It is definitely hard, even in our digital age, not to have a fascination with books: they are solid and tangible entities, but they are also the key to imaginary and undiscovered worlds and characters; they are loyal friends and offer company whenever you need it and, well, they don't need to be recharged and they don't buzz every three seconds to alert you about a message or email.
The list of famous book lovers is extremely long and, as proved by an exhibition entitled "Warhol by the Book" that toured different museums last year, the artist loved experimenting with books and publishing.
That exhibition featured Warhol's book projects from his student days to his years as a commercial artist and included unfinished works, original drawings, photographs, screen prints, manuscripts, self-published books and a pop-up "children's book for hipsters" featuring sound recordings, holograms, and a do-it-yourself nose job, in a nutshell a series of materials that revealed his creative processes.
Warhol embraced a bit of everything, from crime novels and romantic fiction to instructional how-tos and sales catalogues, hand-coloured artist's books and colouring books, as well as mass-market books about his country, celebrity friends, and parties.
He contributed to more than eighty projects for books, often acting as author, designer, illustrator, promoter, and publisher, and, though he claimed not to read, he left a private library that included many rare and significant volumes.
Christie's is currently holding an auction (until 2nd August) of Warhol's studies for well-known books, such as In the Bottom of My Garden and Wild Raspberries, as well as a rare Lips book. You can browse and bid now on images that capture a different side of the complex Pop icon, with estimates starting at $1,200.
So far the most expensive lot is the one for Lips (starting at $26,000), followed by the complete book of 20 offset lithographs for In the Bottom of My Garden (starting at $20,000), but there are slightly "more affordable" materials for (wealthy) fashionistas including a lithograph for A la Recherche du Shoe Perdu or pastel coloured stationery for Bergdorf Goodman.
Too expensive, you say, but still looking for some fun books linked with fashion? Check out the new editions of seminal tales by Beatrix Potter.
Five books by the author were indeed recently republished by Penguin Random House Children to celebrated the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth.
For the occasion the publishing house commissioned five new covers to fashion designers (the actual content remains untouched). Henry Holland's big and bold letters reminiscent of his iconic T-shirts appear on The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck; The Tale of Mrs.Tiggy-Winkle now boasts a geometric cover by Orla Kiely while Preen reinterpreted the cover for The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin in a floral key.
The Rodnik Band stole and adapted Mondrian for The Tale of Tom Kitten, and the Cats Brothers gave a rebellious street-wise look to The Tale of Peter Rabbit, changing his blue jacket into a denim one with cool patches (well, Potter dressed her animals in actual clothes, so take it as an update on Peter's wardrobe...).
Beatrix Potter's purists may dismiss the cool and fresher "Fashion Designer Collection" of these titles as "children's book for hipsters", but, surprisingly, some of these covers look much better than recent fashion collections/designs by some of these creative minds. In a way, if any of them ever dropped out of fashion to get a career in books as graphic designers, the loss of the fashion world would be the gain of the publishing industry.
Visitors to dedicated trade fairs such as the Tranoï and fans of the Moda Operandi trunkshows will already be quite familiar with the Mola Sasa brand, though the eye catching colours and patterns of its accessories have also been frequently spotted among the hip crowd going to fashion shows. Yet there is more behind the clutches and bangles produced by this brand.
Molas are indeed multilayered panels of cloth cut away to reveal intricate patterns and then carefully handstitched together; the more layers (molas go from 2 to 7 layers) the more fine the Mola.
These panels - characterised by colourfully bright optical or geometrical patterns, abstract motifs derived from basketry and body painting or depicting pictorial scenes - are integrated in the blouses of the Kuna women from the indigenous communities in Northern Colombia, on the border with Panama.
The fabrics are therefore a representation of the Kuna culture, their beliefs and traditions. Women originally started selling molas in 1945 after a missionary bought one as a souvenir and nowadays they are often sold to tourists as wall hangings.
