As promised in yesterday's post, this month's vintage pattern is inspired by asymmetrical lines and side fastenings, and refers to a dress that goes well with any silhouette and that can be functional and elegant at the same time.
The pattern was published on an issue of Italian magazine Annabella in 1960 and the magazine suggested to use solid flannel to make it or experiment with striped flannel or thick honeycomb jersey fabric.
Remember that you should put automatic buttons inside the dress as shown in the drawing to make sure the dress stays up correctly forming precise lines and, if you feel that by fastening it on the side the dress becomes too heavy on the front as you will be layering a panel of fabric on another, you may put in the internal part of the dress a lightweight lining fabric.
The pattern [Parts: 1. half bustier, back; 2. half skirt; 3. sleeve; 4. half bustier, front] was designed for an Italian 46 size (size 14 in the UK; and 12 in the USA) and each square corresponds to 10 cm. If you like the idea of the side fastening but you would like to opt for something even more minimal, hide the buttons in the lining as suggested in the dress at the end of this post, a design by Patou. Enjoy the September project!
Leafing through magazines from the early '60s you will easily find some great designs inspired by the power of subtle geometries. An issue of Italian magazine Annabella from September 1960 featured for instance several examples of asymmetrical jackets, sleeveless tops and skirts with fastening on the side and with very subtle geometrical diagonal lines creating a delicate and minimal motif.
The magazine featured two looks by Patou, in egg yolk yellow and forest green (first and third image in this post) and an ensemble by Lanvin in dark salmon pink (second image in this post).
For those readers who wanted to try and reproduce a functional and elegant asymmetrical jacket at home, the magazine also offered a quick tip - adding 10 cm of fabric moving from the centre of the jacket (keeping in mind you would have to add 20 cm to the lapel facing). Stay tuned for September's vintage pattern - it will be inspired by these asymmetrical lines.
This year's edition of the Venice Film Festival may have featured a reduced schedule because of Coronavirus, but there were powerful films in the programme. Tonight the Golden Lion for Best Film went to Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland", starring Frances McDormand.
This on the road story follows the main character Fern (Frances McDormand), who, after losing everything in the recession, packs her van and turns into a a modern-day nomad (the film features real nomads as well).
Frances McDormand and director Chloe Zhao appeared via video link from the United States to accept the award (check out the awarding ceremony around 01:09:49 to watch the message), as, like many other filmmakers and actors, they couldn't reach Venice because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
For what regards some of the other awards, British actor Vanessa Kirby won best lead actress for "Pieces of a Woman", Pierfrancesco Fabino won best lead actor for "Padrenostro" (Our Father), and Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa won the Silver Lion for best director for "Wife of a Spy", while the Silver Lion grand jury prize went to Michel Franco for "New Order".
While some film festivals such as Cannes were cancelled and others like Toronto and New York opted to go digital, the organisers of the Biennale Cinema in Venice went ahead (with very strict safety measures), as a sign of rebirth and to send a message of encouragement to the entertainment industry (the theatre, dance and music biennale will also go ahead in Venice in September and October).
As the 77th Venice International Film Festival closed, organisers invited audiences to next year's festival, and it is only natural to wonder if, by then, the Coronavirus emergency will be over.
While we hope that in 2021 Coronavirus will just be a bad memory, let's step back to September 1949 when several fashion houses from Rome, Milan, Turin and Great Britain as well presented their Autumn/Winter collections at the Hotel Excelsior in Venice with a lavish Ballo della Moda (Fashion Ball). The event coincided with the film festival and quite a few celebrities went to see the runway.
At the ball there were indeed also Simone Simon and Isa Miranda (see vintage pictures in this post) who were in town to present "Donne senza nome" (Women Without Names - you can expect a remake of this film at some point...) directed by Géza von Radványi and "Patto col diavolo" by Luigi Chiarini. In the final picture in this post there is a design by Biki, an evening gown in white rayon tulle with an embroidered bustier. The gown was part of the collections presented to the audience of the 1949 fashion ball in Venice. What will next year's edition of the Venice Film Festival be like and will it ever be accompanied again by a fashion ball? Only time will tell.
In yesterday's post we looked at a preview of the fourth issue of Pan & The Dream, a luxuriously produced supersized magazine published annually and edited by Nathalie Agussol. As mentioned in that post, the new issue focuses on the theme of ghosts and my second contribution to the magazine is an interview with Suzume Uchida.
