It is common knowledge that creating works of art can be a solution to today's intolerance, violence and hatred. So there's almost nothing to be amazed about the current exchange between fashion and art: designers may be trying to find other ways to express beauty through their work and, in this way, to reintroduce a sense of catharsis and purity in our lives. Yet in some cases referencing art is maybe not that intentional.
Let's look for example at two recent collections that seemed to call to mind Paolo Scheggi's modular structures, geometrical surfaces and intersurfaces: Comme des Garçons men's Autumn/Winter 2014 and Christian Dior's Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2014.
As you may remember from a previous post, Scheggi's pioneering works suspended between sculpture and painting revolved around volumes, three-dimensionality and physicality while playing with the light/shadow dichotomy. Through his stratifications of holes and patterns, Scheggi invited viewers to travel within the canvas in a sort of spatial and temporal continuum.
Rei Kawakubo did more or less the same in her experimental designs from Comme des Garçons' collection.
Coats and jackets sported large holes in the place of pockets, while the sweaters were punctured with a series of bullet-like apertures. There were reference to Kawakubo's 1981 collection, but there were also hints at destroying the functionality of something: while pockets were literally cut out of the garments, some designs featured indeed cuts and slashes with zippers that were too far apart to close.
Though in some cases the designer proceeded by adding colorful flap pockets and panels on jackets and ruffles on shirts, the subtraction process prevailed in the entire collection with rounded holes on the garments and on the footwear as well.
Scheggi used a single compositional motive that gave his canvases a spatial indefiniteness: his space invited viewers to experience it from within on a visual, tactile, physical and sensorial level.
The same thing happens in this collection: holes are considered as passages towards the infinity (Kawakubo seems to have a fascination with the infinity theme) and to the discovery of another texture hiding underneath.
Towards the end of the show the holes lost their three-dimensionality to turn into Comme des Garçons' trademark polkadot prints accompanied by stole-like deconstructed waistcoat lapels in clashing colours worn like scarves. All the models sported rather bizarre hairstyles by Julien d’Ys that protruded from their faces calling to mind the masks donned by the plague doctors.
At Christian Dior Raf Simons continued his modern approach to couture and art with a youthful and feminine collection revolving around light chiffon cocktail dresses, jackets, trench coats and blazers all characterised by a punctured fabric that revealed intriguing textures, shiny embroideries or the bare skin underneath.
The punctured surfaces, eyelets and slashed fabrics hinted at a dynamic life, athletic and sporty (think about mesh panels in sportswear), a concept emphasised by the incospicuous jewelry (a thin chain that looked like the elasticated golden bands you may find around chocolate boxes) with tiny bows, and by the embroidered trainers matched with the dresses.
Shapes were simple, almost austere and included trapeze silhouettes and geometrically cut dresses revolving around straight lines, but also referenced white Space Age fashion from the '60s (circles and holes were a theme favoured by Pierre Cardin who used it as a symbol for the moon) and Dior's structured "Bar" jackets.
Architecturally speaking the modernist set evoked the abstract fireplaces and sculptues designed by ceramist Valentine Schlegel, but the punched hole theme called to mind Scheggi's repetitive patterns and his tone-on-tone vision.
In Scheggi's works there is a juxtaposition of spaces and textures; in Comme des Garçons and Dior's collections, there is a dialogue between garments and spaces that invokes more intricate topics such as the visual syntax of spatiality.
In the case of Simons' there was also an attempt at visualising the space beyond as a way to eliminate or reduce the presence of heavily embroidered elements seen as typical of an extremely charged Haute Couture aesthetic, in favour of a more modern and younger vision.
The main audience for the collection seemed indeed to be a younger generation of people: selected students from fashion colleges were actually invited to attend a third Haute Couture show organised by the Dior fashion house for them. Hopefully, the lucky ones used this occasion to spot all the fashion and art connections hiding here and there.
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