Mola Sasa was started by Colombian architect and interior designer Yasmin Sabet who enlisted female artisans from the indigenous Kuna community of Colombia and Panama to create a collection of clutches: More recently the designers thought about employing leftover fabrics from the bag manufacturing process to decorate wooden bangles.
The brand works with Rosemary and her co-operative of 60 women living in the "Alto Cayman" province in the northern region of Colombia, on the border of Panama.
Each fabric is the particular design of the artisan woman that carefully works on it and the resulting clutches do not look like holiday bags and can be perfectly used in the city even in Autumn or Winter.
The collections offer a wide choice of patterns and palettes that go from light and vibrant for the current designs to dark and earthy for the autumnal season, while the Resort collection for next year features a wide range of animals, including fish and lobsters, parrots, pelicans and toucans, tigers and jaguars.
Since each bag is handmade, no piece will exactly be the same: looks like the fashion industry may be slowly finding a way to combine ethical projects and sustainability with design and with a will to support, preserve and encourage artisanal traditions.
In a previous post we looked at Summer inspirations in the embroidered motifs of a kimono. Yet Summer can be evoked also by a particular shade or palette, as proved by the saffron yellow nuance that characterises this lavishly and richly embroidered satin waistcoat from around the 1730s (on display in the Europe 1600-1815 galleries at the V&A in London).
Saffron yellow was fashionable for both men and women until the 1780s and the garment was enriched with embroidery in coloured silk and metal and silver threads that would have created beautiful effects when the light hit them.
The generous length and ample pocket flaps allowed for rich decoration: the design included Rococo motifs such as sinuous patterns of exotic flowers and leaves with feathered scrolls and extravagant forms, though the bold treatment of vegetation hinted at Baroque style. The centre of the large scrolls featured a honeycomb pattern that allowed the rich saffron satin to show through the needlework. Metallic threads were also used for the decorative edging around the neckline.
The length of the right-side waistcoat opening was embellished with decorative passementerie buttons and a single button fastened each cuff. Buttons were worked with silver foil, purl, filé and a silver spangle and, while the upper twelve buttons on the front had a precise function since they fastened the waistcoat, the lower nine buttons served only for decorative purposes. The luxurious shade of yellow employed for this garment instantly conjures up the glamorous life of the courts, but also inspires visions of a warm summer sun. Enjoy!
Yesterday's post revolved around a Russian folk story and a painter and, to follow the thread, let's look in this feature at a recent announcement made by the V&Ain London and revolving around a partnership with the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, and Vogue Russia.
The three partners will develop indeed a new exhibition set to open in 2020 (and moving to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 2021) that will analyse the influence of Russia on 20th century and contemporary Western fashion.
Key periods and styles will be examined, moving from Russian folk culture, the Russian court and imperial costume, to the avant-garde, revolutionary romanticism, and Perestroika. Art and fashion fans may find quite a few interesting inspirations going from paintings (yes, Korovin and Vrubel will also be included) and photographs to stage costumes, textiles and modern designs.
Some of the main names that will be involved include Bakst and Rodchenko and designers who have been influenced by Russia, like Paul Poiret and Jean Paul Gaultier.
"This exciting partnership will see the Museum embark on a new era of working with Russia and initiate the process of not just cultural exchange, but co-creating cultural content. Russia is a fascinating country of contrasts, but it remains shrouded in mystery," Martin Roth, Director of the V&A, states in an official press release. "This co-curation presents a wonderful opportunity to work with our Russian partners to promote greater understanding of Russia's rich and diverse cultural history."
The V&A holds significant Russian collections of metalwork, jewellery and theatre and performance-related objects, as well as Russian furniture, textiles, glass, sculpture and paintings, but so does the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, founded 160 years ago by Moscow merchant Pavel Tretyakov with the aim to create the first museum of national art available to everybody. The Gallery holds indeed more than 180,000 art works, spanning from 11th century icons to contemporary Russian art, including a world famous collection of the Russian avant-garde.
