The Paris Haute Couture shows officially start tonight. Given the nature of these shows it is almost too easy to try and guess the luxurious materials that we will see on the runways. Yet there has been a very humble material that has fascinated many of us during two catwalk shows that occurred in different seasons - paper.
The latter was employed to create the set for Chanels's Spring/Summer 2015 couture show. The majestic Garden of Eden that bloomed behind the models included indeed 300 paper flowers and took six months to be completed. Each gigantic flower had an engine that allowed them to open up and bloom in mechanical perfection as the show unfolded.
Paper was the protagonist of another Chanel couture show as well: as you may remember, all the models on the Spring/Summer 2009 runway donned on their heads tiaras made with paper.
The headdresses featured intricate constructions of roses, camellias, feathers and leaves (inspired not just by nature, but also by 18th century white porcelain figures...), made by Japanese hair stylist Katsuya Kamo and his team.
But where can you learn how to master this art? I tried doing so at one of Stephen Foster's workshops at Glasgow's Museum/Research Centre The World Through Wooden Eyes.
My final result of the workshop (slightly less than two hours long) on relief figures may not have been as perfect as Foster's own figures and it won't probably end up on any Vogue cover, but, considering that I had never done anything along these lines, that's already a start.
If you want to try and learn how to use paper for sculptures, sets and portraits, check out further events scheduled for the next few weeks (including classes on paper masks, relief figures and Japanese paper dolls) on the Facebook page of The World Through Wooden Eyes Research Centre.
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