Most of us may not be able to afford major artworks, but we can still browse online (or in person - Coronavirus allowing) auctions and get inspired by the pieces or the collections on sale.
Sotheby’s at the moment has got a wonderful auction of pieces from Hester Diamond's collection (live auction on 29th January). Divided in two parts it is a celebration of the indomitable and visionary art collector who died in January last year.
The auction dedicated to her features indeed a bit of everything you may want from life – from Old Master paintings and sculptures to interior design pieces and minerals. Diamond was into Bernini and Dosso Dossi as much as she was into Bill Viola and, since she was the mother of the Beastie Boys' Mike D. Hearst, the auction also features some original memorabilia from the band (the seller's proceeds from the Beastie Boys memorabilia lots offered in this sale will benefit the Good Eats Program).
Looking for bold and fun pieces? Dror Benshetrit's electric blue "Peacock" chair (manufactured by Cappellini, Italy) will inspire you wonderful shapes with its undulating felt ruffles. But if you love colours, check out Diamond's mineral collection.
Diamond boasted a technicolor "natural art" installation in her house, with the stones and rocks displayed on custom-made open air shelves in bright colours that matched the shades of the minerals.
If you check her collection - that features rare rhodochrosite and smoky quartzes, Colombian emerald crystals, calcites and azurites, polychrome tourmalines, and a wide variety of pyrite crystal forms amongst others, plus Chinese fluorite, calcite and pyromorphite finds and a wide assortment from the family of beautiful Indian zeolites including vivid cavansite, delicate scolecite and impressive apophyllites - you will easily realise she didn't buy the pieces according to any geological principle, but she bought the ones that caught her eye for their colours and aesthetics and she also loved rare and significant sizes.
Among the most inspiring pieces there is an impressive rhodochrosite stalactite slice from the now exhausted Capillitas Mine in Andalgalá, in the province of Catamarca, Argentina, characterised by vivid colours - from translucent pink to red - and cross sections of several intergrown stalactites.
Then there are a Chinese rhodochrosite in a rich pink-red colour from the Wutong Rhodochrosite Mine, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, and a fine Sicilian euhedral sulphur in intense lemon yellow from the Racalmuto Mine in the Agrigento province, Sicily, Italy.
The vibrant colours of these minerals reflect Hester Diamond's passion for art, life and beauty: in a documentary accompanying the auction the interviewer asks Diamond, "Do you think you have gotten bolder as you have gotten older?". She quickly answers, "It's how I have lived and will live for as long as I live."
Entitled "Fearless", a word that perfectly describes Diamond, a woman who didn't follow trends but followed her own mind, Sotheby's auction is not just inspiring for the works on sale, but also for the lively personality of this unique collector.
In the previous post we looked at the symbolism behind a contemporary embroidered ensemble. But where can we find inspirations for embroidery pieces?
The collections of museum and educational institutions all over the world can provide us with some great ideas, especially smaller ones and, even if they may be closed, some places still have intriguing pieces in digitalised archives that can be accessed for free. An example is the archive at the Glasgow School of Art that features a variety of textile items including needlework and costumes and quite a few pieces with decorative patterns inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
There are also interesting figures linked with the School of Art that you may want to rediscover such as Ann Macbeth.
Born in Bolton in 1875, she studied at the Glasgow School of Art from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, and she also taught needlework, embroidery and applique in the Design and Decorative Art Section of the school.
In 1909 she became the head of the Needlework and Embroidery Section, adding Bookbinding and Decoration and Decorative Leatherwork to these responsibilities in 1910.
Two years later, Macbeth became the director of Studies in the Needlecraft-Decorative Art Studios and continued to teach at the school until her retirement in 1929. Macbeth was also an associate of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, an active suffragette (she designed banners for suffragists and suffragettes movements) and a prolific illustrator.
In the school archive there is a striking orange silk velvet yoke/collar embroidered with orange, white and green silk threads using a variety of needlework techniques such as satin and straight stitches, french knots, couching, needle-weaving and lace insertions. It forms a rounded shape around the neck but finishes with a rectangular element down the front.
If you want to learn more about Ann Macbeth, you can also check out her books "Educational Needlecraft (1911, with Margaret Swanson), "Embroidered and Laced Leather Work" (1930) or "School and Fireside Crafts" (1930, with May Spence; the volume features a variety of crafts, including embroidery).
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If you like the "Glasgow Style" check out the dress by Daisy Agnes McGlashan (1879-1968) preserved in the archive. A student at the School of Art from 1898 to 1905, she was influenced by this style and designed her own clothes and wrote and illustrated children's stories.