The Tokyo-born and based artist has a cult following in Japan as she revolutionized the traditional image of ghosts and spirits by looking at her own reflection and creating drawings in ink, water and oil colors and she also contributed in the last few years to different collections by Yohji Yamamoto. Her works were indeed printed on garments such as shirts and coats.
In the Pan & The Dream interview Uchida talks not just about her collaboration with Yohji Yamamoto, but also about ghosts from Japanese folklore (the artist's favourite story is The Ghost Tale of the Wet Nurse Tree about a man murdered by a villainous samurai who falls in love with the man's wife) and about being haunted in life by a malignant ghost, that of anorexia. Uchida fought against this ghost and now hopes that her works about this theme will empower other people who are facing mental issues at the moment. "We all desire at some point to get another chance in life and I hope my artworks can help people feel reborn," Uchida told me about her art.
There are times when you get involved in a project and you work on it without thinking about the future or about what will happen to that project once it gets unveiled. And so when artist Sayaka Maruyama invited me to contribute with my words to her images for the fourth issue of Pan & The Dream, a luxuriously produced supersized magazine published annually and edited by Nathalie Agussol, I just jumped at the prospect.
The volume was supposed to have a theme - Ghost Stories. Not spooky ghosts, but memories, dreams, the departed, our guardian angels, the beauty and the mystery of the otherworldly. And so we set onto exploring this world and Sayaka took beautiful and ethereal images featuring floral wearable sculptures made with a 3D pen by Japanese designer Seiran Tsuno and inspired by out-of-the-body experiences and wigs by Tomihiro Kono.
Then COVID-19 came and disrupted some of our plans, changed our lives and deeply touched us. All of us. And ghosts were suddenly haunting us, the ghost of an invisible virus, the ghosts of all its victims. Sayaka's pictures and my words assumed a new meaning, they gained a new aim and purpose - encouraging people who lost dear ones during the pandemic, who couldn't hug them for one last time and who couldn't pay them a final tribute with a funeral and who are still going through the beareavement process.
So take the photoshoot and the words accompanying it as a postcard that will hopefully bring hope and inspire us to go forward in life even when our hearts seem permanently broken and we can't seem to find a reason for living anymore.
Coronavirus may have changed the way we think and present different cultural events, including art exhibitions and fashion shows, but even a pandemic can't stop us from creating and producing beautiful things.
As Milan is getting ready for the Fashion Week later on this September, some art and culture spaces are relaunching intriguing events. On 24th September (from 10.00am to 10.00pm) it will be possible to celebrate at Artifact c/o Spazio Maiocchi (via Maiocchi 5, Milan) the launch of the book Personas 111 - The Art of Wig Making (Konomad Editions, 2020) by Japan-based hair artist, head prop designer and wig maker Tomihiro Kono (河野富広).
Visitors will be able to admire Tomihiro Kono's handmade "Haute Couture" wigs and, in the evening (7.30pm) I will be in remote conversation with Tomihiro Kono and with artist and photographer Sayaka Maruyama, who took all the pictures for Personas 111. We will have a long chat about hair props and wigs, fashion, identity and creativity at the time of Coronavirus, and Tomihiro and Sayaka's books as well.
Milan-based design fans will be able to join the live screening at the Spazio Maiocchi (you will have to register at this link by 23rd September - there's a limit on capacity, 30 people, so register as soon as you can and don't forget you will have to comply with the Coronavirus regulations once in the venue, so you will have to wear a face mask and keep social distancing).
Irenebrination is preparing a little surprise for the live audience in Milan, so stay tuned to learn more about it in the next few days, and, if you want, please send me your questions in advance for Tomi and Sayaka as there will be a Q&A with the audience at the end of our talk (get inspired by the first video in this post featuring Tomi's wig making process to come up with questions about his work). Tomihiro Kono's creations will be on display at the Spazio Maiocchi from 25th September to 8th October 2020.
The event is part of a warm-up series created by SPRINT - Independent Publishers and Artists' Books Salon, an artist-led platform devoted to investigating the multiple forms in which content, support and languages are articulated in publishing. Since 2013 the three-days salon has featured a non-profit Art Book Fair and an extensive Public Program. The 8th edition of SPRINT will take place in Milan from 27th to 29th November 2020 (with the support of Istituto Svizzero and in partnership with Spazio Maiocchi).
