V&R Menswear

I love this look from the Viktor and Rolf menswear show.

The mix of fabric is stunning.

Gosh what a spectacle

Spectacles galore @ Viktor and Rolf SS11

I love the quirky spectacle print on the sweater and that ice cream mint colour is gorgeous: I would love that colour on a vintage belt please :)

Fashion and Art: the crossover

We had a double whammy lecture today, Fashion and Art and Fashion photography and the north.

I was looking forward to the lecture, I knew we would be introduced to plenty of creative people: people I have come across before and new people I haven’t. We were first looking at fashion and art.

I come from both an art background and a fashion background, they naturally crossover whether it be through literal ways, anyone remember the season when Vivienne Westwood had the help from school children who designed artwork that Vivienne used for her collection? Well, this was a literal connection, but naturally what we all see and involve ourselves with influences parts of our lives- I find this is how my natural crossover came from with regards to art and fashion.

At the beginning of the lecture we discussed ways which we though art and fashion were and became connected;

Fashion and art;
-they are both creative subjects-help each other
-fashion has a widespread publicity-art wants this
-influential to each other
-fashion is a representation of social culture and politics
-fashion has a different history to make reference to
-fashion is more accessible
-fashion-commercial more so than art
-both areas seek financial backing
-art-respect-art has an aura
-art seems to have more depth and credibility

After our thoughts Adam broke down the concept down into categories. Firstly looking at the fashion exhibition. It’s interesting to think about how images in certain places are looked at differently, for instance Steven Meisel’s Versace adverts were seen in an exhibition, in a gallery but they were also used for commercial use. When thinking about this, I believe, when looking at the ads in a magazine your mind looks at the image in a different way-you tend to look at the image with a sense of want and commercial reasoning, but in a gallery space at an exhibition you tend to question the image more so than in a mag or newspaper- the meaning of the image is unpicked in your mind.

We were shown some examples where fashion and art have been side by side. The exhibition at the National Gallery, ‘Face of Fashion’; and exhibition at the V&A ‘Imperfect Beauty’ for example. It was nice to look at who at these exhibitions were really being exhibited and shown.

Throughout the lecture we were introduced to many creative people in the industry, some highlighted I want to research more, for instance Martha Rosler for her use of collage and Graham Dolphin for his media use and the way he ‘attacks’ beauty/fashion imagery.

The next section we looked at fashion and art, the crossover. We looked at works by Elsa Schiaparelli where she worked with surrealists; also Tracey Emin’s collaboration with Longchamp creating limited addition handbags. The publication that celebrated the crossover initially was ‘Purple’ magazine: they seemed to pioneer fashion and art before anyone really caught on.

After this section we examined the fashion show. We obviously looked at Alexander McQueen’s fashion shows: also Viktor and Rolf and Hussein Chalayan- all these designers I absolutely love, so I really enjoyed discussing their work and looking at their shows. We looked at the fashion show with relation to substance designers (emphasising the process over product); science (designers who give intense attention to technology of fabrics); structure (unique clothing construction- form over function) and statement designers (the designers who use the show to help make a statement).

After this part of the lecture I realised I need to do a lot of research into some professional creative’s in the industry;

-Martha Rosler
-Sam Taylor Wood
-Graham Dolphin
-Vanessa Beecroft (specifically for our matchbox photo shoot)
-Dash Snow (found objects-Polaroid’s)
-Cindy Sherman (specifically for our matchbox photo shoot) identity of women
-Alexander McQueen (specifically at the show with Joel Peter - the mirror room)

Simply Similar

During our lecture today we needed to present our work done so far for our 'Matchbox' photo shoot.

It was great really to explain to the class our ideas, because if we were heading in the wrong direction, or indeed, if our idea is successful the class (full of creatives) can give our group some pointers as to where to look and what to research.

