Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

Impracticality Vs Design: The Curse of the Mini Bag, The Cleverness of the Minaudière

At the beginning of March we looked at the latest collection by Anrealage and at the way this designer played with proportions. Somebody else has been playing with proportions during the A/W 19 season, but has mainly applied this theme to accessories - Jacquemus.

Actually Simon Porte's bags have been suffering from a "growing and shrinking Alice in Wonderland syndrome" for quite a while now: on his S/S 19 runway there were indeed models carrying huge raffia bags (reminiscent of his vast straw hats...), medium handbags and small ones.

Now small is not enough but tiny is the new black and Jacquemus introduced in his A/W 19 collection super tiny bags in vibrant colours (next to oversized shoulder bags and bum bags) that have turned into the most Instagrammable and Instagrammed accessories from the latest fashion season (the mini bags were also the invitation for the A/W 19 runway show).

Dubbed the Mini Le Chiquito (a resized version of the small Le Chiquito bag), the bags are roughly 5cm long and, as you may imagine, can hold very little (a couple of aspirins and a banknote folded in origami style? A USB stick? Suggestions are welcome).

This is one of those trends generated by destroying linguistic conventions: take something very ordinary and banal like a handbag-shaped keychain (definitely not unseen in fashion history, especially in the '90s) and change its name, call it a bag for example. In this process the object loses its identity and becomes suddenly new and therefore unbearably hip, even though it is in this case highly impractical.

The novel factor and the impracticality generate desire in fashion and therefore this item ends up being particularly desirable, increasing the brand value and producing media revenue.

The most unnerving thing about this design is not the fact that enthusing critics thought this represented a metaphor for travelling light or for a lack of emotional baggage, or that such a piece clearly hints at the status of the person carrying it (celebrities may travel light as their possessions are usually carried by people in their entourages; while impenitent fashionistas often carry a small bag and a bigger bag for their possessions or have a designer coat with pockets large enough to contain all their belongings...).

No, the most unnerving thing is the fact that, design-wise, there is nothing clever about micro bags as they are just tiny doll-sized  versions of real handbags.

If you go back in time you will instead find something incredibly beautiful in minaudières. The idea behind these jewel-like cases is attributed to Charles Arpels, of Van Cleef & Arpels. While visiting his friend Florence Jay Gould, Arpels saw her putting her lipstick, powder case, cigarettes and lighter into a Lucky Strike cigarette tin.

Designed and patented by Van Cleef & Arpels, this architectural objet d'art came in precious metals or in shiny black lacquer and included engraved details on the exterior or mother-of-pearl inserts and gems such as diamonds, emeralds and sapphires; inside it instead it was divided into compartments and spaces for several items - including powder compact, lipstick, watch, reading glasses, lighter, keys, comb and mirror, notebook, cigarette holder and pill/candy box. At times the designs were also accompanied by a cloth bag in velour, silk or brocade fabric that protected the rigid minaudière. 

The minaudière represented therefore an ingenious distribution of spaces, a way or organising personal items for maximum utility and soon Boucheron, Cartier, Dunhill and Asprey joined the trend coming up with beautiful examples of minaudières that are still fascinating in our times (often spotted at Sotheby's or Christie's, original examples were sold at auctions for sums going from £2,000 to £20,000).

Now that's what we call design, not a glorified keychain. Yet you can expect to see the micro handbag (if it is put into production...) to start swinging from the finger of influencers very soon or it may appear in one of those series featuring designer clothes à la Killing Eve. After all, the Mini Chiquito is what a psychotic deranged killer with a passion for fashion may want to carry, considering that it is big enough to contain a vial of poison. The rest of us living in the real world can instead abandon the idea of the micro-bag, go back to our beloved practical ordinary bags or maybe dream about a superfunctional original vintage minaudière.

High-Tech Immersive Art & Fashion Experiences: A.F. Vandevorst A/W 19 + Steven Sebring Studio

New York–based photographer Steven Sebring has become well-known in fashion circles for his 360-degree photography. Sebring leads the Lower East Side studio, DSR Media Lab, a creative space where he installed a 360-degree camera rig (and other advanced machines such as a cylindrical photo booth).

This revolutionary geodesic dome-like metallic structure allows indeed to take pictures and shoot videos, plus 3D holographic materials, from every angle, thanks to the 120 cameras arranged along its perimeter. Photographers using the dome emerge from it with a variety of options, they can use stills, a series of photographs that can be combined together for a three-dimensional model, or that can be collaged into films and VR experiences (the technique is definitely best appreciated when it is employed to create films). The final effect is futuristic and calls to mind some of the scenes in The Matrix, even though Sebring created the technology moving from the studies of animals in motion by 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge.

