Italian artist and fashion/interior designer Cinzia Ruggeri had a penchant for infusing her creations with a whimsical and playful touch. For instance, a men's trench coat crafted from exquisite grey fabric appeared elegant yet unremarkable at first glance, but it harbored a delightful secret: one pocket was lined with luxurious blue velvet, while another was adorned with sumptuous red silk. One featured an appliqué of a champagne cork, while another bore an image of a diamond. By turning these pockets inside out, the wearer could convey their mood to others.
However, Ruggeri's creativity didn't stop there. As she once explained, "I would put little messages or objects into the lining of some garments so that when a hole would open in the pockets, the wearer would find them and smile or laugh." Sometimes these objects, such as pearls and tiny dogs trapped in a black tulle cropped top, were visible as the garment was made in a sheer fabric.
These ingenious tricks served to establish a connection between the designer and the wearer, encouraging contemplation and amusement.
On one occasion, Ruggeri scattered bits and pieces of Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days" across different labels of various garments, leaving those who purchased them intrigued by the fragmented narrative.
Another designer known for concealing "surprises" in the lining of garments was Alexander McQueen. The late fashion designer claimed to have stitched the phrase "I am a c*nt" into the lining of a jacket made for Prince Charles during his apprenticeship on Savile Row, a rebellious act known only to the designer himself who had stitched the garment.
Fast forward to Paris Fashion Week, where Jun Takahashi unveiled a series of suits, jackets, and bombers crafted from translucent, ghostly fabrics on Undercover's Spring/Summer 2024 runway. Within these garments, Takahashi ingeniously trapped an assortment of objects. Between the layers of sheer fabric, you could indeed spot playing cards, silk flowers, blades, safety pins and crosses.
While some designs revealed the inner construction of wardrobe staples like pants and jackets, others, including sweatshirts, were enshrouded in black tulle - a technique occasionally used in museums to protect delicate embellished pieces, but that here assumed a very different meaning as they hinted at death.
Life and death were also juxtaposed in the garments that trapped flowers behind tulle decorated with spiders, themes that made you think about beauty, but also at decay, sepulchres and corpses in coffins, and at that perennial link between fashion and death. Besides, a transparent trench integrated feathery wings in the back, maybe a reference to Wim Wenders' 1988 film "Wings of Desire," (also included in the runway soundtrack).
At times the effect of incorporating these objects in the garments called to mind an X-ray, but the actual purpose of this trick was to envelop everything in an atmosphere of melancholia, death, and mourning that pointed at the collection's main theme, "Deep Mist."
The show took place in a dimly lit venue reminiscent of an underground parking lot, with four crystal chandeliers askew on the raw concrete floor, enveloped in sheer materials that emitted a soft, ethereal glow.
Variations to the collection were added by the prints of German artist Neo Rauch's surrealist unsettling paintings, integrated into the garments. Yet, their colours, and in particular a blue and yellow palette that bore echoes of Van Gogh's "Starry Night", brought vibrancy to the collection.
Takahashi also incorporated in the collection his own "Portrait Without Eyes" oil paintings (in some ways reminiscent of Magritte's) from his first exhibition, "They See More Than You Can See," recently held in Tokyo. To capture the texture and surface of the oil paintings, the designer employed textured and voluminous frill materials.
For the grand finale, when the venue's lights dimmed, three models appeared wearing strapless dresses with skirts that seemed to emit light. Initially resembling lamps, these dresses revealed a small landscape within, an ecosystem featuring flowers and dancing butterflies (released after the show). These terrarium skirt dresses served as a tribute by the designer to loved ones he had lost.
These approaches by Cinzia Ruggeri, Alexander McQueen, and Jun Takahashi differ in their intent. By integrating small objects and messages in her garments, Ruggeri sought a personal connection with the wearers. The objects she hid in her designs, like treasures lost and found, prompted wearers to think or laugh or posed them intriguing dilemmas. McQueen's act was instead an irreverent, hidden statement of defiance against authority that only the tailor knew about.
In contrast, Takahashi established a dialogue between the designer, the wearer, and the observer who sees what the garments contain and becomes a sort of third actor in this imaginary conversation between designer and wearer. In this case the objects trapped in the designs also carried a deeper significance, representing memories - the key theme to unlock the collection.
"Garments flow like a fading memory - a surreal world appearing and disappearing in the dark," Takahashi explained in the press release for the collection, revealing that he alluded through his creations to the loss of loved ones, and conceived the show as a requiem in their honor.
Comments