Art purists may find the third partner maybe incompatible with the two museums, yet, since it was launched by Conde Nast in 1998, Vogue Russia has fashioned itself as a multimedia brand (though - it should be highlighted - it wasn't always headed by the perfect editor...) and often organised events including "The Nude in Vogue" exhibition in 2013 at the Pushkin Museum (nude portraits of fashion models over the entire history of Vogue along with world-famous masterpieces), "Dance in Vogue" at the Multimedia Art Museum Moscow in 2011 and "Russia in Vogue" in 2013.
Anita Gigovskaya, President of Conde Nast Russia stated about the triple partnership: "Russia has never itself been a power in world fashion, but it has often had the power to influence world fashion. This is because of the truly gigantic scale of the country itself, its dramatic history, and the endless variety of its ethnographic and cultural landscape. This encompasses many contrasts - between the exotic East and Slavic romanticism, between the unrestrained luxury of Byzantium and northern reserve - offering a rich visual range alongside its thrilling history of plot and intrigue and creating a perfect breeding ground for ideas of design."
Art fans who may want to try and educate themselves about the exhibition can visit the V&A and spot Russian objects among the items on display in its galleries, such as the recently-reopened spaces dedicated to Europe 1600-1815, or they can read through the catalogues for the previous exhibitions, "Russian Avant-Garde Theatre: War Revolution and Design 1913-1931" (2014 –2015), "The Treasures of the Royal Courts: Tudors, Stuarts and the Russian Tsars" (2013), "Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929" (2010) and "Magnificence of the Tsars: Ceremonial Men's Dress of the Russian Imperial Court, 1721-1917" (2008 –2009). Hopefully, the exhibition will also be an opportunity to rediscover architecture in Russia maybe in connection with fashion.
Image credits for this post
1. Fashion design for an Evening Dress, Erté for Paul Poiret, Paris (designed); New York (drawn), 1913-14 Victoria and Albert Musuem, London
2. Konstantin Korovin, The Northern Idyll, 1892 The State Tretyakov Gallery
3. Léon Bakst, Salome. Costume sketch for O.Wilde's play "Salome", 1908 The State Tretyakov Gallery
4. Liubov Popova Untitled Textile Design on William Morris Wallpaper for HM, David Mabb, 2010 Victoria and Albert Museum, David Mabb
5. Mikhail Vrubel, The Swan Princess, 1900 The State Tretyakov Gallery
6. Theatre Costume, Léon Bakst (designed), 1912 Victoria and Albert Museum, London
7. Vogue Russia, April 2011, Mariano Vivanco Vogue Russia
8. Vogue Russia, May 1999, Zanna Vogue Russia
9. Vogue Russia, September, 2011 Diana Vishneva and Patrick Demarchelier Vogue Russia
It can be hard managing to concentrate in Summer, especially if you're exhausted and your mind dreams of relaxing on a sunny beach. Taking a break and finding a wonderful inspiration can help you filling your eyes with beauty and your mind with the strength you need to get on with your day even when you're away from balmy beaches or can't afford a holiday. If you have a passion for the sea and for fashion as well, get inspired by the painting "Sadko" by Russian realist painter Ilya Repin.
Sadko is a Russian folktale hero: the legend says he was a very talented musician and that the Underwater King offered him a reward for playing in his kingdom.
Sadko played, but the king started dancing causing a storm and sinking many ships.
Time passed and Sadko started to get tired, but a sage came to his rescue suggesting him to tear through the strings of his instrument to interrupt the dance without angering the King.
The Underwater King would then stop dancing and offer him as a reward one of his daughters.
Sadko would have to refuse 600 daughters of the king, but accept the very last one of them.
Repin here portrayed the final moment of Sadko's decision with the half-human/half-aquatic girls passing in front of the hero.
Each of them wears fantastic attires, pearls and jewels, and each of them receives a refusal.
The betrothed, Tschernawuschka, is wrapped in a golden light (gold, rather than blue prevails in this scene) and flashes a glance at Sadko.
The painting is a beautiful fantasy, extraordinary dream and the story also fascinated other artists.
Alexei Tolstoy wrote a poem about Sadko, while Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed an opera in 1897 about it and co-wrote the libretto for it.