And if you're looking for more modern inspirations, check out the poster advertising the 2005 Glasgow School Of Art Fashion show. It features just some pieces of thread rather than proper embroidery, plus a section of a pattern for a pocket. It looks minimalist and fun in a sort of punk-DIY kind of way and it could be inspiring for runway invitations (yes, why not giving out a pattern for one of your own designs as an invitation to a show? Food for thought for designers here).
Today's Burns Night in Scotland, but the country is still in lockdown at the moment because of Coronavirus, so checking out the content of this archive may be a way to virtually celebrate the life and poetry of Robert Burns even from a distance, even in lockdown.
Paris Haute Couture Week kicks off tomorrow (presentations will obviously be redefined by the Coronavirus emergency), but there was already a moment of high fashion last week in the news.
Dr. Jill Biden, the First Lady of the United States, opted to wear for the concert on Wednesday evening that followed her husband Joe Biden's swearing-in ceremony, a design by Uruguayan-American designer Gabriela Hearst.
The outfit included an ivory double-breasted cashmere coat with an A-line silhouette and dress.
While the colour of the ensemble - white - was connected to the women's suffragist movement, the delicate floral embroidery that embellished the coat along the hem and the silk organza neckline and arms of the matching dress, represented the federal flowers from every state and territory of the United States of America (there was similar embroidery also on the matching face-mask and the look was accesorised with ivory gloves and a corsage, a tradition for first ladies that goes back to Mamie Eisenhower and Betty Ford).
The Delaware state flower, the peach blossom, on the silk wool cady dress at her heart level symbolised the fact that the Bidens have been Delaware residents since 1996 having a main home in Greenville, Delaware, in the Wilmington suburbs and a beach home in Rehoboth Beach on the Delaware Shore.
Besides, there was also a hidden detail in the outfit: a quote from Founding Father Benjamin Franklin - stating "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn" - was hand-embroidered inside the lining of the coat. The quote was a reference to Jill Biden's mission as a teacher and educator.
Gabriela Hearst shared more details about the design on her Instagram page on Thursday stating, "The message of Unity is the main inspiration for the creation of the Ensemble. Unity makes strength and it is needed for the road ahead."
The flowers also point at protecting the environment (Biden has already rejoined the Paris Agreement and ordered for a monitoring of the social cost of carbon) and the outfit could be considered as sustainable since it was made in New York City, in the garment district, using existing available fabrics to minimize the impact on the environment (so after all Bernie Sanders' sustainable mittens weren't the only eco-friendly design at last Wednesday's Inauguration celebrations). The dress was assembled at the in-house studio and it took around two hours to embroider each flower.
Hearst first met Dr. Biden in 2017 when she became Chair of the Board of Trustees at humanitarian organization Save The Children.
Dr. Biden often chose to wear Hearst's designs for important occasions, including debate nights (Hearst has also been a favourite option of former first lady Melania Trump over the last four years, but she purchased the designs directly from retailers and not from Hearst; Hearst has been a critic of the former President's administration). Hearst has also been actively working in support of Biden and Kamala Harris, designing products for the Biden-Harris campaign.
The last two years saw Hearst's star rising: in 2019, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton took a minority stake in her label; she received the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year Award last September and in December she was appointed Creative Director at the Compagnie Financière Richemont-owned Chloé.
Hearst, who became a US citizen soon after the previous presidential elections, prides in two things - handcrafted details and sustainability. To make some of her most iconic pieces such as a rainbow woven cashmere fringe coat, she turned to the artisans of a female nonprofit organisation from her home country, Manos del Uruguay; she has often been upcycling fabrics and buying deadstock to make her designs, making sure that in her label sustainability and luxury go together.
Dr. Jill Biden's dress and coat will be eventually donated to the Smithsonian's First Ladies' Collection, as most every first lady inaugural gown has been for decades. Embroidery remains instead a trend for this year, a craft that, as we have seen in previous posts, is being used not just to embellish a design, but also as an art form (but let's hope it won't be just a passing fashion...): expect to see more embroidery on the Haute Couture digital runways starting tomorrow and don't forget there will also be a major exhibition about embroidery - "Haute Bordure" - opening soon at the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden.
In the early '80s there were just a few designers who explored the connections between fashion and architecture. Gradually, this number started growing and, in the last ten years, mentioning architecture as a reference, collaborating with a studio on a collection or on the set for a runway show, has become the norm.
Architecture was just one of the main themes behind Virgil Abloh's Louis Vuitton A/W 21 menswear collection (the sixth he designed for the French luxury house).
