There are different ways to comment and react about key issues bothering our world: analysing specific problems through exhibitions is not a solution but may provide new perspectives on global predicaments, in the same way as a poignant photograph, cartoon, article or essay may re-shift our collective attention on contemporary troubles plaguing the lives of many.
At times fashion designers comment upon the world on their runways, but this practice is becoming untrendy for too many reasons, including the fact that fashion is supposed to provide us with an escapist view of life and when you design a collection you want the consumers' consensus, you don't want to scare or trouble them with heavy comments on society.
Yet, as hinted in Milan by Miuccia Prada in her A/W 2016 menswear collection, it is possible to subtly hint at specific problems; or, as seen in Paris on the Walter Van Beirendonck's runway, you can launch yourself into an angry but joyful tirade.
Though a pacifist interested in spreading a kind of energetic and dynamic joy through vivid colours and bright patterns, Walter Van Beirendonck claimed via his new collection that he is angry about the state the world is in.
The consequences of terrorism, wars and migrations were on his mind and he hoped politicians will find a solution to a situation escaping our hands. He launched his appeal using a word from his language - the Flemish "Woest", meaning "furious" - also the title of the collection.
The term appeared embroidered on transparent PVC patches integrated in jumpers or on denim jackets and workers' overalls covered in colourful yet deadly scenes showing combat aircrafts.
The word - almost a follow-up to the slogans "Stop Terrorising Our World", "Warning Explicit Beauty", "Demand Beauty" and "An Eye for an Eye Only Ends Up Making the Whole World Blind", included in the A/W 2015 collection - wasn't applied to all the designs.
Quite often Van Beirendock played indeed with juxtapositions to show his anger: animals were painted onto the faces of models, but rather than being happy and cartoonish creatures, they carried guns in their paws; silhouettes of Pinocchio-like puppets hung from tailored jackets in vivid colours, but they didn't hint at the innocence of childhood. They could have indeed been interpreted as politicians acting like puppets or using other people like puppets.
Savage fury was represented by leopard and animal prints and by a process of construction and deconstruction.
Van Beirendock's peace fighters also donned intarsia leather jacket and coats forming tribal masks evoking Conrad's Heart of Darkness, totems and monstrous faces with dangly legs (the designs, at times incorporating figures slightly reminiscent of illustrations and paintings by the Italian Futurists, were probably the most eccentric yet still wearable pieces in a collection that, as a whole, wasn't always too cohesive) and blanket coats in multiple colours with tribal motifs.
A few models accessorised their looks with the Friesland oorijzer ("ear iron"), the iron bands with ornate spirals or flat squarish ornaments on their ends that originally served to display family wealth, but in this case turned the models into uncanny antennae showing sensitivity or receptiveness to contemporary events. This was maybe a way for the designer to create a transnational look that incorporated exotic moods and elements from his own country.
We live in dark times, Van Beirendonock seemed to say, and that's why he closed the show with an unusual shade - black - for a coat with another of his disturbing fabric puppets thrown across it.
Pessimism on the runways? In a way it's already there with many menswear buyers from Japan avoiding Paris due to a Japanese government-issued travel warning that followed last November's terrorist attacks, while people going to the shows get their body and bags scanned by metal detectors and their passports checked upon entrance.
Van Beirendock is aware that it is highly unlikely that fashion will change the world, but raising issues - especially if you have a platform to do so such as a runway - is not such a bad idea, isn't it?
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Comments