In the previous post we looked at how fashion presentations changed with Coronavirus, but the pandemic has prompted us to think also about the fashion and health connection. In the last few years there have been quite a few designers who developed projects and garments that can help people recovering after an illness or facilitate the rehabilitation process.
Industrial designer Lisa Marks, whose researches combine traditional crafts with algorithmic design, developed for example in 2018 an algorithmic lace bra. The designer worked on this idea throughout 2018 and 2019 with a few experiments in parametrically designed algorithmic and logarithmic lace. The bra designed by Marks is not your average piece of lingerie, but it is designed to fit the form of a woman's body after a mastectomy surgery.
Marks studied the post-mastectomy data and found out that many women who have had breast tissue removed during cancer treatment don't have a reconstruction and mainly wear a bra that can hold a prosthetic, but there isn't a support that fits their post-surgery shape.
Marks' bra doesn't have any underwire, but it looks like a net-like soft structure that fits the body, giving the illusion of symmetry and curves. The designer created it hoping it can be used by wearers on special occasions and intimate moments and help women in the post-surgery stage to regain their self-esteem.
Though you may think this is a highly technological project, Marks actually moved from traditional crafts – the starting point for this project is indeed bobbin lace (also known as pillow lacemaking) and in particular Croatian lacemaking. In this ancient craft (already well-known in the 14th century), artisans employ a series of bobbins with a groove at the top, a silk, cotton or linen thread and a print with a pattern to copy.
The print with the pattern is pinned to a cylindrical pillow which is usually lined with dark fabric and then work begins anchoring the threads around the bobbins on the pins and reproducing in this way with the lace the pattern on the print. Once completed the lace is freed from the pins and removed from the pillow and, according to its size, it can be incorporated into bed sheets, towels, curtains, tablecloths, dresses or bridal wear or used for other decorative purposes or to make small accessories.
Marks introduced in this craft a key change: while this technique is mainly employed to produce flat lace pieces, thanks to computer modelling, the designer gave a three-dimensional quality to the final piece. By moving from traditional crafts, she tried to sustain artisans and take this technique into the future.
To make the bra Marks followed a process that is indeed part artisanal and part high-tech: the first stage is a 3D body scan of the wearer, then a bust shape (that will be used by the artisan to work in 3D) is cut into foam with a CNC router.
In the meantime, an algorithm, employing for its calculations a 3D body-scan and a set of points that can be altered as needed, works out which pattern will guarantee symmetry and depth on this particular shape.
Once the pattern is produced, it is mapped and printed onto the foam bust and the artisans then make the bra. So the process combines human and machine skills, a perfect balance that, Marks hopes, will help sustain communities as well.
Marks won the Lexus Design Award 2019 in Milan with this project and she is currently one of the finalists of the Dezeen Design Award 2020. Last year, after Marks won the Lexus prize in Milan, designer and technologist John Maeda, one of the award judges stated, "When we think of algorithms, we usually think of computers and the high-tech industry. But the textile industry is where algorithms were first deployed as a means to realize new aesthetic choices in fabrics during the 19th century. Lisa Marks 'Algorithmic Lace' project not only feeds on that rich history, but goes even further back in time to incorporate a 16th century technique for weaving complex lace patterns. Marks uses this ancient process together with advanced three-dimensional modeling to handcraft bespoke bras for breast cancer survivors who have undergone mastectomy surgery. The result is a combination of function and beauty that positively impacts the survivor's body aesthetic while also providing fully customized structural comfort."
Marks is currently progressing on her researches combining traditions and technology and has recently developed experiments (showcased as part of the digital edition of the Bridges 2020 Art Exhibition) inspired by mathematical variation with semi-rigid materials, such as laser-cut bamboo veneer knitted by hand, using a hybrid process to generate a dynamic composition (stitch variation is achieved via visual scripting that allows the designer to write the algorithm for a single stitch).
The Coronavirus emergency disrupted the lives of each and everyone of us in different ways. Fashion was among the many industries that suffered a major blow as many events, collaborations and presentations were cancelled this year. The emergency prompted many people from the fashion industry to rethink its role and the format of fashion presentations.
