Avant-garde Fashion, Art, Visual Culture, Fashion Theory, Fashion Exhibitions, Fashion Museums, Fashion Exhibition, Fashion Museum
Also coming up on the 22nd and 23rd at Yale University is the "The Urban Catwalk: A Fashion + Street Culture Symposium." Organized by Madison Moore and Alex Tuleda. The conference aims to investigate the relationship between street style and identity. Among the diverse range of speakers are New York Times Guy Trebay, and Caroline Weber, Associate Professor of French at Barnard. For more information, please visit the site
UPDADTE: The first in two seminars is taking place this Tuesday April 19th at the Cuny Graduate Center. Titled Metamorphoses: Clothing in Motion from Early Cinema to Contemporary Fashion Film, the seminar is moderated by Eugenia Paulicelli and its speakers include Penny Martin (of GentleWoman), Antonia Lant and Donald Gregg, in addition to festival curator Marketa Uhlirova.
The tireless curator and fashion scholar Marketa Uhlirova brings her "Fashion in Film Festival" to New York City. For this exciting edition of the festival, "Birds of Paradise," she partnered with the Museum of the Moving Image's Chief Curator David Schwartz, Ron Gregg at Yale University, and Eugenia Paulicelli at the Graduate Center, CUNY. The festival, which is hailed as "a major extravaganza in costume spectacle, dance and diabolical glamour," takes place from April 15 to May 2nd at the Museum of the Moving Image, while a seminar on the topic is scheduled for April 19th at the CUNY Graduate Center. For a full program of the festival, please visit the Fashion in Film Festival site.
by Catherine BagnallIntroducing a new recurrent feature on artists' and designers' projects is New Zealand artist Catherine Bagnall's poetic recounting of her performances in the wilderness….
Paradise valley, 2009
Two years ago in white - out conditions, sometimes thigh deep snow and freezing winds I crossed Oturere Crater in the pale blue bridesmaid dress and a yellow fur hat. (1) The Emerald Lakes had frozen over and lost their edges to an almost unperceivable perfect grey. In the whiteness I had a solidity that the mountains lost to the snow. With my yellow fur hat and pale blue against the white, I felt I had links to Russian princesses.
The day before my heavy red gown with pink detailing and sparkly sequined cardigan shone out against the snow but I was so cold I didn’t know what I felt. The weather overwhelmed everything but my huge skirt billowed out and flapped loudly and sounded curious up there. Last year I climbed Mt Arthur in an old white brocade wedding dress. It collected the weather and mud and became heavy , I also carried a possum fur muff. In Paradise Valley I swirled around in a pale blue tutu and last week I wore a brown dress with a long tail and a white dress with a hood and satin ears high up on an alpine plateau.
As an artist and a lecturer in a fashion school, my practice draws on aspects of performance through which I explore issues surrounding pleasure, and think through the problematics of making visual my relationship to ‘wilderness’ landscapes – more precisely some areas in the National Parks of New Zealand. In my work I am hunting for sensations, new ways of finding and feeling pleasure and clothing has been a large part of this experiment. For the past several years my practice has involved undertaking long walks (tramps) in remote parts of New Zealand during which I experiment with the wearing of both artefactual and inappropriate clothing: old wedding frocks, my grandmother’s clothes, garments that I have made with ears and tails attached and so on. In these walks I strive to become something ‘other’ than what I think I can be, to transform into something else – a bird, a fox.
Fur Muff, 2009
This idea of other, of transformation or metamorphism is part of a literature canon dating back to Ovid’s great poem Metamorphoses. Marina Warner suggests that this tradition of fiction is integral to not only feeding our imaginations but functions also as part of our understanding of theories of self and models of consciousness.(2) She explains, using the example of the double or monstrous alter ego, that such metamorphosing potential works paradoxically as not only a threat to personality, but the double “also solicits hope and dreams for yourself, of a possible becoming different while remaining the same person, of escaping the bounds of self.” (3) Warner further suggests that metamorphoses happen at points of intersections, between boundaries. Metamorphosis is engendered by border-line conditions; it is cultivated in-between. If margins and borders are conducive to such transformations, then clothing may be an especially productive site. As a kind of transitional frontier, it marks the boundary between self and non-self through its physical and psychological operations. Clothing can embody powers of metamorphosis; it can be a tool for ‘becoming something else.’ The transformations that dress enacts may be large or small, fantastical or ordinary, monstrous, disciplined or liberating. I thought these were useful ideas for exploring the visible elements of femininity in wilderness landscapes and the complexities of my relation to the concept of nature. A lot has been written about clothing in an urban context and very little about clothing in the wilderness landscape.