The results are quite intriguing as the images shot with this technique can be considered as experiments between technology and art: the best pictures are produced when the subject portrayed moves or jumps as the image can be frozen in mid-air, something that creates a very poetic effect.

While the applications for the rig are multiple, the fashion industry may benefit the most from Sebring's idea. Most fashion images allow indeed to explore only one side of a design, but in this way a photographer can get a full image, something that could work wonders in the case of Haute Couture designs since it would allow to appreciate such creations in a more detailed and precise way. 

Sebring's studio has for example been used for a project by Alexander Wang and for images of skateboarder Rodney Mullen doing flips in mid-air. Yet the same technique produces fascinating results when used to take images of dancers or athletes, so Sebring's rig can be employed for a variety of applications in different fields (think sport, science, medicine, biology, e-commerce, or even museum archives). Besides, the images elaborated by the dome can even be sent to a 3-D printer to make sculptures. 

An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx were the latest designers who turned to Sebring's studio to make sure the lookbook images for their A/W 19 collection became more alive, with models framed from all angles, their hair covering their faces, their clothes flying around them.

A.F.VANDEVORST AUTUMN WINTER 2019 from A.F.VANDEVORST on Vimeo.

A video combining 360-degree footage captured by director Cass Bird (who also did the project for Alexander Wang) was presented in Paris to launch A.F. Vandevorst's latest collection. The camera added a sort of sense of movement to the clothes showing models dynamically jumping and then statically being frozen in mid-air. 

There was actually a contrast, almost a dichotomy, in this collection that mainly featured wearable wardrobe staples: while technology was the vehicle to present and now promote it on the web, the main inspiration was an American girl freely running the countryside but wearing her parents' clothes.

Hence the zippers integrated in the sleeves of her suit coat and the buttons in her shirt sleeves (for that extra movement), plus high-waisted pleated floral skirts, sporty wide-leg loose pants with piping running up the leg and oversized blazers. The palette mainly focused on dark colours, but included occasional splashes of vivid red, yellow and violet.

The collection also features a series of accessories, such as hybrid ankle boots in zebra stripes and lizard skin with a chunky heel, sneakers and handbags (in a way the accessory section of the collection would have needed another 360° film...).

When it comes to fashion the best thing about this technique remains the fact that it shows all angles and allows to see how clothes really move on the body, while also freezing the frame so that viewers can appreciate clothes a bit better, slowing down the accelerated rhythms of modern fashion. While Sebring's system is high-tech, it is actually based on classic photographs, and this means we can live in our digital and fast times, while still taking it slow as if we were looking at a Polaroid.

A Textile Mills Romance: Alexander McQueen A/W 19

"Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose", wrote Gertrude Stein in "Sacred Emily", but Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen didn't have in mind this particular poem when she started working on the maison's A/W 19 collection, characterised by motifs of roses.

Everything started with Burton taking her team to the North of England and to the mill towns such as Huddersfield, Leeds and Macclesfield, where she was born and where she grew up.

Their trips were evoked by the fabric rolls from textile mills (the same fabrics employed for this collection) used as seats for the guests at the McQueen runway show, that took place during Paris Fashion Week.

A bolt of fabric was indeed the starting point for this collection as proved by the opening looks, sharply linear tailored suits with a draped half-skirt element spilling from the waistline and trailing sensually like in a Haute Couture gown, its selvedge including a key detail conceived as a slogan or a statement - "Made in England".

At times the suits came in a thick grey flannel, at others in pinstripes, they looked classic and timeless, but deconstructed and reconstructed with a punk and rebel woman in mind. They were indeed characterised by asymmetric effects and draped elements that contributed to elongate the silhouette.

This section of the collection had one main aim – prompting people to think about unadorned craftsmanship, that is elegant pieces made with hand-made traditional textiles. Burton explored through these designs the dichotomies between industrial machines and mechanisation processes Vs hand-made pieces, and the juxtaposition of two contrasting worlds - the factory and nature.

In some cases Burton's coats verged towards the military style, but a Prince of Wales check that was partially covered in swirling three-dimensional rosettes introduced the sustainability issue as it was made upcycling selvedge off-cuts picked from the cutting room floor.

Masculine tailoring was then contrasted with the rose theme, evoking nature, femininity, but also other English themes including the War of the Roses and local festivals such as rose queen parades, the flowers appeared as prints in red or electric blue (a reference to Boudicca, maybe?) on darkly romantic dresses.

But there were also variations on the romantic tough mood, with leather dresses with delicate cut outs along the edges and leather  suits with full skirts evoking high fashion designs, while biker jackets were matched with soft knitted skirts constructed with a multi-layered petal effect.

White dresses such as one that seemed kept together by rows of buttons rather than seams, and a white poplin dress with a fraying rose at the shoulder were maybe references to suffragette white and to Emmeline Pankhurst, born in Moss Side, Manchester. 