This is exactly what happened, we had positive feedback about the idea from our peers and most importantly Adam. We were given some ideas to research and one was to look into the fashion show, by Viktor and Rolf, where the designers based the look of the models on the actress Tilda Swinton's physical look.

I checked out the catwalk show and read some reviews for the show. This unified look between the models and the actress I think changes the way the viewer views the show, it changes the whole concept of the show, rather than the show just being a show, showing beautiful clothing and genius craftsmanship, but using the idea of similarities if not, exact copies of Tilda Swinton on every model adds a eerie sense really to the show. Maybe the designers wanted to really highlight the clothing because when you have seen one model, in this case, you have literally seen them all so your eyes may be more focused on the actual clothing when considering the other outfits? V&R stated that they 'wanted to do all our signatures, with the menswear and the couture influences, for an ageless modern woman.' this being their reasoning behind using Tilda Swinton as they did for the show.

We could maybe use the idea of the similarity between people in our photo shoot, not just through the styling of the clothing but the physical similarities between the model and the mannequin, this may be a challenge for us: to make both mannequin and model look so similar but with a good eye, we could pull it off I reckon. In this case, the look was very successful.

Cover up in motion.

Sent to my email today in Fashion Flash from style.com, I found something very interesting.

It was the video of V&R Fall/2010 show where basically the model, Kristen McMenamy, became a mannequin. She stood on a moving catwalk stage whilst the brilliant V&R styled her by taking the clothes, specifically the outerwear, from the older model and giving them to the younger models, kind of like 'a right of passage' as Beth Ditto pointed out.

The shows so far for this season have been heavily focused on the 'cover up' clothing, and rightly so for Fall 2010, what with the history of our weather in the UK we gotta be ready for a cold winter, but with this show, V&R's trademark of modern creativity really shone through and has stood out to me the most. Not only for its creative performance, but for its stunning clothing and the power dressing theme they had for this collection. The structure of the clothing too was quite phenomenal.

As V&R stated,

'Our work is about transformation: transforming something into something more beautiful'

... this was the focus for their Fall 2010 collection.

Simply Viktor and Rolf...

To put it simply, Viktor and Rolf aren't really the designers you look to for a staple piece for your wardrobe: their collections are heavily costume based and are amazing in their own right, however, I celebrate anything classic and I am very excited to see V&R's new white shirt collection. Viktor and Rolf's take on the simple, staple white shirt has obviously taken some dramatic elements from their previous collectons. In stark contrast to V&R's Black Dress collections, the talented twosome are introducing a white shirt collection for fall 10. Of course with their added milieu of drama and style.

Available in June.

Cutting Edge Couture

In this months Dazed and Confused issue, the designers celebrated are none other than the amazing and very talented Viktor and Rolf. Their key pieces from their S/S10collection are shown in a shoot styled by Katie Shillingford, photographed by Josh Olins.

After reading the article I needed to see for myself the catwalk show that showcased these exquisite pieces of fashion/art. (If you haven't seen the show click on the link next door ---->Viktor and Rolf's S/S10 fashion show)

The dresses are literally breathtaking, the colour palette is so beautiful and feminine yet the pieces themselves can to some, feel quite masculine because of their sheer size. I love though how V&R have transformed such a delicate, softening fabric and changed its function by creating these very geometric, graphic fashion pieces or as I see them art pieces, because honestly, which everyday, average Alice is gonna wear these to a dinner party :s but this is the whole point of their catwalk show, an escapism, and the way the duo came up with the name of the show,

"We felt the need to attack a sweetness, and intuitively we made sketches of the voluminous shapes of a traditional ballgown...We wanted to destroy that perfection, so to speak-that's really what we wanted to achieve. We were thinking about the words 'cutting' because of the credit crunch- you hear so much about cutting budgets, so the word stuck in our minds' V&R

The dresses are gorgeous, the designers are extra creative and the show was very inspirational, what more can we ask for whilst we are surrounded daily by misery and everyday normality....thank you V&R for the beautiful collection.