It is undeniable that fashion is currently in a state of seasonal chaos and confusion: Resort lookbooks are still being unveiled (a process that has been going on for what looks like weeks and months…); menswear shows are currently taking place, in the meantime quite a few labels are proceeding to restructure their shows, combining men and womenswear together.
In all this mess Aitor Throup in London was probably the only designer who tried to make a comment about seasons (well, he always did so since he never liked the conventional division into seasons) and the value of a designer's work.
On Sunday evening he presented via a fashion performance - entitled "The Rite of Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter" and held at the Holy Trinity Church - his "trans-seasonal prototypes".
The latter consisted in a series of life-size puppets, created in collaboration with puppet designer and engineer James Perowne and animated by a crew of puppeteers clad in white uniforms with matching white masks.
The show proceeded in tableauxs: first a white box placed in the centre of the catwalk space was lifted to unveil fabrics and sticks underneath. Then the puppeteers animated the poles showing the first figure.
At the beginning the puppets were dressed in black functional pieces in Throup's trademark style (think nylon jackets, roomy parkas, hoodies, and combat pants), then black and white designs were introduced. One of the last puppets was characterised by a light that glowed from within it and the final figures were shot to reveal coloured powders exploding from their heads.
When the presentation finished, the puppets and outfits were revealed standing in a line, the church's stained glass windows in the background contributing to giving the impression they were souls awaiting judgement at the gates of Heaven (or Hell...).
The focus in this performance wasn't just on the clothes: Throup left at the entrance of the church four dummies clad in white and arranged in a pile, as part of the installation "The Resting of the Past". The pieces were references to his previous work, covered in white paint and therefore vandalised, destroyed, disregarded and finally left to rest to allow the designer to move forward.
Through this performance Throup maybe also attempted a critique of his role: the dummies animated by the puppeteers were casts of Throup's body, so maybe he was pointing us towards the "designer as puppet" metaphor that perfectly fits our times with very few creative minds being able to boast about being independent and working in total freedom.
The puppeteers on stage hinted at the Bunraku theatre: in the latter the puppeteers are clad in black, but they are in full view and their physical presence gives the puppet an uncanny physical power (so maybe Throup was also referring to the creative power of the designer?).
This installation was actually to be conceived as an arty presentation: the clothes and the puppets will be sold as art works at London's Dover Street Market from today (14th June) through to 6th July, while a commercial collection based on the designs will be launched in January 2017.
Throup should be praised for trying to tell a story in an engaging way, through clothes, fabrics and theatre, commenting along the way on his role and on seasons using puppets (rather fashionable mediums at the moment also for architectural presentations as seen in a previous post...).
Yet the performance called back to mind Hussein Chalayan's "Sakoku" video for his Spring/Summer 2011 collection: At a certain point in this film a model in a floral chiffon dress was surrounded by black puppeteer-like figures moving her dress and turning her into a Bunraku theatre puppet (View this photo).
Though reminiscent of Chalayan's images, Throup's presentation shows that fashion doesn't have to be superficial and taking time off to research is important to find more powerful meanings and ideas behind mere clothes. Throup did not take part in any presentations in London for three-and-a-half years, trying to discover innovative ways to interpret and present the possibilities of a catwalk show. Hopefully, he will continue his research along these lines.
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