Towards the end of the collection roses assumed a stronger three-dimensional quality: fabric was sculpted Capucci-style and transformed into intricate swirling rose-like shapes on puffed taffeta dresses in black, fuchsia or red or formed floral vortices blooming along the satin sleeves of a black jacket.

These were essentially red carpet looks together with the blue ruffled evening dresses, or the net shirt covered in sparkling re-purposed earrings.

Yet even these designs featured references to factories: one silver dress seemed made with long metallic elements that were actually the needle-like heddles used in looms employed as if they were sequins (the noise made by the model wearing the dress was supposed to recreate the sound of the machines in a factory).

Burton included in the runway women with sensual curves, and this contributed to give you an idea of what these couture-like designs may look like not just on your average actress or celebrity, but also on real women.

As a whole this collection was consistent with Burton's previous ones, but it was also more personal and characterised by that same passion for history that the late Alexander McQueen had.

Everything was perfect and a lot of the collection desirable, but one thing was missing - a healthy dose of anger at issues such as factories closing down and traditions getting lost (without forgetting that England may end up being cut off from the rest of Europe if Brexit ever comes; it is worth remembering that, while the fabrics used to make some of the designs stated "Made in England", McQueen is produced in Italy and the future may be uncertain for British companies manufacturing in Europe after Brexit?).

The missing anger meant the collection lacked in emotional value, but remained a clever juxtaposition of industry and nature, tough and romantic moods, with models looking like warriors à la Boudicca dressing to go to war clad in empowering gowns and in dangerous boots covered in needles, but never actually joining the battle. 

Real Icons for International Women's Day: Italian Women in the Partisans

There are different events in countries all over the world to celebrate International Women's Day, but Italy has got a flower to symbolise it – the mimosa (so now you know why D&G sometimes used mimosa prints for their dresses...).

The Italian tradition of giving mimosa to women on 8th March can be traced back to February 1946 when a group of women reunited to talk about the celebration at the HQ of the Unione Donne Italiane (Union of Italian Women) in via Giustiniani 5, Rome. A debate started about organising something really special for International Women's Day, an event that was first celebrated in Italy in 1922, but that was abolished under Fascism. So 8th March 1946, was going to be an important date being the first day dedicated to women after the end of the war.

Some of the women in the group, Teresa Mattei, Rita Montagnana, and Teresa Noce, suggested to choose a flower that inspired joy and happiness and turn it into a symbol. Violets, carnations, roses, orchids and daffodils were mentioned, but some of them were too expensive or were deemed as too bourgeois. Eventually the mimosa was chosen: characterised by soft pompom-like flowers and an intoxicating fragrance, the plant can grow also in nutrient poor soil, so it was a good metaphor was the resilience of women. Blooming in early March it would have also been easy to find it and wouldn't have been as expensive as orchids. The motion was voted and the flower became throughout the years a sign of love, respect and appreciation of women.

In more recent years the celebration became more commercial, with women often opting to go out and have special dinners and parties, but in this dark political days, it is clear that this should be a day to ponder rather than a fleeting moment for happy celebrations.

Just yesterday in Italy, the country where a group of women chose such a delicate yet stubborn flower as their symbol, two young women were killed by their husband and boyfriend respectively; in the current Italian government men also seem to have the most powerful positions, with prominent ministers (such as Matteo Salvini, Italian Minister of the Interior) who everyday excel in their favourite (and saddest) sport – offending women of all ages who publicly disagree with them (a councillor from the far right League party recently told singer Emma Marrone who had spoken about opening ports to migrants, "to open her legs and get paid") or suggesting women they should stay at home and have babies as their role is that of creating life (yes, they must have thought The Handmaid's Tale is a political manual...).

Even the ever glamorous realm of fashion is not very inspiring when it comes to liberating women, despite designers always claim they are empowering us via their creations: feminism has been turned into a slogan for fast fashion or luxury T-shirts; most models still get Photoshopped in adverts, publications and features so that they can look impossibly perfect and beautiful and, while we cheer for those labels who bring diversity on the runway, we also know that most fashion houses still prefer thin white models with emaciated looks in their shows.

Besides, while co-ed shows are helping eroding gender differences, as stated in previous posts, there are still very few women writing about menswear, while it is not so rare for men to write about womenswear. Yet the greatest crime committed by the fashion industry against women regards garment productions: women employed in sweatshops in developing nations all over the world are usually obliged to work in unsafe and stressful conditions and they are paid very little to produce our fast fashion clothes (is it ethical and acceptable to wear T-shirts with feminists slogans shouting about sisterhood and equal rights when the person who made them doesn't seem to have such rights?). 

