Gertrude Stein stated "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" in her 1913 poem "Sacred Emily". The first occurrence of "Rose" in the poem refers to a person, but Stein later employed variations of this sentence in other writings. The condensed form "A rose is a rose is a rose" has indeed become one of her most famous quotes.
Often interpreted as meaning that "things are what they are," asserting the law of identity, the quote has been widely discussed and analyzed in literary and artistic circles. While seeming straightforward, the sentence actually carries various layers of meaning and has sparked numerous interpretations.
The word "rose" exemplified Stein's interest in repetition and the musicality of words, but it also had philosophical and linguistic implications as the sentence conveyed the idea that simply uttering the name of a thing evokes the associated imagery and emotions. But this short word evokes complex implications not just in poetry and language, but in fashion as well. Numerous fashion designers explored the meanings of the rose, evoking the beauty and fragility of this flower and, consequently, the transience of time in their collections. Roses were also employed in some cases to hint at more violent passions, at times through their colour (think about blood red roses) and, obviously, their thorns.
In yesterday's post we looked at a comic book illustrator, Lucia Saldutti, currently working on a story suspended between romance and bloody revenge. In the story, entitled 'Nights of the Bloody Rose' and written by Maxime Garbarini, the main character transforms into a feminist heroine, dressed up in a fierce red cape inspired by a rose (but if you want to know more about it you will have to take part in the crowdfunding to publish the first issue of "Fragments", the anthology that features the story…).
For Saldutti the rose is a symbol of empowerment, but in fashion collections roses conveyed a variety of meanings: Comme des Garçons A/W 13 collection featured suits in which roses bloomed through the pattern, forming three-dimensional decorative motifs and voluminous Escher-like optical illusions that hinted at multi-dimensional body-morphing tricks, body reconfigurations and the possibilities behind the infinity of tailoring.
Rei Kawakubo returned on this theme in Comme des Garçons S/S 15 collection in which the red rose designs that opened the show referenced a strong passion and the throes of love.
Yet, as the show progressed, the roses unwrapped turning into red ribbons and leather tongues, almost like shredded skin peeled off the human body, revealing pulsing muscles underneath to symbolically hint at horror erupting through glamour, and reference in this way the state of the world.
Alexander McQueen A/W 19 collection featured designs in which swirls of fabrics formed dreamy roses on dresses. Oversized roses also bloomed in evening jackets, breaking the linearity of this formal garment.
The brand also dedicated to roses an exhibition in its Bond Street store in London in 2020, a sort of immersive garden of flower narratives that allowed visitors to explore the technical artistry behind these exquisite designs.
Roses came back in Valentino's Spring/Summer 2024 men's collection, as three-dimensional appliqued motifs and embroideries adorning lapels and replacing ties, hinting at the grace of flowers.
But roses had already bloomed all over Valentino's Haute Couture A/W 22 collection: the latter featured a cocooning padded piumino-cum-cape design covered in Valentino-red 3D taffeta roses, inspired by Valentino Garavani's 1959 Fiesta dress.
In the latest Haute Couture collection (A/W 23) for the historical maison, recently showcased on the grand grounds of the Château de Chantilly in France, Pierpaolo Piccioli included only one design inspired by roses, that featured a headdress framing the face of the model (a reference to designs from the '60s - leaf through magazines and books about the decade and you will easily spot this trend with oversized hoods and headdresses).
The design seemed to have an unlikely connection with the chapter on 'The Garden of Live Flowers' in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.
Here Alice finds herself chatting with very talkative flowers that grow on very hard soil and not on a "flower-bed", hence they are very much awake and not asleep like other flowers, and keen to chat with Alice.
John Tenniel in his illustrations for Carroll's books often added human elements to the fantastic characters featured in the stories and for this chapter he created an illustration showing Alice standing next to roses with a human head. Haute Couture is a sort of fairy tale so the connection seems very apt.
But there have been designers who played on multiple levels with the theme of the rose.
The late Italian fashion designer Cinzia Ruggeri collaborated with architect Francesco Soro in 1987, reinventing an armchair from Soro's "Magathon" series and transforming it into the "Carmen" design (produced by Driade) in a peach pink and dark dusty pink silk shantung and with two silk roses decorating it.
In the mid-'80s Ruggeri also created designs decorated with three-dimensional red velvet roses, from a dress to a jacket and flat ballerina shoes. One of the ballerina shoes was decorated with a red flower, the other with a green stem that the wearer could wrap around the ankle for a fun and surreal twist (a trick reinvented in later years by Romeo Gigli).
Through the rose theme Ruggeri created designs for the body, but also a piece of furniture to "dress up" a space: in this way one complemented the other, offering a design experience that embraced both fashion and interior design.
So, is a rose just a rose and nothing else in fashion? That is for you to ponder. After all, Gertrude Stein's quote defied conventional interpretations and encouraged individual responses, based on the literary and philosophical perspectives of the scholars analysing it.
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