As seen in previous posts, a few houses turned to hybrid presentations where possible, with physical and digital events; others opted for entirely digital shows or explored the possibilities given by videogames such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The game, developed for Nintendo Switch, was released in March 2020, amid the global Coronavirus lockdown. Being unable to go out, spending time on a island vacation simulator where we could forget our problems, worries and anxieties, relax fishing, farming and building homes, and visit strangers or friends on other islands, turned into a desirable experience and into a success for Nintendo that, by June this year, sold 22.4 million units of the game (it is the second best selling game on the Nintendo Switch system).
Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows you to buy - with your hard-earned bells, the island currency - clothes and accessories from the Able Sisters shop or create your own clothes with a dedicated design app. This aspect didn't pass unnoticed to fashion fans and fashion houses and, a few months ago, we looked at the first interactions between fashion companies and the videogame.
The latest to jump on board is Carolina Sarria, last week the fashion designer came up with a special show on Animal Crossing.
The event was unique for different reasons: first of all, Sarria treated this virtual show like a physicial event, so she enlisted set designer Stefan Beckman, hair stylist Anthony Turner and make-up artist Mark Carrasquillo.
Casting director Nicola Kast focused on diversity and came up with a great group of models, among them Dilone, Aaron Philip, Ruth Bell, Raisa Flowers, Indya Moore and the late activist and gay and trans rights pioneer Marsha P Johnson, who appeared as their avatars.
As a bonus, there were also special guests sitting in the front row, among them Andy Warhol, all of them sitting on the infamous stone stools Animal Crossing users craft by collecting materials on their islands.
The mini capsule collection, entitled "Them, and Theirs" was inspired by Warhol's "Ladies And Gentlemen" series of Polaroids that featured Marsha P. Johnson as a model, and included Pop Arty dresses in bright and bold shades, but also cubist jackets and virtual renditions of Sarria's coats with the Virgin of Guadalupe. Animal Crossing fans will be able to buy the looks from Carolina Sarria's site and they will then receive the code to download the designs to their Nintendo Switch.
But there's more: sales of Sarria's in-game versions of her designs will benefit the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, dedicated to protecting the rights of Black trans people, or the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
So what's the final verdict for this fashion runway format? Well, there's pros and cons. Among the cons there's the fact that, while digital collections look visually striking, we are definitely losing the tactile pleasure. Virtual designs are indeed mere images and can never achieve the same tactile qualities as the physical model (mind you, in this case some of the digital looks are directly derived from real Sarria designs, so you can actually buy some of these looks like the faux fur coat for yourself rather than for your avatar...). Besides, though this format looks adorable and fun, the designer and her team still had to invest time and energy in developing the project (you can follow the work behind the scenes on the designer's Instagram page).
Yet, there's many pros as well, first of all the fact that Sarria definitely saved money, as she didn't have to book a venue, invite hundreds of people and even pay for some of their accomodation and travel expenses. In the case of Carolina Sarria, there was also another pro: the money from the sale of the virtual looks will be donated, so this is an experiment in fashion gamification with a cause, rather than just a project of fashion gamification as we have seen in other cases. This proves that it is possible to make a strong statement via fashion, but also via videogames.
This is not the first Animal Crossing show we have seen since the game was released and it is another step towards the development of a new format. Decades, or rather centuries have gone since the early days of fashion presentations and we have seen how from showing a few designs privately to clients, the show developed into veritable spectacles, grand events that saw collaborations with famous set and costume designers, musicians, make-up artists, singers and bands.
Sarria has made a point by making her virtual designs very affordable ($5,00 each), something that may draw not just fashion fans who may want to buy something new but who may not have the money to do so for too many reasons (Coronavirus caused job cuts, while other people have opted for smartworking and may not be investing in new wardrobes, but opting for more comfy looks), but also Animal Crossing aficionados on the lookout for a cool outfit or a party dress.
The collaborations between fashion designers and videogames is providing us with insights into the future of fashion where we may see at first a strong dichotomy between digital designs and real pieces, but, as the years pass, we will probably witness a sort of harmony between these two worlds, so you can bet that we will increasingly rely on these formats and on digital platforms to launch experimental collections and strong messages as well.