Operas such as "Sadko" proved inspiring also for ballet. Quite often in these performances painters were indeed called to create the scenes or the costumes.
Painter Mikhail Vrubel created for example the costume for the the Sea Queen in "Sadko", donned by his wife, the beautiful opera singer Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel.
This collaborative method was later on adopted by Diaghilev who often employed painters to create the sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes performances.
"Sadko" became a ballet with sets by Boris Anisfeld, costumes by Anisfeld and Léon Bakst and choreography by Michel Fokine.
Premiered in 1911 in Paris, the ballet was staged again in 1916 with choreography by Adolph Bolm and costumes designed by Natalia Gontcharova.
Repin's "Sadko" will be on display at the Drents Museum in Assen as part of the exhibition "Peredvizhniki - Russian Realism Around Repin 1870 - 1900" (from 25th September 2016 to 2nd April 2017), that will feature more than 70 paintings by various artists, most of them on loan from the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
Some of the images accompanying yesterday's post celebrated the male body, so let's move from this theme to look at bold hints of eroticism and at striking details in theatrical costumes. In 1937 Coco Chanel designed the costumes for Jean Cocteau's Oedipus Rex. The main character was played by Jean Marais, Cocteau's handsome young lover.
The costume for this character consisted in a series of white elasticized bands that, winding around his naked body, revealed some portions of skin, giving the impression from a distance that Marais was maybe wearing a striped bodysuit. Other male characters wore variations on this costume that at the time scandalised many members of the audience because it called to mind bondage, but also gave the costume a macabre edge reminding of a mummy's attire.
Yet Marais' costume wasn't the only notable one included in this production: Chanel designed for Iya Abdy as Jocasta a striking felt gown with a bodice decorated with an inverted V-shaped motif imitating a sort of artillery magazine and a full skirt divided in multicoloured sections. The costume was accompanied by matching jewellery, that is a long necklace made of wooden spools of thread from a seamstress' worktable. (The spools also referenced the spinning threads of the three Fates of classical mythology.) One critic spotted Russian and eastern European inspirations in this costume, as if Chanel was referencing a Cossack's tunic over a skirt draped in the gypsy style.
Interested in discovering more about Chanel in connection with Jean Cocteau? A new "Culture Chanel" exhibition will take place at the Ca' Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice from 17th September 2016 to 8th January 2017. Curated by Jean-Louis Froment (founder of the CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain in Bordeaux and previous artistic director of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco), "The woman who reads" will mainly focus on Coco Chanel and on the books and authors that inspired and influenced her. Fashionistas (and book fans) take note.
Mention ceramic pieces in conjunction with sex and probably most of us will conjure up in our minds that infamous scene from the movie "Ghost" with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore sitting at the pottery wheel and letting their hands slip through the wet, soft clay.
But the history of erotic ceramic pieces is actually older and includes very sophisticated classical Greek vases and Asian porcelains from the 18th and 19th century, as an exhibition opening in a month's time at the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics in Leeuwarden, will soon prove.
"Sexy Ceramics" is indeed designed as journey through very provocative pieces, yet it's not arranged chronologically, but through the stages of lovemaking. The opening pieces look at gentle courtship and soft touches, but, little by little, the artworks included become more explicit.
At times, the pieces are characterized by historical images, hidden symbols or evocative shapes: courtesans, femmes fatales, seductive slippers, mischievous shepherd scenes, bare breasts, genitalia, male bodies, and graceful ladies show a world full of temptations, while lewd and lascivious vignettes hidden away under cups and dishes make you smile highlighting the more playful and ironic aspects of sex.
Stories from both the Eastern and the Western traditions - from Adam and Eve to the dissolute life of the handsome Genji, second son of an emperor - become great sources of inspiration for dishes, bowls and figurines.
Smooth materials and the fact that most of these pieces - from robust pottery to delicate porcelain - are shaped by human hands, hint at a heightened sensual experience.
Contemporary ceramics by artists including Louise Bourgeois and Jessica Harrison take the viewer into the world of sex and seduction.