Trained as an architect, Abloh was inspired for the A/W 21 men's collection by "Stranger in the Village", a 1953 essay by novelist James Baldwin.
The modernist marble set inside the Tennis Club de Paris and some of the moods from the collection were instead borrowed from Ludwieg Mies van der Rohe's German pavilion designed for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona (the richness of colours and materials and interior concept and furniture for the space were developed by Lilly Reich).
Abloh admires Mies van der Rohe and the Barcelona Pavilion was an iconic, idealised and idolised structure designed to present a modern country and an open society.
Built in two months, the pavilion pointed at an artistic image of Germany, ruled by philosophical ideas and the art and design of the Bauhaus. The structure featured only four materials - travertine, two types of marble and onyx - each of them characterised by different textures, attached to the metal skeleton of the pavilion.
Classical and industrial materials combined with marble and reflective glass playing well with opacity and transparent dichotomies.
The pavilion only lasted for eight months, yet it kept on inspiring further generations of architects. In this case the building inspired the set, but its marble walls were also translated into the prints for the suits, while the shiny and transparent PVC suits and bags called to mind the glass elements of the pavilion.
Baldwin's essay, though, remained the main inspiration for this collection: "Stranger in the Village" focuses on the author's personal experiences and on his visits to Löeche-les-Bains, a Swiss village in the Alps in Switzerland (where he also finished his first novel, "Go Tell It On The Mountain") and in which Baldwin explained what it felt like being a Black American artist there.
The film showcasing the collection opens with American rapper and poet Saul Williams in a black overcoat wandering through a snowy mountain landscape, before the scene moves to the marble set (complete with Barcelona chairs and stools) where a performance combining art, slam poetry, dance and rap takes place (the presentation was supposed to be a live event, but due to COVID-19 restrictions the show was filmed without an audience).
Abloh combined the racial identity theme with the concept of roles in society through a series of looks that called to mind the attires of pilots, doctors, artists, gallerists, architects and students. These topics were combined with other themes, namely cultural appropriation and copyright matters. Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck accused Abloh of copying some of his previous looks for Louis Vuitton's S/S 21 collection. Abloh denied stealing and took the chance with this collection to ponder a bit about design, identity and plagiarisms.
Abloh has often been accused of being a plagiarist as he usually sticks to the 3% rule - that is changing minimal elements in a design to turn it into something new, but with this collection he reminded us that white designers have been appropriating continuously from other cultures (at a certain point of the film Kai Isiah Jamal states: "As Black people, as trans people, as marginalized people, the world is here for our taking, for it takes so much from us").
So through these designs he tried to build connections between Western cultures and African textiles, coming up with garments that combined checked and tartan patterns with kente cloth for example, while he also collaged Louis Vuitton's monogram with pyramids or world maps, elements that pointed at the symbolisms in wax fabrics.
These comparisons and juxtapositions worked much better than those designs or accessories (the looks combining feminine and masculine elements, the coats with long tails, the airplane-shaped bags and the skaters in tailored uniforms at the beginning of the film) that seemed to point at Thom Browne (think about his animal-shaped bags or tailored jackets matched with skirts).
Then Abloh fell into an architectural trap with jackets covered in 3D reproductions of skyscrapers and Paris monuments such as Notre-Dame cathedral and the Eiffel Tower. Though these are clearly showpieces, they looked too theatrical and a bit costumy (remember the 1931 École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts costume ball in New York that made history since it featured a group of prominent male architects dressed as buildings?), as if Abloh had assembled on a jacket Bodys Isek Kingelez's fantastic architectural installations or Yin Xiuzhen's fabric buildings.
Luckily there were just two of these uncanny assemblages, and the emphasis returned on African heritage and African draped wraps in celebration of his Ghanaian origins. The film was a call for diversity, bu it was also a collective effort.
It was indeed directed by Josh Johnson, and featured powerful words spoken by rapper Saul Williams and British poet and trans activist Kai-Isaiah Jamal, but the credits are long and include also musical director Asma Maroof, movement director Tosh Basco, dramaturgist Kandis Williams and rapper Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) who closes the film with a word full of hope, "Miracles".
