The melting of glaciers and ice sheets around the world is one of the most pronounced effects of climate change. Many scientists have also pointed out in their researches on glacial melting that we must start considering not only how much quantity of ice is being lost, but also how quickly we are losing it.
These issues will hopefully be taken into consideration at the UN Climate Change Conference COP21, currently on in Paris. Yet it's interesting to note how, every now and then, the art world seems quicker to respond to these topics with artists and designers developing projects inspired by them.
Last year at the 14th Venice International Architecture Exhibition, a project part of the "Antarctopia" event reminded visitors that, if the Antarctic ice melts down, the world ocean level will rise and all the Biennale pavilions in Venice will be submerged.
During the 56th Venice International Exhibition that closed in November, the Tuvalu Pavilion reflected on the problems small island nations are facing because of the effects of climate change. Taiwanese artist Vincent J.F. Huang reminded visitors via a dreamscape crossed by slightly submerged foot bridges that rising sea levels and severe storms cause floods, threatening small places such as Tuvalu.
At times also fashion has responded to climate change issues: behind the extravagant fun of Vivienne Westwood's Gold Label S/S16 collection, there was actually a serious topic.
Entitled "Mirror The World", the collection was about raising awareness about climate change issues, with particular attention to saving Venice (and the rest of the world...) from the threat of rising sea levels. As stated on her site, Westwood looked at the local Carnival as an event that allows people to dress up and disguise, turning into whatever they want.
Moving from the Commedia dell'Arte she therefore included in the collection vertical stripes and Harlequin-inspired patchwork knitwear, suiting and swimwear.
Disguise, role swapping and transgressions were among the main themes of the Commedia dell'Arte (a subject that has fascinated many designers throughout the decades...), so Westwood sent out on her runway men in draped gowns, robes and earrings and women wearing mannish suits with trousers cinched at the waist with a simple rope.
These designs were often matched with hats and headpieces inspired by the masks worn during Carnival period. A few pieces had a costumy edge about them and referenced 19th century dressing, though they were remixed with silhouettes and details borrowed from other decades such as wide 1980s shoulders.
At times the effect was more joyfully chaotic rave rather than Venetian Carnival, also thanks to the Harajuku girl twist added to the catwalk show by make up artist Val Garland.
In between theatrical oversized jackets and coats suspended over the heads of models to create a spooky silhouette to remind people that Venice is a city on stilts, a model in a masculine suit with her head wrapped in tulle, reminiscent of Silvana Mangano as Tadzio's mother in Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice, garments in rich velvet fabrics with metallic prints that looked like furnishing textiles or crossovers between Madame Gallenga and Mariano Fortuny, and models in bikinis and coarse hessian sarongs who looked like the survivors of a shipwreck disaster, there were rather wearable pieces.
The latter included jackets covered in hundreds of hardware pieces, buttons, gold embellishments, signature orbs and toys and deconstructed wrap and draped party dresses with ruffled fronts, evoking the broken mirror theme (just like it is possible to put back together the pieces of a broken mirror, it is possible to reconstruct a garment, even though it may end up looking as something completely different, like Harlequin's costume made from fabric leftovers and therefore looking rather odd).
Punk and anti-establishment slogans such as "Destroy" and "Repopulate Venice"” weren't missing, though the new print of the collection is entitled "Salva Venezia" (Save Venice) and reminds people that people, great architecture and art are in danger.
It may be difficult (if not impossible) saving the world from several imminent dangers threatening it with a runway show (especially when you're trying to commercially sell several products at the end of it...), but maybe turning the runway into a platform for activism or pointing out specific issues in a press release (Westwood invited the people who attended the show at the time to join her at the People's March that took place last Sunday in London) is not such a bad idea to raise awareness about a clean planet, a fair economy, healthy communities and sustainable development.
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