind the concept behind Threeasfour's collection. The structure is indeed strong and protective outside and porous on the inside with a series of sheltered courtyards providing soft light and a system of layered zones that creates transitions from the hot exterior to the cool interior. Threeasfour's designs have that same "protective Vs soft" dichotomy, apart from being based on the layered principle.
Carolina Herrera may have visited the Zaha Hadid exhibition that took place in Philadelphia between 2011 and 2012, and that featured complex architectures and fluid geometries, furniture, objects, accessories and footwear in a dynamic setting and a sculptural environment.
Herrera's dresses featured undulating graphic lines, based on curvilinear geometries and replicated on soft fabrics that completed the language of fluid movement. The lines were replicated on both day and evening wear, but it was a shame that these architectural curves suspended between the optical à la Germana Marucelli and the kinetic à la Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesús Rafael Soto looked a bit dated silhouette-wise and weren't accompanied by Hadid-esque jewellery and accessories.
Moving from tennis Louise Goldin went instead high on a smoothly parametric curve, creating the most saleable and wearable collection seen on the New York Fashion Week runways so far. Goldin took indeed the classic tennis dress, curved its edges, added sinuous cutout motifs, or layered it on top of shirts and skirts.
The smooth, dynamic and curvilinear shapes of seamless designs called to mind the silhouette of the Abu Dhabi Peforming Arts Centre with its biology inspired abstract forms developing in space, or the unbroken curves of the Heydar Aliyev Centre, in Baku, Azerbaijan (a controversial project since it was commissioned by the local regime well known for human rights abuses; this project will be opening in a couple of week's time). The centre is characterised by a fluid form that, emerging from the landscape, folds and merges with it, falling into a curve-like wave, blurring the boundary between building and ground.
The architectural theme was infused also in the knits with waffled and piped motifs, graphic webs inspired by tennis rackets or green courts, abstract patterns based on photographs taken at the Coachella festival and unbroken stitches.
There seemed to be another theme instead in the lasered lace skirts, in this case they were more to do with a bird's eye view of an architectural plan or with renderings like the ones for the Kartal Pendik Masterplan, a winning competition proposal by Zaha Hadid for a new city centre on the East Bank of Istanbul, a sort of urban grid formed by interconnected networks of open spaces meandering through the city.
Who knows, maybe we have become so familiar with certain shapes and forms surrounding us that we are indirectly referencing them in clothes and accessories. Or maybe we are doing it on purpose hoping that, if spectacular architecture brought regenerative miracles to cities, it may as well help designers bringing miracles on the shop floor (and in our wardrobes). In the meantime, as the fashion weeks continue, feel free to spot symptoms of the Zaha Hadid syndrome by yourself, I can assure you it can be a fun game.
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