In conclusion this was an artistic collection that affirms the power of the spoken word and of poetry as a trend this year (as seen at the Inauguration ceremony), but it also proves that Abloh should keep on looking inward to find some new inspirations rather than keeping on looking at others designers and sticking to the 3% rule. After all, it is our personal story that really counts in all the things we do in our lives, or, to put it as Oscar Wilde, "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
There was actually something of that Sanders mood in Undercover's menswear A/W 21 collection. Jun Takahashi included in his collection everyday wear, technical jackets covered in an Aran knit print with inbuilt glovelets, knitted jumpers with jacquard motifs that looked more sci-fi than folk and rustic and a selection of comforting knitwear with separates in coordinated patterns (Prada went instead for long johns as you may remember) that seemed to conform with the trend Bernie inadvertently launched.
Some garments evoked a relaxed domestic coziness rather than the neglected look of lockdown times, but the designer added an arty layer and his signature dark and disquieting twist via Markus Åkesson's works.
Photorealistic hyperreal paintings by the Swedish artist portraying a boy poetically covered in butterflies among the other subjects, were indeed reproduced on voluminous puffer jackets.
Åkesson is a neofigurative painter known for recreating painstakingly detailed textiles and subjects covered in elaborately patterned silks and satins. In some cases his models are not just enveloped in textiles, but they seem to drown in them.
Takahashi took inspiration from Åkesson's obsession of wrapping his subjects in fabrics to create illusions: the hood of a satin quilted parka became a quintessential three-dimensional addition to the painting printed on the back of the jacket portraying a girl wrapped up in fabrics; fabric snoods and scarves framed instead delicate images of young boys.
There was also another collaboration in this collection - less arty and more functional - with bag and luggage company Eastpak: coats and jackets integrated rucksacks (an idea reminiscent of the sofa with pockets fromQuinze & Milan x Eastpak's "Built to Resi(s)t" collection), playing with the concept of the wearer carrying something or being carried by the bag, becoming part of the bag and emphasising the idea of protection.
There was a final dichotomy between technology and romance: the former was explored via technical fabrics, topcoats and duffle coats with shiny metallic, vinyl or glossy pockets; the latter was represented by an accessory - scarves made of knitted white, red and pink roses. It was almost a hidden message telling us that we want a high-tech future, but we want roses too.
People who love looking for symbolisms in fashion were able to find many at yesterday's Inauguration Day ceremony in Washington, DC. While President-elect Joe Biden went for a sober navy blue suit and topcoat by iconic American designer Ralph Lauren, his wife, Incoming First lady Dr. Jill Biden, opted for up-and-coming (it was founded in 2017) New York-based American label, Markarian by Alexandra O'Neill.
The designer created for her a custom-made wool tweed coat and dress in ocean blue, a colour pointing at peace, trust and stability, trimmed with a dark blue velvet collar and cuffs and decorated with Swarovski pearls and crystals embellishments around the neckline. She also wore a matching face-mask as protection from Coronavirus.
The look was made in the Garment District in Manhattan and O'Neill's team – comprising six people – worked on it since late December (the label also made some of the designs donned by Biden's grandchildren). By choosing the label Dr. Biden honoured the New York manufacturing industry, remembering in this way also those businesses that were hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic.
This quiet moment was conceived as a tribute to the 400,000 Americans who died of COVID-19 and was a simple yet due ceremony to remember and mourn.
For the occasion Vice President-elect Kamala Harris wore a coat by Pyer Moss with an Oscar de la Renta dress and Dr. Jill Biden a purple ensemble from Jonathan Cohen.
Michelle Obama often chose to wear young designers during her time at the White House and yesterday the Former First Lady continued this tradition wearing a Sergio Hudson burgundy coat, turtleneck and trousers (the Black American designer also created a sequin cocktail dress with a floor-length silk tuxedo overcoat as the evening look Kamala Harris wore at yesterday's concert View this photo).
In all these looks there was an emphasis on coats. Now, while it is January and it's cold, so coats come as a natural choice, in this case they seemed to channel feelings of protection and warm comfort after very controversial and difficult times.
Besides, most of the prominent figures and guests (from the President and Vice-President to Biden's grandchildren) went for monochromatic looks that seemed to emphasise unity (the fact that there were different guests sharing the President's spotlight felt this election was the result of a genuine team effort, rather than the achievement of just one person) and inclusivity. Inclusion was cleverly represented also by the first Black female Fire Captain in the U.S., Andrea Hall who delivered the Pledge of Allegiance in American Sign Language as well.
Unity was a theme of Biden's speech - "Without unity, there is no peace; only bitterness and fury," he said. "No progress; only exhausting outrage. No nation; only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge" - and of Amanda Gorman's poem.
Los Angeles-based 22-year-old award-winning poet Gorman actually stole the show. Named Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles at the age of 16, Gorman earned the (first) title of National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017 and she became the youngest inaugural poet yesterday (she follows in the steps of some of the greatest, among them Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Alexander and Robert Frost) after she caught the eye of Dr. Jill Biden a few years ago.