 

Right when you feel our modern times may be lacking genuinely inspiring icons, you realise that you shouldn't be looking for them in a glamorous present, but in the darkest pages history ever wrote: one of such icons is the late Francesca "Mimma" Del Rio, a partisan. In December 1944, when she was only 19, Mimma was arrested by the Nazi-Fascists. Although she was pregnant (her baby died shortly after the birth), she was tortured and abused every day for an entire month, but miraculously managed to escape. In her honour the town of Bibbiano, in Reggio Emilia, Italy, will dedicate to Mimma a square tomorrow.    

Together with other partisans like Teresa "Anuska" Vergalli, Mimma was politically engaged in the Gruppi di difesa della donna (Women's Defense Groups) formed during the Resistance in Italy. Anuska and Mimma wrote in a letter dated 18th April 1945 (a week before Italy was liberated from Nazi-Fascism): "Our aim is to unite all Italian women in one organism that can have an impact on the free and democratic government of tomorrow to defend women's rights and enable women to assert them." When the war ended many partisan women who had helped liberating Italy went back to their ordinary lives: it is estimated there were around 35,000 women in Italy who joined the partisans, but only 19 were given a medal of honour.  

In interviews, books and documentaries, many of the partisan women often recounted the horrific tortures they went through when they were captured. Nowadays women are subjected to other forms of torture, in some cases they remain physical (think about domestic violence or sex trafficking), in others they are psychological (just ask yourself: is it fair for a Minister to ridicule a woman on his Twitter account and get away with it?) and quite often they are dictated by prejudices (the pay equity gap always seems to be in the news...). Teresa and Mimma's words still resonate with power more than 60 years after they were written, it's about time we ditched the superficial feminist shirt and started listening to the real feminist icons.  

Abstract Geometries in Sacred Spaces: Mai Tabakian's "Objets Flottants" @ The Centre d'art Les 3 CHA, Châteaugiron, France

Fans of colours and sensually alluring surfaces rejoice: Mai Tabakian is back. The French-Vietnamese artist has got a new exhibition entitled "Objects Flottants" (Floating Objects) at the Centre d'art Les 3 CHA - Le Château, in Châteaugiron, France (until 23rd March).

The title of this first major monographic exhibition is very apt: Tabakian's embossed tapestries that have a strong chromatic and textural power, have indeed stopped being static pieces displayed on walls or on the floor of galleries and are now floating in the sky, up above the visitors' heads; they are suspended in a space that was once sacred, a chapel, and have turned into metaphors for alternative dimensions.

While in the past Tabakian studied the notion of cycles and phases, in this case the title of the exhibition was inspired by systemic therapies: this form of therapy looks at the individual and the environment surrounding them in which objects are employed to form a personal or social story.

The floating object becomes therefore an intermediate space, and in this case it turns into a medium between a real dimension and an imagined one. 

Geometry and mathematics are never far away in Tabakian's own universe, her squares, triangles, circles, rectangles, pentagons, hexagons or octagons are conceived in this event as forms of "sacred geometry" that we can be spotted both in nature or in architecture.

"The Guardians", an installation physically suspended in the nave and symbolically suspended between arts and crafts, consists in sixteen multi-coloured spheres.

While the colourful patterns on the spheres point at joy and happiness, there is something dark and unsettling about these works.

Are these fun objects balls you could play with or hybrid and alien configurations?

Are these evil eyes watching, rather than guarding, visitors like the proverbial Orwellian Big Brother? Or could they even be a metaphor for today's Artificial Intelligence and for the way it may shape our human future? 

"Balance Point" a piece occupying the choir of the Chapel also sparks new dilemmas: eighteen triangular works made of triangles form two infinite triangular shapes touching by their points.

This installation, inspired by Polish mathematician Wacław Franciszek Sierpiński, shows the artist's passion for geometry and mathematics, but also points at the symbolism behind the triangle and in particular calls to mind the Trinity.

The tile-shaped installation on a raised platform in the centre of the building represent instead a sort of Goose Game.

Inspired by the elaborate pavements in the cathedrals of Chartres, Amiens or Cologne, with their geometric and bi-chromic dimensions, Tabakian created square tiles with colourful patterns.

These pieces call to mind the squares in the 16th century board game, but they are also a metaphor for an inner journey that can be taken only by those visitors brave enough to stop in front of Tabakian's abstract geometries to try and grasp their essence and the meaning of the universe.

On the surrounding walls there are instead some modern reinterpretations of coat of arms: they reference the history of the Chapel that centuries ago featured on its walls coats of arms, but they also represent an attempt at creating a new modern and coded Heraldry.

Tabakian reinterpreted indeed the heraldic language from the Middle Ages using her own materials and colours, forming abstract symbols or even subverting the coat of arms, employing vinyl to make them or integrating a contemporary symbol into one of them - a QR Code. Scan it with your mobile phone to discover a hidden and secret message from the artist.

