The relationship between Fashion and architecture are more present in some fashion designers than others but there are evident connections. While some of the similarities in recent years between the two disciplines are simplistic, many of them are very sophisticated, very interesting and very fascinating. Most of the included dresses and buildings are spectacular.
"In both frashio and architecture," Brooke Hodge wrote in her catalogue essay - Skin + Bones Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture - "the early 1980s were marked by significant design events and advances that have contributed to cultural shifts in each field. Japanese fashion designers Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto first presented their work during the Paris ready-to-wear collection shows in April 1981. The oversized, often asymmetrical black clothing they showed featured intentional holes, tatters and unfinished edges that stood in stark contrast to the elegantly decorative, crisply tailored, and formfitting looks being shown by the majority of designers and, as a result, challenged accepted ideas of ashion, feminity, and beauty. The following year, architecture Bernard Tschumi won the international competition to design the Parc de la Villette in Paris (completed in 1998). His project, and the resulting collaboration between architect Peter Eisenman and philosopher Jacques Derrida, served to introduce ideas of deonstruction to a much larger audience."
Alexander McQueen is known for his impeccable tailoring and architectonic forms and the elaborate sets of his presentations. The catalogue notes that "His Scanners collection (autumn/winter 2003-04), for instance, was shown on a set depicting a stark snowy landscape below a glass bridge that also served as a wind tunnel. Conjuring up visiions of a nomadic traveler in a futuristic environment, the presentation featured McQueen's signature A-line skirts and bifitted bodices in ornate or geometrically patterned fabrics, many of which were lavishly embroidered....McQueen's ability to combine contrasting cqualities - such as hard and soft, rigid and fluid, violent and fragile - in the same garment is evident in the way the layers of a delicate fluted underskirt peek out from the stiff exterior cladding."
There are the obvious designers -- Hussein Chalayan, Viktor & Rolf, and more that are usually considered "architectural" because their clothing tends to have more structure to it. But then there were some like Alber Elbaz or Dries van Noten, whose designs are no table dress, who I had never thought of as having much in common with architecture the same way Yohji Yamamoto does.
You can read in this book "Skin + Bones Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture" ( Skin + Bones explores the parallels between the “skin” - or exterior surface - and the “bones” - or structural framework - of both clothing and buildings) besides the similarities in the actual construction of all the clothes or buildings, also the cultural messages they all give out or referenced, and it's very interesting to compare the way a designer executes a concept to the way an architect does.
The book was the catalogue of an exhibition that took place in the The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in March 2006, and in The National Art Center, Tokyo, in 2007 with the same name.
The book is available at amazon.com
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