Gorman recited her powerful poem "The Hill We Climb" in a sunny yellow coat (this is one of the shades of the year according to Pantone, but in this case it was a reference to Dr. Jill Biden who once saw Gorman reading one of her poems in a yellow dress), white blouse and simple black pencil skirt.
She accessorised her look with a thick bright red satin headband with a triangular logo that revealed that this was a Prada ensemble, but Prada fans easily guessed it as the young poet admires Miuccia and has also collaborated with the brand in the past (she starred in the final episode of "What We Carry", a video series centered around Prada's efforts to go sustainable, and she travelled to Slovenia with Arthur Huang of National Geographic to learn more about the recycled nylon used in Prada's Re-Nylon bags).
Other symbolic touches included a ring with a caged bird, a nod to Maya Angelou's autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", and earrings gifted to her by Oprah Winfrey (a personal inaugural tradition she started with Angelou herself to whom Winfrey gifted the Chanel coat and gloves that Maya Angelou wore when she recited her inaugural poem in 1993).
Gorman was the perfect choice to give voice to the younger generations and she also made a sort of indirect fashion statement with some political connections: younger guests at the Inauguration mixed indeed in their looks American and European designers, almost to hint at more relaxed relations between the US and EU after the tensions of the last four years.
Harris' stepdaughter Ella Emhoff, who studies design at Parsons (and went for a Thom Browne ensemble on the previous day) wore a Miu Miu tartan coat with crystal-encrusted shoulders in the '40s style (a silhouette favoured by Miu Miu) over a burgundy dress by New York label Batsheva.
Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez also opted for European fashion houses: Lady Gaga sang the National Anthem in a grand Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry gown with a voluminous bright red silk faille skirt, fitted cashmere navy blue jacket and an oversized golden dove with a branch of olive in its beak, a symbol of peace, pinned on her jacket; Jennifer Lopez glowed instead in a white Chanel ensemble, a combination of designs from the A/W 19 (silk ruffled high-neck blouse and sequinned wide-leg pants) and A/W 2020 collections (long tweed coat).
Last but not least, photographers spotted among the guests somebody who, in a matter of minutes, became an unlikely fashion icon - Bernie Sanders. Socially distancing, sitting alone and looking unfazed the Senator from Vermont sported a functional jacket from Burlington-based snowboarding company Burton (that he often wore on his campaign) and knitted mitten made by Jen Ellis, a teacher from Essex Junction, Vermont. Ellis gifted them to the Senator a couple of years ago and in a tweet she stated they were made of repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles (you can contact her in case you want a pair:[email protected] - or follow her on Twitter). So Sanders was probably the best champion of sustainable fashion at the ceremony.
Social media users incorporated the image of Sanders in the most hilarious pictures and collages, and he ended up becoming the protagonist of hilarious memes that saw him featured in works of art, animated films, video games, pictures from the Yalta Conference or iconic photographs like the famous picture portraying New York construction workers lunching atop a skyscraper. Guess that's what happens when you say you don't care about fashion - you end up becoming an accidental icon.
Inauguration Day has gone, but now comes the real deal for Biden and Harris and there are some hard challanges ahead, from tackling the Coronavirs pandemic to unemployment, homelessness, hunger and the recent attacks on American democracy.
On his first day in office Biden signed 17 executive actions - 15 will be executive orders - including halting the travel ban from Muslim-majority countries, rejoning the Paris climate agreement and making mask wearing and social distancing mandatory in federal buildings and lands. Looks like Gorman was right then when she stated in her poem " (...) while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated."
In the latest posts we talked about architecture and fashion and sustainability. There's currently a project by Mario Cucinella Architects that reunites these three concepts. The Italian architectural studio launched indeed bags made with materials upcycled from the Italian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Biennale in Venice.
Archipelago Italia, the theme of the Pavilion curated by Mario Cucinella, shifted the attention away from major cities and raised awareness about Italy, inviting visitors to consider remote areas, spatially and temporally distant from urban spaces, to learn more about their cultural heritage, while realising their richest potential and beauty. The diversification of the landscape, vast expanse and distance from essential services of these areas also prompted visitors to wonder what the future may held for these territories.
The installation featured seventy projects grouped into eight itineraries (Western Alps, Eastern Alps, Northern Apennines, Central Apennines, Samnite - Campanian - Lucanian Apennines, Daunia - Alta Murgia - Salento Sub-Apennines, Calabrian-Sicilian Apennines and Sardinia) presented as eight large books, a sort of tourist guide that introduced visitors to contemporary architecture projects, historical villages, paths, landscapes and natural parks.