The imagination is further stimulated by modern artists including Suzanne Posthumus, Michel Gouéry, Els van Westerloo, Irene Vonck, Anne Marie Laureys and Saturo Hoshino.
Each of these modern ceramists explore the unique properties of this material, some of them producing ambiguous pieces, others stimulating yet disturbing ones.
The exhibition will climax (excuse the pun...) with a final room conceived as a peepshow and featuring tiles with erotic pictures, pornographic porcelains and sculpted dildos, most of them leaving very little to the imagination (please note that this room has an age limit and you must be 16 to access to it).
For this exhibition artworks were loaned from the collections of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Groninger Museum, several private collectors and the Venustempel Sex Museum in Amsterdam.
The renowned artist Alexandra Engelfriet also covered the walls of the exhibition spaces with clay, moulding it with her arms to give it physically powerful shapes.
A dirty mind is a joy forever, some malicious critics may suggest, rewriting Keats, but the theme chosen for this exhibit is actually a fun one that will certainly win new visitors to the museum.
The abstract bends and curves of some of these artworks reminiscing the human body, the explicit references, and the wonderful colours and techniques employed to make them will indeed offer visitors more accessible perspectives on ceramics.
One final note: the main campaign image for this exhibition features a man's body with a strategically placed abstract ceramic object by Tina Vlassopoulos, a good choice from the museum that should be praised since it opted to leave behind the overexposed female body to focus on the male body language.
One of the most impressive element in the photograph accompanying yesterday's post remains the collar donned by model Vivienne Lynn. If you are into exaggerated, extravagant or simply striking collars, you should look for inspirations in a museum. Some of the most amazing collars were indeed featured in paintings from around the 1600s. One example? Head to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam where, alongside "The Night Watch" by Rembrandt, you will be able to admire (until 2nd October) the Marten and Oopjen portraits.
Rembrandt's portraits of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit (both dating 1634) were owned by the Rothschild banking family that acquired them in 1878. Last year the former was acquired by the Dutch State for the Rijksmuseum; the latter was instead bought by the French Republic for the Musée du Louvre. They were exhibited at the Louvre until June, and they are currently in Amsterdam. In three months' time they will be sent to the Rijksmuseum's conservation workshop where they are going to be restored. From then on they will enjoy a double residency - three months in each museum and then five years – and they will always be shown together.
Rembrandt painted these full-length marriage portraits when he was twenty-eight: previously this type of portrait was only popular in courtly circles, but around 1600 they became quite fashionable among wealthy citizens in Holland.
Marten and Oopjen married in June 1633, they were young, rich and had a bright future (Marten died prematurely, though, and Oopjen later on remarried).
The paintings seem to match - the floor extends through in both paintings, while the curtains hanging to the right behind the man seem to continue in the woman's portrait.
Both sitters are placed in evocative settings, surrounded by carefully painted objects, gilded elements and precious fabrics; both wear splendidly rendered sumptuous black costumes in the latest French fashion.
Soolmans is depicted holding a glove in his left hand, there is a great sense of dynamism in his folded arm with one hand on his hip, mainly given by the way the fabric of the sleeve falls on his arm and by the ribbed texture of his jacket. Soolmans also wears extraordinary rosettes on his shoes that show his pasison for French trends.
Coppit (in the painting she was pregnant) holds an ostrich feather fan and wears a four-row pearl necklace among other expensive jewellery including a gold ring with diamonds and a ring with a black stone on her right forefinger; her milky complexion is emphasized by a fabric beauty mark on her left temple (such marks were called "mooches"), while the black veil covering her head is meant to protect her delicate skin from the sun.
Both wear luxuriously ample white lace collars and lace accessories such as cuffs characterised by a gauze-like consistency. Through their clothes they symbolize the ambitions of the Dutch Republic in the Golden Age and visitors who would like to learn more about those times should check out the special route traced through Amsterdam to discover more about Rembrandt, Marten and Oopjen, their backgrounds, families and lives.
The previous post closed with a precise period of time, the late '70s, so let's start from there and get inspired today by a photograph of model Vivienne Lynn taken around in 1979.
