12/06/2015

The New Gucci Girl

The Gucci girl imagined by the brand for their recently revealed resort collection for 2016, turned out to be completely different than the one conceived during the epoch of Frida Giannini. Alessandro Michele is continuing to do his very best to redefine what Gucci is. The looks sent down the runway in New York were not attempting to appear young, they actually were young, while at the same time appearing to be out of time – like those looks borrowed from a grandmother’s wardrobe that you always cherish and wear. Could this be a controversial turn for Gucci? Is re-inventing the brand almost from scratch a wise thing to do in fashion industry? Like in music, it is usually met with either delight or scorn. Reinventing one’s identity nevertheless often happens both in fashion and music, but the new is often a mixed with ideas drawn from the old archives. That is the case with Gucci’s resort collection; a collection with clear references to the ’70s make Michele’s inspiration quite apparent and approachable. This turn on Gucci runway might not, however, come as a big surprise, due to the fact that the decade that gave us flares and hippies has influenced most collections for both this Summer and Autumn.

Gucci’s collection has a clear vision, feels well thought-out and complete, but the most striking is it feels so wearable – an impression that further develops the idea of Gucci’s newfound youth and maybe also a possible attempt to add a new target group to its list of customers. The truth is, in fact, that this is the first Gucci collection in a while that speaks to the younger, Instagraming generation, a generation that aims to add value to what they wear on their own terms. Is this a model for luxury brands to expand their audience? Will offering wearable pieces that can easily be adapted to anyone’s style have an impact on how brands’ structure change? The ‘personal’ turn in fashion is already in its course, with an ever more growing list of collaborations, interpretations and variations added to each brand. The final question that is left to as is: how might this approach hollow our the basic logic of the market of luxury items, when the value that has always been defined by the final product is suddenly due to the customers to create.

Hanna Cronsjö 
11/06/2015

Dawn of the Idols: Age, Cultural Heroes and Fashion Ads

When we admire someone, for his or her qualities, wit or actions, we tend to idealise the person in a way that makes him or her eternal. Idols stay young in our minds, and with them what they stand for remains vivid and valid in our thought. But what happens when idols age? And, above all, how should we react when their image, old but still influential and respected, is used in contexts different from their own, and separated from their voice?

Fashion’s appropriation of cultural personalities – read idols – has become quite common. Lately, fashion houses have been appropriating the current image of ‘idols’, portraying them as they are now in campaigns and ads. The latest is Marc Jacobs, who cast Cher as his new testimonial (the previous one was an intense Jessica Lange). Before him, Saint Laurent’s creative director Hedi Slimane shot musician Joni Mitchell, French brand Céline cast writer Joan Didion, and Louis Vuitton hired photographer Annie Leibovitz to shoot an iconic series of campaigns named ‘journeys’, alluding to the journeys of life, with the likes of Catherine Deneuve, Sean Connery and Keith Richards, among other incredible personalities, like the fist American woman in space Sally Reid, Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Apollo 13’s Jim Lovell, and the last Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The ads have caused disarray. Some people strongly criticised them, underlining the capacity of fashion to take everything down to some ‘silly’ dresses or ‘overpriced’ sunglasses. The issue displayed the insolence of fashion in using the elderly image of cultural personalities and twist their ideal value to the mundane, earthly act of selling.

What’s the real preoccupation of these – quite naïf, I dare say – critics? Is it the portray of these ‘serious’ personalities – as opposed to the frivolity of the fashion world – that scandalises? Or is it unacceptable that these ads try to commercialise the message these people carry with them? In both cases, one point is missing. Fashion is a multifaceted discipline dealing with many – if not all – aspects of reality. It is surely an industry that produces and sells objects, but it also creates a narrative around these products, and analyses society and people’s instincts, needs and desires. To obtusely criticise these choices means to be stuck at obsolete stereotypes; that is to say, fashion has to remain in its own field, using its language of underweight, super-young models with kilometric legs and vague gaze without disturbing champions of other, more ‘thoughtful’, fields – be them writers, musicians or politicians.

Fashion is not just about the newest thing, although it is inevitably projected to the future, even when it deals with the past. Age can be used to bring on a message, which is everlasting, and the newness is in the way this message is presented to an ever-changing – and ever-growing – audience. The ‘pure’ image of these personalities stands for what they did and who they are now, and carries all the meanings people are able to read through the wrinkles of their faces. There’s nothing ‘old’ in these ads; it is a way to take a distance from stereotypes that want fashion as a silly, superficial part of reality, as something that ‘important’ people do not care about (quite often, they do: never heard about the importance of a signature style?). What’s really dated is thinking about fashion as mere commercial industry: a rather obtuse vision, which negates the power to convey messages and, above all, change through images, something that fashion skilfully manages to do.