The work of Mario Cucinella deals with very current issues - sustainability and the environment; social inclusion and sharing of intangible heritage; earthquakes and collective memory; work and health; regeneration and contemporary creativity - and Cucinella feels the work of the architect must reclaim a role of social responsibility.
Three years after the 16th International Architecture Biennale in Venice and with the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, Cucinella realised that the role of architecture has also radically changed and this discipline is now called to help finding key solutions for what regards health (think about temporary hospitals and vaccine facilities), education (consider students unable to go back to school because of Covid-10 and following their classes online), work (will we ever go back to offices or will smartworking take over?) and society in general (ponder a bit about the various lockdowns and how they have transformed our lives, domestic spaces and needs). So the architect decided to start finding sustainable and useful solutions with a commercial line of functional products called "MC D for Recycling".
The first product is the Archipelago bag made (in Italy and available in two versions, a tote and a shoulder strap bag) with the fabric panels of the tourist guide-like books in the main hall of the Italian Pavilion in Venice.
In the first itinerary, Western Alps, visitors were invited to discover rural residences where local materials were used in a contemporary way, and in the fourth itinerary, Central Apennines, they learnt how new production spaces are harmoniously linked to the territory, through a skilful use of materials and surfaces. This emphasis on materials as explored by some of the project in that pavilion, inspired the design for the bags.
Apart from being made with upcycled materials and therefore looking different one from the other, the bags tell a story, representing a fragment of a pavilion, and invite us to start looking not just at the contents of the various installations when we visit an exhibition or an event, but also at the materials employed in the various displays and consider how we may reuse them in future to create garments and accessories or interior design products (think about how Prada pledged it will recycle the sets for its latest menswear show).
Democratising fashion is one of those definitions that has been used and abused by many in the last 15 years or so. Mainly employed in connection with fast fashion retailers mass producing trendy garments and accessories cheap enough that high numbers of consumers can buy them, democratisation has its dark sides, since it exploits the people who make these garments and contributes to pollution as well.
Angela Luna and Loulwa Al Saad from New York-based ADIFF have been working instead on democratising fashion from a sustainable and ethical point of view since they founded their label. Their clothes and accessories are made with upcycled materials (on their site you will find for example bags made with UNHCR tents and upcycled life vests that were collected on the shores of Lesbos).
Among their most ingenious design there are a trench and a bomber jacket - upcycled in the label's own resettled-refugee operated facility- that could be considered as commercial versions of Studio Orta's "Refuge Wear" habitats and installations. These pieces can indeed be turned into a tent once you add a base and poles (sold separately on ADIFF's site). Besides, some of their designs are buy-one-give-one products: when you purchase a jacket, they donate a tent jacket to a displaced person; for every face mask purchased, the designers will donate one to a hospital.
Last year the brand was planning to work on several designer collaborations, but they didn't happen because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Luna and Al Saad focused therefore on making face masks for New York hospitals and took part in Black Lives Matter protests. It was then that they had an epiphany and realised that the world was changing, but fashion was not evolving and it was definitely not responding to the needs of many.
So they started working on finding new ways to engage people and tackle sustainability. The result was the Open Source Fashion Cookbook - the volume is supposed to help each and everyone of us, especially those ones who can't afford to shop in a responsible way, to participate in responsible consumption.
The book features indeed a series of what the authors called "recipes", that is instructions to create designs by ADIFF and other contemporary fashion brands including BrownMill, Chromat, Christopher Raebur, and Zero Waste Wardrobe.
The book features step-by-step assembling instructions using existing materials readily available at home. Difficulty varies to allow people with different sewing skills to enjoy the projects, so you can try your hand at making a Perspex pocket from a shower curtain, a bucket hat from a broken umbrella, opt for Chromat's bodysuit or choose more complex projects, from a blanket coat to Raeburn's shark cross-body bag (that you can stuff with scraps accumulated from other projects).
The recipes are featured in the book that is printed on demand and can be bought from ADIFF's site and on Amazon for $60 ($30 for the e-book version; a breakdown of the cost is also clearly explained on the label's site, Amazon takes a 40% royalty; printing is $20 per book; and ADIFF is sharing part of the profit with the designers who lent their patterns. That means ADIFF will make $10 per sale), but the patterns can also be downloaded for free on ADIFF's site, while you can find further inspirations on the label's Instagram page and YouTube channel.