Talking about Animal Crossing and launching messages, the game was recently used also for political reasons: presidential candidate Joe Biden is using it to post virtual campaign ads as campaign events are unsafe because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While in May US Congress Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used the game to reach out to fans informally and have fun visiting random player islands as her avatar (wearing a pink T-shirt with her initials), Biden's presidential campaign introduced four different official yard signs in Animal Crossing that users can download by scanning QR codes through the Nintendo Switch online app (this is not the first time political adverts appear in a videogame as in 2008 adverts for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama appeared in 18 games through Microsoft Corp's Xbox Live service, including "NBA Live 08" for Xbox Live 360). Guess it's only a matter of days now before the first fashion campaigns tailored for Animal Crossing hit our paradise islands...
In August, just a few months ahead of the November US election, the US Postal Service (USPS) was in the news when US President Donald Trump stated he opposed its funding as he didn't support mail-in voting. While the Coronavirus pandemic prompted many people to opt for mail ballots, Trump claimed indeed that postal voting invites fraud.
In August people in the United States also complained on social media about the mass removal of blue mailboxes in some areas. While this procedure is normal when a mailbox registers a decline in mail volume, the decision was seen as limiting the ability of some voters to send back mail-in ballots, another attempt by Donad Trump to interfere with the elections and manipulate the postal system. While Trump reassigned or displaced at least 23 USPS executives, in August the US Postal Service announced it would stop taking letter collection boxes off streets in Western states.
Asawa was born in 1926 in Norwalk, California, from Japanese parents. During World War II, her family was interned first at the Santa Anita racetrack and then at the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas.
During her internment Asawa spent her time drawing and, after getting an ID card from the War Relocation Authority, she was allowed to travel to Milwaukee where she attended college. Since no school in Wisconsin would hire someone who was Japanese even at the end of the war, she could not complete her fourth college year that was supposed to be devoted to practice teaching.
She therefore enrolled in the Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura La Esmeralda in Mexico City and at the University of Mexico. Here she met Clara Porset, an innovative furniture designer from Cuba who had been at Black Mountain College where Asawa decided to move to pursue further studies in art.
From 1946 to 1949, Asawa studied with Josef Albers at Black Mountain College where she started using common materials and experimenting with wire. She was also influenced by the Black Mountain College summer sessions of 1946 and 1948, that featured among the others choreographer Merce Cunningham, artist Willem de Kooning, and architect and inventor Buckminster Fuller.
In 1959 Asawa married architect Albert Lanier and in the following decade she started making crocheted industrial wire sculptures employing a technique she learnt in 1947 while in Toluca, Mexico, where villagers made egg baskets from galvanized wire. "I found myself experimenting with wire,"’ she explained, "I was interested in the economy of a line, enclosing three-dimensional space.... I realized that I could make wire forms interlock, expand, and contract with a single strand, because a line can go anywhere."
Asawa started creating a series of spheres, cones and elongated structures that she suspended in space. More experiments followed in the '60s: Asawa moved from the geometrical shapes she found in nature - plants, snail shells, spiderwebs, insect wings and water droplets - to design ethereal structures reminiscent of radiolaria, and created large wall-mounted pieces inspired by the internal structure of a desert plant.
In addition to her wire sculptures, Asawa is also acclaimed for her large public commissions: among them fountain in Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco; the Japanese American Internment Memorial in San Jose, CA; and San Francisco State University's Garden of Remembrance, commemorating Japanese Americans interned during World War II. Asawa also established the first public arts high school on the West Coast in 1982 - renamed the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts in her honor in 2010.
Her sculptures, spheres, hourglass shapes and elongated tubes evoking organic forms, are the protagonists of the 20 stamps (issued as Forever stamps, so they will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price) dedicated to her.
The set of stamps features photographs by Dan Bradica and Laurence Cuneo for David Zwirner gallery. The selvage features a photograph of Asawa taken by Nat Farbman in 1954 for Life magazine, while Ethel Kessler served as art director and designer. The set of stamps is highly symbolical as race and racism played an important role in Asawa's personal story and the stamps are a testament to a woman and artist who loved travelling, sending and receiving letters, but also a symbol to migrants and people discriminated because of their ethnicity and nationality.
The Ruth Asawa stamps are available at Post Office locations in the US and online and they will hopefully be used by voters who do not have absentee ballot postage-paid (it is indeed worth remembering that in some American states it is up to the voter to pay for postage to return a mail ballot envelope to the election official).