It is always interesting to discover how traditional techniques may be employed in contemporary art and fashion in fun ways. Let's have a look at this topic (that closes a short "art of" trilogy that started on Thursday) moving from embroidery and from one of the special guests at London's Graduate Fashion Week (until 2nd June), the Royal School of Needlework (RSN).
Visitors interested in seeing embroidery in action can maybe stop and look at a young woman working on a piece, while Angie Wyman, the course leader of BA (Hons) Hand Embroidery for Fashion, Interiors and Textile Art, may introduce them to the courses on offer at the school.
The RSN was founded in 1872, and has one main aim - keeping the art of hand embroidery alive.
Besides conservation and restoration work, the school's Embroidery Studio at Hampton Court Palace (HCP) carries out commisions by various customers, including fashion and textile designers, but also places of worship, royalty, military and private individuals.
While the main pieces the studio works on may be wedding dresses, christening gowns, coats of arms, vestments, altar frontals, interior design elements and pieces for fashion collections, the designs and samples displayed at their booth during GFW could be filed under the conceptual embroidery category.
The small works presented reinterpreted traditional embroidery techniques in lovely ways: pins and coloured threads formed small three-dimensional paintings, a cross stitch loom was used as a frame for an embroidered portrait and everyday kitchen utensils like humble colanders were turned into unlikely canvases for cross stitched art.
It actually looks like this technique has all the potential of turning into a permanent fashion trend: in previous posts last year we looked at cross-stitching in interior design objects/accessories and fashion pieces and one fashion design graduate from the University of South Wales re-employed this technique in her menswear designs.
Cathie Thurgate recreated Disney-like romantic scenes of a prince and a princess kissing or running away on a horse in a sort of blow-up cross-stitched technique applied to coats or see-through shirts.
The cross-stitched motifs actually look better when seen from a distance or when captured on camera. Both the RSN artworks and these designs may be considered as exciting examples of how a traditional technique may be taken to its extremes (by blowing it up or decontextualising it using a kitchen utensil as a loom and a loom as a frame) in modern and fun ways.
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