The Garden of Eden is the paradisus voluptatis, a garden in which evil lurks beneath apparent beauty. Among all the artists who captured such duplicity there is Hieronymus Bosch who suggested the dual nature of the original Paradise in his triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights", a harmonious composition and opulent illustration of the Creation in which serenity turns into temptation, corruption and a premonition of the end of the world.
Somehow this vision of the Garden of Eden is a wonderful metaphor for the fashion industry, a world in which beauty quite often hides many ugly truths, including exploitation, envy, greed and hate.
Maybe it's for this reason that at times Bosch's triptych appeared in contemporary fashion collections such as Carven's A/W 2012-13 dresses and blouses or in McQueen's last collection with one garment that featured a mix of Hieronymus Bosch’s chaotic paintings with their overcrowded fantastic scenes and grotesque devils and demonic creatures from "The Temptation of St Anthony" and "Hell" (from the "Garden of Earthly Delights" triptych).
Bosch's Garden and Flemish paintings were the starting points of Raf Simons' Autumn/Winter 2015 collection for Dior, but the final results were radically different from these designs seen in previous seasons.
Rather than opting for mere prints, Simons turned indeed to the rich colours of the Flemish masters: the soft rose pink of Bosch's triptych, the musky green and ruched motifs we may have seen in the dress of Jan Arnolfini's wife in Jan van Eyck's painting, the rich reds of van Eyck's "Lucca Madonna" or the deep inky blue donned by the Virgin Mary at the foot of the Cross in the Master of the Starck Triptych's "The Raising of the Cross" were all there, together with the folds and draped motifs of the fabrics in Rogier Van der Weyden's "The Descent from the Cross".
Simons then proceeded to take one single oversized thick and wide (or fur) sleeve and remixed it, integrating a piece from a historical robe into a modern coat donned by models who walked clutching the garment to their bodies for more emphasis.
The result was quirky and at times the sleeve seemed odd and unbalancing the symmetry of a perfect coat (that was in some cases matched with wide-legged corduroy trousers). The coats actually looked oversized and maybe carved out of blankets and then attached to a random sleeve.
Further references to Flemish art could be spotted in the loose hair and white flowing gowns, in the wide capes and dresses slit at both sides (and closed with gold jewellery-like links) from waist to ankle, a sexualised version of the "surcote", a female garment cut open from the shoulder to hip that was part of the Gothic wardrobe.
Chain mail was turned into a metallic vest or harness, or interpreted as a softer jacquard knit tank top. Traditional Dior shapes such as the Bar jacket were left behind as a way to escape from the archives and replaced with monastic white dresses with embroidered or pleated cuffs.
Flemish architecture was referenced in the fabrics, though the delicate tiny pastel-toned feathers covering some of dresses and the soft and colourful dots were borrowed from Pointillism and recreated in tiny printed spots, sequins or feathers.
Accessories were eclectic: a cherry pendant called to mind the earthly delights theme, but the glitter platforms laced almost to the knee pointed towards more modern times.
The set went well with the clothes: a Perspex structure with hand-painted panels in shades of green and lilac, blue, pink and yellow built (or landed?) in the gardens of the Musée Rodin with a wysteria runway of AstroTurf on which giant plastic forbidden fruits had been carelessly scattered.
The designer stated the venue was supposed to be a Pointillist church, even though it looked more like a spaceship. Yet these contrasts (church/spaceship or maybe nightclub à la Miu Miu?) in the set were exactly what Simons was aiming at not just for what regarded the set, but also for what regarded the collection that played with contrasts of dark and light colours or pure and angelic gowns juxtaposed to sexualised ones.
The final verdict? While it wouldn't have been a bad idea to edit the show, Simons proved you can inject art and architecture in Haute Couture in a less literal way than other designers have done so far, and that it is possible to merge the historical and the fashionable, the past and the future, the Flemish masters and the Pointillists (or painters who used the pointillist technique like Van Gogh's in his Self-portrait), innocence and decadence, fairy-tale and reality.
That said, it will be maybe tricky for traditional Haute Couture clients to adopt some of these shapes and conceptual ideas. In the art world the use of a metaphorical garden is interpreted as the hortus conclusus, an enclosed garden symbol of Mary's immaculate conception or hinting at a pure spouse. Simons' exercises risk of becoming horti conclusi not just for the majority of people who can't afford Haute Couture, but also for traditional high fashion clients. Sometimes rebalancing highly conceptual thoughts in favour of the mastery of craft may not be such a bad idea.
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