The picture was taken by the late Australian photographer Robyn Beeche who captured between the late '70s and the early '80s the spirit of London. Some of her most famous images portrayed jeweller and sculptor Andrew Logan, fashion designers Zandra Rhodes and Vivienne Westwood, accessory designer and artist Judy Blame, performers Divine and Leigh Bowery, Steve Strange, co-founder of the Blitz Club in Covent Garden, and many more including model Sonia Year wearing a striking hat by Stephen Jones.
Beeche's use of lighting and very unique and creative make up often transformed her models into sculptures: in quite a few of her portraits the models are endowed with a terrific theatricality, besides no boundaries seem to exist between genders, or reality and fantasy.
Beeche celebrated the power of transformation through fashion: in this portrait - entitled "Vivienne, a look from the '80s" - Lynn is wearing heavy white theatrical make-up and a large white collar by designer Willie Brown. The arrows on her forehead and eyebrows and on the road-like collar are perfectly traced and well-measured and she looks like a mysteriously enigmatic character.
Beeche proved with her photographs – often suspended between art and fashion – that looking fashionable doesn't mean splashing money on piles of designer clothes, but using your creativity in visually striking ways.
In the mid-'60s youth fashion introduced a new, affordable and desirable avant-garde design - the paper dress. In 1966, department stores Abraham & Strauss in New York hired Pop artist Andy Warhol for a unique paper dress "happening": the "Two Dollar Paper Dress promotion" introduced consumer to a Mars Manufacturing Company of Asheville paper dress sold with a paint kit.
For the occasion Nico from the Velvet Underground wore the dresses while Warhol painted them: on one design he silkscreened the slogan "Fragile" down the front in bright magenta, while Nico was lying on a table, and then signed it "Dali"; he glued large silkscreened paper bananas, two in front and two behind, on the second dress.
The dresses were then donated to the Brooklyn Museum since they had been produced at an art happening and were to be considered as art objects. This event turned into a small landmark celebration of three main creative forces - art, fashion and music.
This story from the '60s may be read in a superficial and commercial way, but it may also be analysed in-depth, pondering for example about ideas and meanings associated with art and culture, in conjunction with the powerful communicative function of music and clothing.
People who would like to explore and examine all these topics should maybe try and visit the Tilburg-based Textiel Museum where they can discover the exhibition "Pop Art Fabrics & Fashion: From Warhol to Westwood (1956-1976)".
The event features more than 200 textile and fashion designs chronicling two decades of popular culture, examining the interaction between art, fashion and music via garments, fabrics and interior design pieces.
The starting point of this exhibition is a symbolic decade, the '50s, with the cultural revolution brought by rock'n'roll. Garments and designs included in this section are characterised by trademark imagery borrowed from adverts, packaging, billboards, cartoons, comics, film and music.
The pieces on display hint at a carefree lifestyle: their colourful patterns, prints of musical notes and stylised images of bands are directly borrowed from the music of those times, characterized by infectious arrangements and catchy lyrics. Jazz is not forgotten, though, and next to Elvis Presley there are also prints inspired by John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.
The following decade is inspired by Pop Art and saluted by a joyfully exuberant explosion of textures and patterns created for fabrics and wallpapers.
Renowned Pop artists such as Andy Warhol designed indeed textiles for fashion and furnishings, and the event includes rarely shown fabrics by Nicholas Zann, the New Yorker best known for his comic books.
Zann reunites in his biography all the main themes of this exhibition: in the '50s he fronted a rock'n'roll band with which he recorded and toured internationally; from 1965 he dedicated himself to the world of fine arts and worked as a painter, illustrator and cartoonist, but he also created prints for fabric companies such as New York-based Leon Rosenblatt. In 1990, MTV even aired a special profile edition on Karl Lagerfeld, Andy Warhol and Nicky Zann.
Zann's textile designs share a strong similarity with the work of Roy Lichtenstein who, in turn, used the comics and cartoons of this acclaimed graphic designer as the main inspiration for his art.
