"Luxury" Exhibit at the Museum at FIT

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, 1925. Photo Irving Solero

The other day, I visited the “Luxury” exhibit, part of the rotating permanent collection at the Museum at FIT. I was given a tour from Tamsen Schwartzman, a research curator who organized the exhibit together with Valerie Steele and Fred Dennis. The exhibit, which opened in May and will remain on view until November 10th, made some very interesting points on the relation between luxury (as a widespread concept and eventually industry) and the rise of the bourgeoisie. Thus, the show started in the 18th century and continued up to the present day. The garments and accessories in the exhibit, which were for the most part arranged chronologically, made a very convincing argument for how luxury is ultimately a constructed cultural category which is constantly shifting and, thus, always historically and geographically specific. The exhibit went from an18th century heavily embroidered men coat (which exemplified the decorative character of menswear at the time) to a late 19th century extremely embellished ball gown which stands as evidence of “the feminization of luxury,” and of Veblen’s theory of “conspicuous consumption.” This move took place as menswear became pared down and opulence and wealth became displaced and displayed onto women.

In the early part of the exhibit covering the early 20th century, it’s quite interesting to compare a Chanel’s dress in its effortless look to a heavily decorated early 20th century Worth gown, and to a more theatrical Poiret dress. As the 20th century progresses, the ’80s stand out as the epitome of ostentatious luxury followed by the ’90s, with its more understated look and the concept of stealth luxury. The exhibit ends with suggestions of what constitutes luxury today:

It often has to do with the personal, the experiences which are often translated into the uniqueness of a piece, and the story associated with the brand or sometimes the individual garment. This made me think of an article on glamour by Elizabeth Wilson which I recently read in Fashion Theory, and which discussed glamour (perhaps counter intuitively) in relation to the dandy, with its aesthetic of restraint, and of refusal. “Glamour,” writes Wilson, is “elitists” and it “depends on what is withheld, on secrecy, hints , and the hidden.” Thus, one is left to wonder whether luxury in contemporary time, where the concept has become ubiquitous, is ultimately to be found in some form of refusal…

Francesca

New York Fashion Now

Tess Giberson, Fall/Winter 2003-04

I have been meaning to write about the exhibit New York Fashion Now, which is currently up at the V&A in London. Curated by Sonnet Stanfill, who originally hailed from this side of the Atlantic, the exhibit gave an interesting and thorough account of recent developments in New York Fashion in the context of drastic changes in the city’s economic and cultural landscape following September 11.

Rather refreshingly, the show focused largely on new and often emerging designers, giving its due to US designers—who can be underrated within the US borders, where Europe is generally equated with better fashion and good design. Personally, I find this association rather puzzling, having grown up in Italy and seen a fair share of bad European design ranging the gamut from hideous post-war architecture to perennially tight pants coupled with the most conservative of attires. Thus, the exhibit was a much-needed argument for the validity of New York–based fashion designers, one made all the more effective as it was staged outside of the city confines, and within what is probably Europe’s preeminent museum of decorative arts.

The exhibit was arranged in four separate sections:

Sportswear chic, Atelier, Avant-Garde, Menswear and Celebrity, and included twenty designers whose company varied significantly in size. Among the designers were Zac Posen, Mary Ping and Behnaz Sarafpour (in the Sportswear section) Maggie Norris and Jean Yu (in the Atelier section), Duckie Brown and Christian Joy (in the menswear and celebrity section, respectively). The Avant-Garde section (which interested me most) included As Four, Tess Giberson, Slow and Steady Wins the Race and Miguel Adrover. In addition to garments and accessories, two of the four designers were represented by fashion shows. On view was As Four Puppencouture Show from 2000, and Tess Giberson Fall/Winter 2003-04 collection, featuring a shelter-like structure made partially of the clothes later worn by the models. The fashion shows were a nice addition to the otherwise static display and left me wishing that more moving images were included in the exhibit.

What was perhaps most interesting about the avant-garde section of the exhibit is the fact that two of the designers (Tess Giberson and Adrover) were no longer in business by the time the exhibit was installed. (Stanfill had started planning the exhibit three years prior.) Upon being asked as to whether she saw an inherent incongruity between the notion of New York design and the avant-garde , the curator mentioned that one of the hindrances to an understanding of New York as an avant-garde fashion city is the preeminence of New York fashion image as one of sportswear and of American fashion design as inherently commercial. This point is, of course, compounded by the fact that a number of designers in this section come from abroad. Ultimately, one wonders whether there is something more deeply ingrained in the American resistance to thinking of fashion as a meaningful cultural and artistic product. Perhaps this resistance is somewhat indebted to a once popular Greenbergian understanding of art, and in particular American art, as a “pure” and ultimately masculine sphere or perhaps it simply has to do with the alleged American pragmatism, which ascribes to clothes a primarily utilitarian function.

If you end up missing the actual exhibit (which is up until September), the well-designed and comprehensive catalogue written by Stanfill (and distributed in the US by Abrams) makes for a great substitute!

Francesca

Condensation: Chen Chieh-jen at the Asia Society

Still from Chen Chieh-jen's video Factory (2003)

The Asia Society organized the first solo show of the Taiwanese video artist Chen Chieh-jen. Among the harrowingly uncanny videos on show, the first, "Factory" (2003) stood out for me. It focused on garment workers returning to an abandoned factory where they had worked for the best part of their lives, prior to its sudden closing in the mid-'90s due to the decline of the Taiwanese manufacturing sector. Shot in Super 8mm and shown at a slow speed without a soundtrack, the video lyrically captures the female garment workers’ feeling of mourning and loss for the abandoned building (whose previous bustling rhythms are shown through interspersed historical footage). The work they once completed there is symbolized by a leftover men’s suit jacket, held up at the beginning of the video. This ordinary looking jacket stands as a statement to the complex personal and collective narratives which imbue even the most simple of garments. (For an extract of the video and exhibition info, click here)

Francesca

Doshi-Levien

Wellcome Trust Window Installation

Tomorrow evening the London-based design duo Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien will have a conversation at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum about their new furniture collection for Moroso that combines handmade and industrial production, a design approach that reflects a cross-cultural creative process. Nipa Doshi says, "I love my cheap colourful plastic bangles as much as my beautifully crafted jewellery. I am inspired when an East London Bangladeshi girl dresses in her traditional salwar kameez and wears trainers, speaking a mix of Bengali and cockney." Their new furniture collection features techniques such as quilting and applique mixed with bright colors and cheeky themes.

Guests will have the opportunity to view the installation of the new Doshi-Levien work in the Great Hall at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

CHNDM
2 East 91st St, NYC
June 27, 2007
6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
Members and students with valid ID: $5; non-members $10. For discounted registration or for more information, please call the Education Department at 212.849.8380.

Sarah Scaturro

101 Dresses

Mimi Smith Camouflage Maternity Dress, 2004, based on 1966 "Maternity Dress

If you are in or around New Haven don't miss 101 Dresses, an exhibition curated by Linda Lindroth and Denise Markonish at Artspace, which will be up until June 23.

The exhibition "celebrates the theme of fashion in contemporary art. On view are 101+ examples in all media, by a mix of local and national visual artists as well as the work of fashion designers and collectors. It takes its inspiration from Eleanor Estes' 1944 classic children's book, The Hundred Dresses."

The selection of artists and designers in the exhibit span generations as it includes the work of Zoe Sheehan, Marisa Jahn, and Despina Papadopoulos alonsgside that of Yoko Ono, Mimi Smith, and Laurie Simmons. (Here, you can find a full list of the artists and designers included.)

Francesca