Yet don't think that "Floating Objects" is just about mathematical symbols and metaphors: look at the colours of "The Guardians" and you will just want to turn the spheres into beads and wear then around your neck, and what about those tile-shaped squares, couldn't they inspire some beautiful knitwear pieces or maybe be replicated on a silk scarf?

Time will tell if Tabakian will ever make the transition from art to fashion (you can bet she will...), but, in the meantime, savour "Floating Objects" for what it is - a universe of colours and synthetic textiles introducing visitors to an infinite dimension and a portal into abstract and geometrical spaces.

All images in this post by and copyright Magali Maleux

Migrations and Transmutations in Art and Fashion

Yesterday's post closed with a brief focus on Ruben and Isabel Toledo's exhibition "Labor of Love" (until 7th July 2019) at Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), so let's move from there to start this new post.

Among the other works, the exhibition features Ruben's own interpretation of the four reclining female gods, known as the Four Races, from Diego Rivera's "Detroit Industry Murals", that the artist reinvented and painted on strips of pleated canvas.

In another room, Isabel's installation entitled "Migration" features mannequins in sculpted black gowns with their heads covered in black hoods, representing a celebration of immigration and integration of different cultures in the local social fabric.

Suspended between the fashion and the auto industry, the works dialogue one with other creating a juxtaposition between the worlds of art and fashion design.

This juxtaposition has been explored also in recent runways: in January John Galliano showcased in Paris during Haute Couture Week, the latest Maison Margiela Artisanal collection.

Inspired by the theme of decadence in different fields - including art, fashion and film – the collection was a sensory overload, a visually eye-confusing journey of excess and decay.

The collection presentation felt a bit like being trapped in Kenny Scharf's "Cosmic Closet" (1980/2017), the multimedia installation recreating the iconic Club 57 at New York's MoMa (View this photo). Among the chaos of colours and graphic elements on Margiela's runway, a bright blue poodle appeared here and there.

Models moved in a confusing environment, wearing chaotic garments covered in dizzying graffiti, appliqued elements and hand-embroideries that seemed to completely merge with the surrounding space.

This multi-textural chaos was an ode to the Instagram generation, binging on digital images. Yet, as the collection progressed, the focus re-shifted towards tailored constructions and transformative garments: a trenchcoat was cut into skateboard shorts; skirts became capes; trousers were turned into a jacket; coats were taken apart and reassembled into "combinaisons", that is one-piece garments in Galliano's language.

A velvet jacket was transformed into a black dress, while a jacket's pocket flaps turned into shoulder elements and the sleeves of a coat were mounted in a Frankenstein's monster-like experiment onto a light jacket fastened with ribbons.

The collection was in a way also a reference to the possibility of altering reality as we know it via computer-generated imagery, but reapplying this concept to real life.

This sense of transformative and unsettling confusion and the possibility of camouflaging yourself with what surrounds you and in particular with a work of art, seemed to be evoke a scene in the recent Netflix film Velvet Buzzsaw.

At a certain point of this satirical and supernatural horror film set in the art world and directed by Dan Gilroy, one of the main characters, Josephina, is transported into a gallery, here the graffiti-like paintings around her start melting, cover her skin and eventually suck her onto a wall, transforming her into a work of art.

For Maison Margiela's A/W 19 collection Galliano left behind the chaotic graffiti to refocus on tailored silhouettes interpreted in an experimental way such as a gray double-breasted coat recombined with felted sleeves borrowed maybe from an old coat and renewed with a shoulder roll detail (a trend seen on many runways in the latest fashion season).

Transformative tailoring gave the chance to the designer to experiment with morphing silhouettes, with coats turning into dresses, and pants being dissected into a bustier and a skirt, while quite a few garments incorporated tailor's stitching, a fetaure used as if it were embroidery on classic men's fabrics including tweeds and herringbone. Art came back in the appliqued panels on boxy jackets that featured a hot pink flamingo and in the graffitied leggings.

The colours of the bright prints in the collection that emerged through solid black or grey, evoked the bright shades of works by artist and designer Jerszy Seymour. The artist has currently got an exhibition on entitled "Sacred Mountain" (until 29th April 2019) at the Copenhagen-based Etage Projects gallery.

The piece that gives the title to the event is a climbable totem that can be transformed into a fully functioning kitchen. Composed of a rational free stack of the minimal elements needed for a kitchen, the piece is characterised by vivid splashes of colours on a black background and the artist conceived it as a way to find an unlikely harmony between the creative art world and industrially produced furniture.  