While the main point of the project is making more people realise how to transform scraps or assorted deadstock materials into wearable pieces, Luna and Al Saad also hope that the Cookbook will spark an interest in the fundamentals of fashion and convince more designers to share some of their patterns.
This was actually pretty popular a few decades ago when ready-to-wear fashion wasn't available yet. For example from the '50s until the mid-'70s, quite a few fashion Italian designers created special garments for women's magazines and published in their pages sketches of the pattern cuttings for those garments. Readers who were interested in making those designs could also buy the pattern cutting from the magazine. At the time a few publications even had their own Pattern Cutting Department that dealt with such orders.
While there may be some designers concerned about copyright issues when it comes to releasing their original patterns, the possibility of allowing people to come up with their own version of an iconic creation from their collections seems intriguing for those designers who firmly believe in genuinely transforming fashion into a more inclusive industry that can have a positive impact on people's lives and on the environment.
In normal times people working in the fashion industry would have been very busy with menswear fairs such as Pitti Uomo at the beginning of January. Milan's menswear shows would have followed, leading up to the couture runways and the womenswear collections. But, almost a year ago, Coronavirus radically changed the rhythms of the industry; fairs moved to digital platforms and shows also switched to other formats, with fashion houses promoting collections with livestream shows and films or more innovative ways including video games.
Their first womenswear collection, unveiled in September 2020, debuted without an audience but was livestreamed and it was also followed by a creative conversation with Simons and Prada who answered selected questions submitted on Prada's site.
The formula proved refreshing for everybody involved: there were no more front rows, no more official press conferences or quick questions and conceptual explanations in the backstage where we all tried to read the most bizarre meanings in Miuccia's cryptic answers.
Prada and Simons' first menswear runway (A/W 21) was also livestreamed without an audience: the event took place yesterday afternoon and it was followed by a Q&A by students from selected institutions all over the world, including New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, Beijing's Tsinghua University, School of Architecture, Tokyo's Bunka Fashion College, the International Design School for Advanced Studies at Seoul's Hongik University and London's Central Saint Martins. It was refreshing hearing the questions coming from the students, but also seeing the two designers getting interested in their careers and asking them if they are enjoying their courses.
The dominating theme of this collection was the absence of a storyline and the focus instead on the desire to inspire sensations (the title of the collection was "Possible Feelings"). The collection featured one garment that was supposed to inspire such sensations - a pair of knitted and patterned long johns.
In other times such a design may have been considered out of fashion or as childish as the baby romper suit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but, with the various lockdowns and smartworking, the design assumed in Prada and Simons' mind a new meaning, inspired by architecture. Apart from being a way to reconnect with domestic spaces, the garment was indeed conceived as a foundation.
The long johns were indeed matched with ample coats, oversized re-nylon bombers and parkas with jacquard linings, sculptural lapel-less peacoats, and cocooning leather or teddy bear coats. So long johns became versatile pieces that could be used to relax, or create a series of mix'n'match layered looks.
There was a balance between the two souls of this new Prada vision: styling (check out the coats and blazers worn with the sleeves shoved up over the elbow) was borrowed from Simons' S/S 21 runway, while the accessories such as the large backpacks, leather pouches and gloves with attached purses were definitely Prada. There was also another balance between the desire to create luxury, but also the need to provide a no-nonsense collection that spoke to consumers about calmness in very difficult times rather than about extreme fashion excesses.
Rem Koolhaas and AMO's set went well with the purpose of the collection: the interconnected rooms had floors or curved walls covered in different textures, such as soft and fluffy faux fur (the invitation was also a faux fur package with delicacies by the Prada owned Marchesi Pastry shop) juxtaposed with smooth marble floors and in a combination of clashing colours, such as purple, pink, red and pale green. These materials that will be upcycled within the fashion house spaces and pop-ups around the world and then donated to Meta, a circular economy project based in Milan, which offers sustainable solutions to waste disposal within ephemeral events by collecting and recovering materials for selling and rentals (Meta works in collaboration with La Réserve des arts, an association offering a service of collection and recovery of raw materials and decoration waste from fashion shows, making them available to professionals and students in the cultural sector).
This abstract yet cozy dimension was directly linked to an architectural group admired by Koolhaas, Superstudio. In 1968, Superstudio designed the "Bazaar" sofa for Giovanetti. The latter consisted in a series of modular question mark-shaped polyurethane foam armchairs covered in faux fur fabric that, combined together, formed a pumpkin-like structure, a cocooning environment that had a smooth and hard external surface made of polyester resin reinforced with glass fibers, but that featured inside a warm and soft nest-like space.