“Expansive! now there's a word I love, it spreads all over the beating heart of the romantic sublime, defines it, now you're talking my language,” writes my friend Jane who is an art historian and writer and a recent collaborator. “To me, transformation is more idea than phenomenology and I just couldn't feel it - though I could see it - wonder what that says about our different approaches?.....and the clearing, how can that expand?” she writes. Jane and I are still discussing a project we undertook together where we travelled to Paradise Valley a remote spot in the isolated central South Island of New Zealand. Together we went; Jane with her moleskin notebooks, pencils and recording devices and myself carrying a lot of clothes and a camera. We went to see if we could put into visualisation a feminine sublime in a New Zealand wilderness context and I was also experimenting to see if I could transform into something ‘other’ using clothing and exploring what a female pleasure in looking might feel like.
In Paradise Valley we spent seven days in a small rodent filled one room hut with no power or running water surrounded by beech trees and huge mountains. The nights were so thick and dark that we peed only metres from the door in the dewy grass. We had gone with the intention of walking but instead we spent our week there sort of trapped, or at least not leaving a small clearing that the trees outside our hut opened onto. In Paradise Valley Jane asked me what I thought about the concept of the self in relation to feeling. I had been reading Barbara Vinken and thinking around her idea that the division between being and appearance constitutes one of the major conceptual articulations of fashion. I was thinking about what ‘being’ actually means, looks like or feels like. I decided that it was feeling that was important. I can’t imagine a self without feeling. Feeling the wind and enjoying the feeling of feeling. I was and still am curious to see if looking could be an agent for feeling.
My desire to effect what artist Roni Horn calls ‘an intensification of being’ is an ordinary human goal to be sure. Roni Horn also travels to ‘wilderness’ locations in Iceland for her projects. She is hunting for a space outside gender somewhere where she says pronouns don’t detain her. I dress up in a hyper-expressive collection of mostly dresses and I think I am hunting for a heightened sense of being, of feeling pleasure as a female – in fact a middle aged woman in the bush. My clothed body moves through and sits still amongst the beech trees and alpine tussock grasses. In the process of performing with these elements, I strive for a union between my body, textile and natural world and, of course failing, I try again and leave behind a trail of art works. It is in these works of video and photos and writing that I seem to be reflected back at myself as part landscape, part animal and part garment.
Jane asked me why I chose to take the clothes I did to Paradise Valley. Soft pinks, pale blues and white against green that I find sensual. I thought a lot about the colour of the clothes I took and how they would look against the Southern Fiordland forest and about their textures. I chose pink trousers and a thick satin white skirt and red Yoji dancing shoes. A pale blue sequined tutu for twirling in and an old petticoat to add volume and rustle to the skirts. A possum fur muff for the pleasure of feeling fur - sticking my hands into fur. A hooded jacket and a thick cable knit jersey for warmth and layers. I like looking and feeling warm and lumpy. A dress I had made with pink ears and a tail to explore becoming animal in. My beautiful Martin Margiela long, three- fingered wool gloves. And finally my old man black wool pants. I had worn them a lot; they’re too big, with a huge baggy bum; I know they look bad but I feel good looking bad. And they’re warm. I filled our hut with my clothes and laid out they were an extraordinary mixture of colours and textiles with links to the past and potential possibilities.
Barbara Vinken has called fashion a poetological activity that thematises itself and has performative power, one that represents a relationship between the designer and those who wear the clothes. (4) The performative power of clothing interests me and here I see a connection or blurring of boundaries with art. Both have the potential to shift and question how we see ourselves in relation to our environments – or to what we can become. In my brown dress with a tail I don’t become a tailed animal and the gap between me and tailed animals is wide. But I do feel a huge respect for animals and like them I need also the forests and clean air to live.