There seems to be an unexpected correspondence between the colours and transformative power of this piece and the palette and morphing power in Galliano's collections for Margiela. And while all is casual and there are no connections between these collections, "Velvet Buzzsaw" and Seymour's works, it is intriguing pondering a bit about the ways the art world can merge into the fashion universe, where it can be transformed in multiple ways. As for Galliano's clothes for Margiela, you can bet you will see some of the more wearable designs becoming uniforms for many fashion fans going to hip art fairs all over the world.

Mardi Gras Notes: Deconstructing Harlequin (Through Ballet Costumes)

Carnival season culminates with "Mardi Gras" (Fat Tuesday - today). In a way Carnival is a great excuse for fashion since it offers the opportunity to get dressed in fancy costumes or wear just a mask (a Gucci one from its A/W 2019 collection, if you're an impenitent fashionista...).

While trends often dictate which are the most fashionable attires of the Carnival season (think about costumes inspired by a film, superhero, book character or even a politician...), there are costumes that never go out of fashion as they are linked with traditions.

The characters from the Commedia dell'Arte such as prankster servant Arlecchino (Harlequin), presumptuous Balanzone, clever servant Brighella, malicious Colombina (Columbine), greedy Venetian merchant Pantalone (Pantaloon), romantic Pedrolino (later known as Pierrot) and Neapolitan melancholic servant Pulcinella (Punch), never go out of fashion for example, and often even return on runways inspiring with their costumes fashion designers.

Yet is it possible to reinvent their well-defined costumes? After all for centuries Harlequin's has traditionally consisted of a jacket and trousers, made with irregularly-shaped coloured material. Some ideas may actually come from fashion and ballet. Around 10 years ago, Isabel & Ruben Toledo designed indeed costumes for the ballet "Commedia" by Christopher Wheeldon's company Morphoses. 

Homaging the Ballets Russes, Wheeldon's "Commedia" was set to Stravinsky's "Pulcinella" suite (composed for Diaghilev's corps de ballet in 1920 and based on variations on Giovanni Pergolesi's compositions). The piece was inspired by members of a fictional Commedia dell'arte troupe, and it was a homage to this form of improvisational theatre. So just like the Commedia featured basic patterns and core tropes, the ballet was a compilation of variations and attempted to present a sort of syllabus of all allegro steps in the ballet lexicon.

Fashion-wise the costumes didn't look like the conventional Commedia dell'Arte ones: dancers wore white body suits with a few black rhombuses strategically placed around the torso, hips or knees, and rainbow-coloured blouses and capes in a fluid fabric or in tulle, at times matched with ruffled collars.

In a way it was as if Toledo had deconstructed Harlequin's costume, breaking it up in all its different elements - colours and geometrical shapes - to recombine it in a modern version. All the dancers came out wearing the full costumes at the beginning of the ballets, but they removed the colourful capes during the ballet to dance in their more functional bodysuits.  

Too late to join the Carnival celebrations, but you like fashion and the Toledos' work? Well, you can still catch Ruben and Isabel Toledo's new works in "Labor of Love" (until 7th July 2019) at Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA).

The artist and fashion designer examined the DIA's collection and selected a series of pieces that then inspired new sculptures, paintings and drawings.

The exhibition consists in a juxtaposition of the artworks from the museum archive with the new designs and installations. Ballet lovers should rejoice as one of the installations in the musuem spaces is entitled "Synthetic Cloud" and features 11 pale blue tutus suspended from the ceiling. They are better admired if you lie down on the floor of the gallery where they are installed and look up: they will then appear to you like a fluffy cloud, revealing vividly coloured underskirts. Something for Mardi Gras, and beyond.    

Return of the Battle of Versailles: Tommy Hilfiger x Zendaya

Design-wise there wasn't much excitement on the runway of Tommy Hilfiger's "buy-now" TommyNow S/S 19 collection designed with actress-singer Zendaya (and with some help from her stylist Law Roach). Dubbed Tommy Hilfiger x Zendaya, the collection was showcased at the Champs-Elysees Theatre during Paris Fashion Week.

There were indeed practical separates for the day, functional evening and party dresses, flared denims and oxblood leather trousers or skirts matched with golden platform sandals; the capsule also included zodiac-inspired prints, halter tops and and sparkling Lurex jackets, skirts and jumpsuits. Iconic women from the '70s and the '80s were the main inspiration for these designs that at times evoked the moods of Studio 54.

As a whole the collection focused more on high street than on design pieces, aligning with the mass-market spirit of the brand (but the PVC raincoat that seemed to be the cheaper and less conceptual version of Raf Simons' Prince of Wales check coat sandwiched in transparent plastic sheets in Calvin Klein's A/W 2017 collection - did it happen because Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Kelin are controlled by the same holding, American PVH Corp? - should have been edited out of the collection for obvious reasons...).  

Yet sparks flew somewhere else: the runway was a celebration of diversity and inclusivity, it revolved indeed around a cast of cross-generation Black models aged from 18 to 70 of all body types.