This bubble-like secluded shape from the late '60s was reinvented for the runway and extended to occupy the entire space that, from physical turned into an abstract location, maybe even a state of mind suspended in a lockdown phase. So, once again there was a sort of correspondence in this collection not just between fashion and architecture, but also between fashion and interior design, a link that Prada celebrated in previous collections, and there was a hint as well at the power of the tactile sense, something that we have forgotten because of Coronavirus restrictions.
Talking about Coronavirus, the dilemma remains at the end of this show: what will happen in a post-pandemic world to fashion weeks and in particular to Prada's presentations? Miuccia seems to like the new format chosen that has maybe prompted her to realise there's life beyond the front row and there are clever questions to answer from people who may not necessarily be your favourite influencers.
While probably the fashion industry can't wait to leave behind Covid-19 and go back to crowded events, the vast digital world may prove much more alluring not just for designers looking for new and younger consumers, but especially for people like Prada and Simons who seem to be able to unwind more in informal conversations like the one they had with the students than in official press conferences. In a nutshell, the pandemic may have broken the industry, but something better and more inclusive may come out of its ashes.
Most countries all over the world are still dealing with the Coronavirus emergency, so fashion weeks will be mostly digital events or will take place without an audience.
Since the beginning of the emergency last year different fashion houses tried to come up with new and original ways to present their shows and some of them turned to the popular Nintendo videogame Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
But, while the title has been an intriguing way to recreate designer clothes and interior designs fans have been enjoying it to come up with fun spaces and incredibly detailed environments, professional architectural studios or interior designers haven't really used the vide ogame to launch or promote any of their products. Yet, at the same time, the video game contains some products that can be easily compared with real interior design pieces.
Take the palm lamp: you can make it with the dedicated recipe (coconuts, clay and wood) and also customise it in three versions - natural, tropical, cute and cool. Yet this piece is not just an irresistible kitsch lamp.
The design can be indeed traced back to Mario Lopez Torres, a renowned mid-century modern Mexican artist known for unique sculptures and lamps made with rattan. In the 1970s he created a wicker floor lamp in the shape of a swaying palm tree. The lamp had a round stable base and bulbs placed in the coconuts.
Los Angeles-based artist Christopher Kreiling reinvented in more recent years this piece conceiving it more like a sculpture, with a body made of stacked saddle leather and polished brass with handcrafted metal fronds and coconuts housing medium bulb sockets.
The Animal Crossing palm lamp is actually more similar to this one than to the one created by Torres (now, while the similarities between the AC lamp and the designer lamps in this post may pose a question of copyright, at the same time, the video game lamp should be considered a tribute).
I'm featuring in this post some screens of the four versions of the lamp in my humble abode on my island. In the house you can see wallpaper and cushions inspired by Cinzia Ruggeri's "Homage to Lévi-Strauss" dress and by her ziggurat designs (downstairs the house has got a yellow and emerald motif inspired by the colour combination on the cover of Matia Bazar's single "Aristocratica" that featured Ruggeri's dress; upstairs I used a pink variation of the same wallpaper for my atelier).
There are already other pieces in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that call to mind original interior designs: the leather upholstered Throwback Mitt Chair references indeed the baseball glove-shaped armchair by Jonathan De Pas, Donato D'Urbino, Paolo Lomazzi's "Joe Poltrona" (1970) for Poltronova.
Homage to the American baseball champion Joe DiMaggio, this unusual and exuberant hyperreal design hinting at comfort and protection was inspired by Pop Art and in particular by oversized soft sculptures by Claes Oldenburg.
Included in key collections at Milan's Triennale Design Museum and New York's MoMA, the baseball mitt chair was reissued in 2003 as a sofa for Heller using a smooth and durable polymer suitable for use indoors and out.
Maybe creating more interior design pieces for Animal Crossing could be an idea also for interior design museums hoping to attract younger visitors.
Last year the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo Da Vinci in Milan released for example for the International Museum Day a series of QR codes downloadable for free on the museum site, reproducing canvases with some of the works from its collection, including Leonardo Da Vinci's machines and paintings by Giuseppe Raggio and Silvestro Lega. In this way the museum hoped gamers would organise open air exhibitions on their islands or use the motifs to make special garments.
Looking forward to seeing more interior designer pieces this year - possibly launched by architects or designers and inspired by real ones - on Animal Crossing: New Horizons. What about some Memphis Milano designs or Gae Aulenti's Pipistrello or King Sun lamps?