Marta Franceschini 
10/06/2015

Graduate Shows 2015: BA Central Saint Martins

39 designers presented their collections last week at the Central Saint Martins BA graduate show. The collections on display showcased the versatility and creativity to enclose the future of fashion. Silhouettes were voluminous, including full skirts with a 1950s vibe, oversized coats and jackets. Inspiration was gathered from the juxtaposition of eras such as the 1930s and 1960s as well as a post-apocalyptic society. The color palette showed all the colors of the rainbow (sometimes all together at once), with a slight edge for earthy tones and pops of red.

Womenswear designer Susan Yan Nan Fang made her collection stand out from the crowd by completing her futuristic looks with enormous mobile-like headbands. However, she was not alone in completing the ensemble with a headpiece to elevate the look. Designer Rebecca Jeffs adorned her models’ heads in shredded fabric, adding a bit of whimsy to a minimalistic creation, requiring a second look from the attentive audience. Knitwear expert Gabriele Skucas infused a sense of playfulness alongside an impeccable technical ability, in a collection which turned childhood toys such as teddy bears and hobby horses into wearable art. Designer Louis Pileggi’s bright check-board patterns and stripes in addition to flowy ribbon-like effect on hemlines and cuffs, brought to mind the fashionable nature of Harlequin jester, for an further addition of quirkiness that illustrated the fun-loving nature of fashion and a desire for self-expression.

Womenswear designer Laura Newton took a more naturalistic route and incorporated wood into her looks. Sticks of wood had been constructed and worn as breast-plates or to emphasize various parts of a minimalistic aspect, showcasing the old saying “less is more”. The desirable title “Designer of the Year” was however given to womenswear designer Jim Chen Hstang Hu, who presented a fiery collection all in red, giving the phrase “Lady in Red” a new tone. The collection comprised of clean cut garments showcasing complex craftsmanship with surprises such as structural 3D details and laser-cut textures.

Victoria Edman 
10/06/2015

Masters of Art Through the Lens of Gianfranco Gorgoni

During the late 1960s, Gianfranco Gorgoni was commissioned by the Italian weekly L’Espresso to create a photo story on the vibrant New York City art scene. Through his close contact with legendary art dealer Leo Castelli, Gorgoni was introduced to all the key artists of the day including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Jean­‐Michel Basquiat. Gorgoni created a series of candid and telling portraits of artists who would become leading figures in the art world for decades to come. He captured his sitters in a variety of manners, both in posed and spontaneous settings. The intensity with which the artists showed his sitters resonated through the art world and captured the attention of world-leading publications, resulting in a highly successful career as an international photojournalist. An exhibition of Gianfranco Gorgoni’s work closes today at Contini gallery in London.

The Blogazine – Images courtesy of ContiniArtUK 
09/06/2015

Yoko Ono at the MoMA

In late 1971, Yoko Ono announced an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art — a one-woman show titled Museum Of Modern (F)art. When visitors arrived at the museum, however, there was little evidence of her work. Outside the entrance, a man wore a sandwich board stating that Ono had released a multitude of flies and that the public was invited to follow their flight within the museum and across the city. Now, over 40 years later, Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 surveys the decisive decade that led up to that unauthorized exhibition at MoMA, bringing together approximately 125 of her early objects, works on paper, installations, performances, audio recordings, and films, alongside rarely seen archival materials.

The exhibitions is organized chronologically, with thematic currents, providing multiple ways for visitors to navigate the exhibition. It brings together works that invite interaction, including Painting to Be Stepped On (1960/61), and Ono’s groundbreaking performance Bag Piece (1964), together with her earliest works, which were often based on instructions that Ono communicated to viewers in verbal or written form. At times poetic, humorous, unsettling, and idealistic, Ono’s text-based works anticipated the objects that she presented throughout the decade, including Grapefruit (1964), her influential book of instructions; Apple (1966), a solitary piece of fruit placed on a Plexiglas pedestal; and Half-A-Room (1967), an installation of bisected domestic objects. The exhibition also explores Ono’s seminal performances and films, including Cut Piece (1964) and Film No. 4 (1966/67). At the end of the decade, Ono’s collaborations with John Lennon, including Bed-In (1969) and the WAR IS OVER! if you want it (1969–) campaign, boldly communicated her commitment to promoting world peace.

“Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971″ is curated by Christophe Cherix and Klaus Biesenback and will run until 7 September 2015.

The Blogazine – Images courtesy of the MoMA 
08/06/2015

Style Suggestions: White on White

Menswear can get tedious, so take a chance and try something new. The all-white look has moved from the runway to the street: its your chance to have some fun.

Jacket: Burberry Prorsum, Trousers: Ann Demeulemeester, Shirt: Raf Simons, Shoes: Valentino, Sunglasses: Our Legacy, Socks: Beams Plus

Styling by Vanessa Cocchiaro 

08/06/2015

Matali Crasset: We Trust in Wood

Any discussion about design inevitably starts from the final product: the material qualities of a chair, a table, a lamp, a book, a poster, are thoroughly scrutinized in search of traces that, by revealing how such an object was made, might also tell a story about why it was made – transcending the apparently simple and direct purpose of the object itself and giving shape to a wider story about our world. Nevertheless, some projects are able to reveal this wider purpose by their very design – calling to our attention not so much the subtle curves and minute details, but the process that brought them to light.

Matali Crasset’s latest endeavour is one such project – designed not so much as a series of objects to be looked at (or, perhaps, even used), but as a media to read into relationships that design can build, systems that it can create in the context of a ‘wider world’. Crasset, whose designs often hint at community engagement and social responsibility, proposes a project that is valuable only as a means of accessing and participating in the network of relationships it builds. “We Trust in Wood” is an exploration of design as a medium of engaging with a community, in this case, local artisans from the Meuse region in the north-east of France. Developed in collaboration with Vent des Forêts, a local organisation of six villages that builds relationships with designers and artists to help develop the identity of the area, “We Trust in Wood” is a series of simple wooden plates and bowls in three different sizes crafted by a local artisan. The design of the objects themselves – if subjected to a quasi-archeological analysis – reveals precisely the intention to focus on the economy of their production.

An archetypical form, the plate is characterised by wide, thick borders and simple curves – almost forgoing any formal distinction or virtuosity, submitting their aesthetic dimension to the needs of the handicraft production. As Crasset put it, “You don’t fight wood. Even when you do something simple like turning it, you have to understand it because the material is irregular. You gain control by understanding how the block is structured. It’s a lot about feeling.”, and the final product – with its subtle irregularities and unique details – reveals precisely the grace of touch of the artisan who made it. “We Trust in Wood”, thus, serves as a textbook example of what design can do – how its three-dimensional form engages with realities that are well beyond its direct materiality. For the designer, “We Trust in Wood” is about shaping a network, from the design, to production, distribution and use. For the artisan, it is about crafting his identity, together with that of his territory. And for the users, it is all about getting a little bit closer to understanding what design could be.

Rujana Rebernjak  
05/06/2015

Graduate Shows 2015: Royal College of Art

Spring means graduation, and this week the MA graduates of the Royal College of Art showcased their collections and vision to the world. It was an unconventional runway, market both by the presentation and stylistic choices. Instead of the usual linear runway the models walked dynamically, choreographed to display the different collections, with an attitude that brought about a laid-back atmosphere while elevating the designs within their context.

Deconstruction, minimalistic, geometry and knitwear. These are some of the keywords that came to mind when viewing the fashion show of the Royal College of Art. There was also a glimpse of futurism within the show, constructed in a way that it simply felt as a continuation the 1990s minimalistic trend with just addition of unexpected elements, such as volume. The color palette was in general muted and very somber with shades of white, grey, black and beige. However, there were a few pops of color used to make interesting silhouettes stand out, in indigo and bright red, or a skintight blue jumpsuit with accompanying skin tight restricted red long dress, definitely served as food for thought. That ‘plastic is fantastic’ also seemed to be embraced by RCA graduates, with coats and other stand-alone pieces making a mark. Constructed menswear pieces in plastic were presented as an interesting update of urbanity and a new take on the PVC trend from the early 2000s. Jackets and coats had been painted with an abstract pattern on top of the plastic surface making the heads turn twice.

The RCA fashion show displayed an interesting take on the future of fashion favoring deconstruction, geometry and knitwear but also putting forward ideas on how to evolve trends such a minimalistic tendencies, sport influences as well as incorporating technology such as 3D printing and digital projection. The graduates are a bridge into tomorrow’s trend cycle and Wednesday’s fashion show of Royal College of Art marked an exciting new beginning for this raw fashion talent.