All of them smiled in their figure-flattering clothes, danced and posed happily, looking like they were having a great time, while performers on roller skates danced under the flashing lights. 

At the very end of the show singer Grace Jones, the 70-year-old Jamaican-American singer and model, made an appearance in a golden Lurex bodysuit, thigh-high boots and shiny stripy jacket. She danced on her 1981 hit "Pull Up to the Bumper" looking like a fierce and fearless super disco Amazon and sending the crowd in a frenzy.

Moments before her iconic model Pat Cleveland, also known as the world’s first black supermodel, performed her dramatic signature dance in an asymmetric colourful pleated metallic dress. The show closed with all the models in jeans and T-shirts singing along on the notes of Sister Sledge's "We Are Family".

Was this a sort of ode to Saturday Night Fever? Yes and no. The main inspiration was indeed the so-called "Battle of Versailles" fashion show held in 1973 at the Palace of Versailles, to raise funds for its restoration.

It was fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert who organised this special show that featured on one side French designers Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Andre Oliver (Cardin) and Marc Bohan (Christian Dior) and Emanuel Ungaro, and on the other American creators Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein and Stephen Burrows.

When the curtain rose on the grand event, the French couturiers presented to the audience of royals and celebrities a proper show with elaborate props, while the Americans opened their segment with Liza Minnelli singing "Bonjour, Paris!", but then the attention quickly re-focused on a dynamic presentation featuring Anne Klein's sportswear and Stephen Burrows's brightly coloured jersey dresses donned by beautiful African-American models followed by Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta (with a show revolving around a sensual genie who brought alive the colours donned by the models around her, this segment was somehow evoked by the colourful halter dresses in Tommy Hilfiger's show) and Halston.

The rhythms of the show, being shorter ad more frenetic (the French section lasted 2 hours and a half, the American section only 35 minutes...) were more appreciated by the members of the audience who threw in the air their catalogues in celebration.

With their presentation the American designers marked a turning point in the history of fashion: they indeed showcased a different way of wearing and displaying clothes, proving that ready-to-wear could be as important as couture while highlighting that the fashion industry had been up until then quite racist. It was indeed after that event that African-American models arrived on the runways and appeared on the covers of fashion magazines.

There were two lessons from the Battle of Versailles that were readopted for this show: a fast and furious presentation with functional clothes and an emphasis on diversity with a cast that also included curvy models for the first time on a Tommy Hilfiger runway (but this choice is perfectly aligned with the fact that the brand has been opening up in the last few years to a wider range of consumers).

There were further connections with the 1973 Versailles show: two models at the Zendaya show - Pat Cleveland on the runway and Bethann Hardison in the front row - modelled at the Versailles event.  

Yet, while it was great seeing Grace Jones on the runway (you need some fierceness to counteract the emaciated/super sad/depressed look on many runways out there...) and while the show brought some fun in a rather uninteresting season overshadowed also by Karl Lagerfeld's death, this spectacle made you think as it confirmed that fashion nowadays is just about the spectacle and not about the clothes.

Sunday Musings: Art & Fashion Correspondences

This is Carnival season (culminating on Tuesday, Carnival Day) and people involved in public events like big parades and street parties know that it is a good idea to keep the most elaborate props and materials and recycle/upcycle them in future celebrations (in a way the same practice happens in films that feature historical costumes: the later are usually preserved in the archives of tailoring houses working for the theatre, opera and cinema to be reused as secondary costumes in other films...).

At times when watching a fashion show you wonder if certain props and elements are kept in storage only to be reused when needed: at least that's what happened when some members of the fashion crowd (who still have a good memory) saw the chequered yellow and grey floor at Off White's A/W 19 runway, that took place during Paris Fashion Week.

The carpet evoked indeed the acid yellow and white chequered floor of Louis Vuitton's S/S 13 runway by Marc Jacobs.

In the case of that collection (that seemed to have some strong connections with designs from the '60s...), the idea for the yellow and white/black and white chequered motif (View this photo) came from Vuitton's Damier pattern, reinterpreted via Daniel Buren's grids.  

Did Off White's Virgil Abloh, current artistic director Louis Vuitton's menswear, move from those designs for the yellow and grey and black and white designs in his A/W 19 collection?

Abloh actually explained the colour combination for the runway carpet and the prints for his designs such as billowy gowns, coats and micro-shorts, came from race cars (an inspiration that seems to be dear also to Miuccia Prada) like the Nascar and from the chequered flag (a metaphor for his own fast and faster career towards success?).

While the draped and wrapped motifs were inspired by twisted and crushed car-crash sculptures (John Chamberlain's?), the shorts matched with a coat and the overalls in a fluorescent green grid on a black background were vaguely reminiscent of Thierry Mugler'  "Anatomique Computer" suit (A/W 1990-91 collection).