Yet there was another scene that lent itself very well to fabric design – Op Art. In 1965 the "Responsive Eye" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York promoted this movement and, almost immediately, its patterns and motifs were transferred onto fabric.
Op Art motifs were crossovers between popular culture and high art and quite a few fabric companies jumped on the bandwagon considering this movement as a healthy departure from the more superficial Pop Art.
Black and white shades and dizzy swirls prevail in this section of the event that also introduces the clean lines, geometric shapes and stiff fabrics (vinyl, plastics and, well, chains...) favoured by Space Age designers such as André Courrèges, Pierre Cardin and Paco Rabanne who based their designs on employing new materials based on modern technologies.
While the late '60s are embodied by Woodstock trousers, "Love and Peace" prints, psychedelic posters created for the Beatles shop and fun Zandra Rhodes fabrics, the next decade is represented by anarchic punk fashion, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, both closely linked to the Sex Pistols.
One of the most striking displays in this section actually revolves around the T-shirts designed by British sculptor John Dove and his wife, textile designer Molly White, with pictures of David Bowie, Siouxsie, Iggy Pop, Jordan and Johnny Thunders.
The highlight of this wall is their "Breasts" T-shirt, featuring a photographic image of top model and pulp fiction writer Pat Booth's breasts that created a trompe l'oeil effect. The design was sold at Countdown, a leading Chelsea boutique co-owned by photographer James Wedge and Booth. Dove and White's work from the 1970s on elevated T-shirt design to modern art.
It would have been exciting to maybe add another decade in the exhibition: Elvis, bananas, ice cream cones, soup cans, psychedelic patterns, oversized motifs and items from Elton John's personal wardrobe, would have gone well with the joyful '80s and with smiley prints evoking the rave movement.
One final note: quite a few fashion houses nowadays call artists to collaborate with them on a print for a specific fashion collection (while high street retailers seem to be more interested in stealing ideas from young artists…), but it would be interesting to bring back artists into the world of fabrics, not just as occasional collaborators for one collection or for a one-off "happening" like presentation, but as proper illustrators and textile designers.
"Pop Art Fabrics & Fashion - From Warhol to Westwood (1956-1976)", The TextielMuseum,Tilburg, The Netherlands, until 20th November 2016.
Image credits for this post
1. "Love Comic", interior fabric Designer: Nicky Zann, 1970 Material: cotton Technique: roller print Production: Leon Rosenblatt, New York, for Concord Fabrics, USA Collection / photo Target Gallery, London
3 Elvis Presley, border print for skirt Designer: Rock 'n' Roll skirts, 1956 Material: cotton Technique: roller print Production: Rock 'n' Roll skirts, USA Collection / photo Target Gallery, London
8.Overview exhibition with the "Ice Cream Cone" dress, designed by Andy Warhol (fabric) and Stephen Bruce (dress), 1964, and produced by Stehli Silks Inc. Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
13. "David Bowie T-shirt" Designer: John Dove, Molly White, 1976 Material: cotton jersey Technique: silkscreen Photo John Dove/ Molly White
14. "Jordan T-shirt" Designer: John Dove, Molly White, 1976 Material: cotton jersey Technique: silkscreen Photo John Dove/ Molly White
15. "Breasts T-shirt" Designer: John Dove, Molly White in collaboration with photographer James Wedge for "Countdown", 1969 Material: cotton jersey Technique: pigment print Photo John Dove/ Molly White
17. Men's Waistcoat, made for Elton John Designer: unknown, ca. 1971 Material: cotton Technique: embroidered, appliqued denim; Production: Moonbeam Studios, UK Photo Target Gallery, London
20. "Lipstick", fashion textile Designer: Zandra Rhodes, ca. 1967-68 Material: crêpe Technique: silkscreen Collection / photo Target Gallery, London
21."Mystic Eye" jurk (with eye of Audrey Hepburn) Designer: Harry Gordon, 1967 Material: paper Technique: screen print; Production: "Poster Dresses", (USA,UK) Collection / photo Target Gallery, London