Victoria Edman 
05/06/2015

Designers’ Autobiographies: Life in Practice, Design in Words

In design practice, stories are told through objects. Design is a practice that allows us to tell stories by making things, constructing a discourse around a project which is both the most material and volatile way of narrating ideas. In many cases, the story told by objects goes hand in hand with the life story of the person who created the objects themselves. For a designer, it is quite impossible to separate work from life – they are intertwined and influence each other, and designers end up considering every action or aspect of their lives as part of a project, making the ‘I am what I do’ quote incredibly true.

Since the rise of couture at the end of XIX Century, the culture of fashion has exalted the personality of the designer presenting him or her as a createur: a sort of oracle catching social and cultural zeitgeist, able to translate it in shapes, lines, fabrics, often celebrated as a member of the jet set. The identity of the designer was since then strengthened, and now it is barely possible to separate the public persona (which is also the professional one) and the actual person. The construction of the ‘myth’ of designer was enriched by the publication of autobiographies written – or approved – by designers themselves. Design has to do with choices, and autobiographies stand as examples of the selectiveness of designers. For instance, Christian Dior, in his ‘Christian Dior et Moi’, talks about two people with the same name, the person and the couturier, declaring in the preface that only the second will be protagonist of the story; but, concentrating on the life in the atelier and avoiding his private life, he inevitably gave us elements to understand his personality and his commitment to his work.

The most interesting issue with autobiographies is the way in which designers deal with their identity. If Christian Dior doubles himself separating his two identities, Elsa Schiaparelli mixes her two personalities changing the tone and the protagonist – sometimes Elsa, sometimes Schiap, in her ‘Shocking Life’. Diane Von Furstenberg, in her ‘The woman I wanted to be’, switches easily from personal to professional life, without apparent continuity, but highlighting in this way the fluency between the two; Paul Poiret, in his ‘En habillant l’époque’ (dressing the century), presents himself as an artist, and guides the audience through his vision of the world, as seen from his privileged point of view. Rhetoric is of course one of the tools widely used in these narrations – but even looking inside the techniques and linguistic expedients is interesting, if we are to understand the designer and, consequently, the person.

As everything else in the life of a designer, autobiographies are themselves a project; thus they are designed in order to give shape to the idea of life designers wanted to achieve – and, in most cases, actually achieved. Words are chosen carefully, and just what has to be shown is written, but they give the chance to insiders and amateurs to read between the lines, and get information not only about a personality, but about a whole historical period, told by someone who was shaping it from the inside. If seams and cuts are not a common language and cannot ‘speak’ clearly about the wit behind them, autobiographies are a strong statement of the intentions and desires of designers, and can be used to analyse a person, a fashion and a whole epoch; but, above all, they tell useful and beautiful stories that would otherwise be submerged and hidden in the pleats of history.

Marta Franceschini 
04/06/2015

Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life

The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo was adored by the fashionable crowd simply for being herself and, therefore, unconventional. Her vibrant look of irregular stacked heels, long skirts and an iconic uni-brow was often elevated through her relationship with the nature. Kahlo would pick flowers from her own garden and wear them in her hair. The combination of all these elements amounted to a fashionable yet relaxed style of the painter, which made her a fashion icon. Looking at Frida Kahlo, we can understand the power of fashion to portray our surroundings as much as our personality. And taking a walk through Frida Kahlo’s garden – recently staged in New York – is almost like taking a peek inside her eclectic closet.

The exhibit “Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life” at the Botanical Garden in New York is made up of two sections. The first one is a re-creation of Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s garden at Casa Azul; an installation made possible from photographs, paintings, and firsthand accounts. What to expect in the garden as you pass through it, is the Mexican flora to a T. Hidden within the garden is also a model of Kahlo’s painting studio, perfected to the very last oil paint and brush to illustrate the uncanny resemblance. A few steps away in the museum are 14 botanical-themed works by Kahlo, as well as several photographs of the artist herself.

Kahlo’s botanical guidance within fashion can still be found today, for instance in Gucci’s 2015 fall collection. On the runway you could see petite gold bees balanced on the straps of lacy tops, dresses sprinkled with flowers, hummingbirds swishing across sweaters and everything colored within Kahlo’s aesthetic, showcasing the artist’s establishment as a fashion icon and adding to the debate on art and fashion. Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life is on display now to the 1st of November at the New York Botanical Garden.

Victoria Edman 
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