The check patterns inspired graphic squares on padded coats and bags and an Op Art motif on sweaters.

The motif was reminiscent of the distorted sequinned grids in Mugler's A/W 90-91 jackets (View this photo), but was also reminiscent of Vasarely's Op Art spheres and the Ouchi illusion (after Japanese artist Hajime Ouchi), with its rectangular checkerboard patterns oriented in orthogonal directions, as reinterpreted by Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka in his mind-warping Op Art images that alter visual perceptions.

Virgil Abloh seems to have been honing his skills and focusing on deriving his designs from other collections or artworks, rather than on blatantly copying them. But will he try to copyright his yellow and grey, black and white chequered patterns as he did with the black and white diagonal stripes or try and appropriate Op Art motifs and make them pass for his own? Only time will tell.

Nature in The City: Art, Textiles & Fashion Highlights from Milano Museo City

The fashion pack may be in Paris at the moment for the fashion week, but this weekend there are some intriguing fashion and art connections to explore also in Milan.

The Milano Museo City event that kicked off yesterday and will be on until tomorrow, invites indeed locals and tourists to explore over 80 museums with special events and exhibitions.

The theme of this year is nature and it is analysed in different ways, interpreted in connection with human beings, in contrast with urban spaces or admired as a vast and sublime uncontaminated landscape.

Nature can be studied via dedicated installations at the Science and Natural History museums (the shell installations at the Natural History Museum inspired by Flemish paintings are particularly beautiful), but there are more unusual explorations of nature even in smaller venues.

At the library in the house of Alessandro Manzoni it is possible to discover books, volumes, essays and treaties from the 1800s focusing on some of the passions of the Italian writer, including agriculture, the practice of breeding silkworms and cotton production.

Graphic designers will be mesmerised instead by Leonetto Cappiello's early 1920s adverts for Campari at the Galleria Campari.

Cappiello is known for employing colours in a joyous way, creating visually strong images that can still teach us something about adverts 100 years after they were created (visitors who are into marketing and advertising techniques should note how in his illustrations Cappiello reduced the product he was advertising to a small detail, while he gave more importance to the rest of the composition – a stratagem that allowed consumers to appreciate the product as part of the artwork and not as the protagonist).

At WOW Spazio Fumetto there is the chance to explore more illustrations made by Raoul Verdini for Gianni Rodari's Il Romanzo di Cipollino (1951), an ingenious novel for children and a parable set in the world of vegetables rendered in vivid drawings. 

Art-wise nature can be admired in different ways: there is an unusual representation of nature in Remo Bianco's '60s "Snow Sculptures", little scenes covered in artificial snow trapped in glass boxes that manage to take the visitors to a fantasy and imaginary realm.

Nature erupts in all its force and dnyamism in the tree wrapping around the building of the Studio Museo Francesco Messina: this is Leonardo Nava's installation (made by weaving 5,500 nut tree branches and literally sculpting them to form a sinuous shape sensually embracing the perfect architectural lines of the building), or can be admired in the still life paintings from the 1600s and 1700s, like the ones in the Geo Poletti collection at Palazzo Reale, or by Joseph Nigg at Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Nigg painted flowers for a Vienna-based porcelain manufacturer between 1805 to 1843 (visitors should maybe try and spot a connection between the paintings of flowers in the various exhibitions at Milano Museo City and in Prada's A/W 19 collection).

At the same venue it is also possible to admire traditional garments strongly linked with anthropology such as a cape employed in cannibalistic ceremonies by the Tupinamba populations.

The cloak is a scary object, but it is also beautifully made with 5,300 feathers of ibis rubra appliqued on a cotton net, a traditional technique employed by these populations in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Infinitely less disturbing but equally intriguing the Flemish tapestries at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum introduce visitors to a different technique that artisans employed to create intricate images of vegetables, flowers, fruits and symbolical animals on textiles.

Yet maybe impenitent fashionistas and Haute Couture lovers will prefer the evening gowns from the Armani Privé collections (2009, 2011 and 2012) on display at Armani Silos.  

Fashion fans who are interested in technical studies of garments should head instead to Palazzo Morando to explore a selection of jackets and blouses designed by the late Gianfranco Ferrè between the end of the '80s and the early '90s.

Among them there are also sartorial experiments and hybrid garments such as jackets characterised by a blouse-like construction, like the one in a crêpe taffeta fabric with a rose motif inspired by the 1800s, but designed in 1988.

While Milano Museo City allows to explore several museums, galleries and institutions with unique installations, it only lasts for one weekend, but quite a few of the exhibitions involved in this celebration of all forms of arts will be open throughout March, offering the chance to locals and tourists to catch up with what they may have missed during these three hectic days of cultural events.