White dress with tail, 2011
Of course one does not need to dress up to feel the awe and respect I feel for these vast areas of landscape that do not need me. But I feel such a joy in dressing up in the mad clothes I have made and found and being in the forests in these garments gives me a sense of happiness and well being that I sometimes struggle to find elsewhere. I take these sensations back to my house and my partner, my back yard, and my cat glow. Kate Soper argues that we need new ways for finding other pleasures and desires and “alternative outlets for ‘transcendence’ that are not provided by Western Industrialist consumerist culture …. which …. remove us from a natural simplicity or immanence, rather than return us to it,” (5) if we do want to maintain a world that both humans and non humans can happily and healthy continue to live in. She argues that even if could we continue to exploit and consume as we do, it would not necessarily enhance human happiness and wellbeing. From her writings on ‘alternative hedonisim,’ (6) I am interested in her ideas of developing new modes of satisfaction that do not necessarily require goods but rather new modes of experience that are possibly more sensory, sensual and slower than what we usually give value to.
Brown dress with tail, 2011
“I don't really want to become an animal with a tail.................I just like being in the bush dressed up because I feel expansive simple as that.” I wrote that to Jane two weeks ago after being up at the mountains in a white silk dress with ears and tail and elaborately embroidered fur muff that I had made. I am now thinking that a sensation of “expansion” whether through feeling or sight though certainly not a new human experience, maybe an important one to strive for. When I feel expansive I feel a sense of wonderment and respect for and I guess love in and connection for my surroundings. Paradise Valley in the space of the clearing, through idleness and having the time to sit and think, we both decided that expansion and very simple ideas were vital. And my experience of spending ten days in a clearing watching the grass and sun and feeling things, I think has changed me. For years I thought I was seeking immanence – a complete collapse of myself to become more plant or animal or rock like, to be fully immersed into the trees but as Kate Soper argues if I really had the option for immanence I would have to renounce all my aspirations for philosophical or poetic transcendance. When I’m out there I don’t transcend my corporeal self; the wet skirt touches my legs and I am part of the landscape. Yet I expand and am transformed…my three wardrobes are full, and I believe. Because it is the being in it that I am interested in, the jouissance of being in the bush luxuriously dressed and feeling expansive in way that I am still struggling to articulate.
When tramping with a heavy pack on my back I spend a lot of time looking down on myself, on the next spot to put my foot. I delight in looking down and seeing the satin or silk dress fabric outline my knee as I physically push myself. But mostly it is the colour of the fabric against the leaves, the mud, the tussock, the snow, and the alpine flowers. The sound of the fabric rustling and swishing, my fabric tail dragging through the moss trailing me, the smell of the bush and the feel of the whole experience… moving through it in a brown or satin dress. Being small in a space of enormity, beauty, perfection and it is hard and unknown. Maybe I’m just dressing up in reverence for it all. In the clearing I have come to realise that whether it be twirling or just sitting or lying, the clearing is a space for hedonistic small pleasures and a sense of expansion: a place to think and find different ways of being.
The Clearing, 2011
All images by Catherine Bagnall
Catherine Bagnall is a Lecturer in the Fashion Programme at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts in New Zealand. As artist her focus is on the intersection of fashion and performance practices and her recent work explores clothing’s ability to transcend and transform the wearer in ‘wilderness’ landscapes. Her work focuses on how clothing can offer revelatory experiences in feminine ways of being and becoming through representations of the clothed female body.
Endnotes
1) I admit that my sister’s red gortex jacket with the double zip front and Velcro tabs at the cuffs and borrowed crampons made the crossing possible but I am never out to kill myself just to see what can happen what else I can become.
2) Marina Warner, Fantastic Metamophosis, Other Worlds: Ways of Telling the Self (London: Oxford University Press, 2002),p.202
3) Ibid,p.164-165.
4) Barbara Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and Cycles in the Fashion System (Berg:Oxford, New York, 2005),p.4.
5) Kate Soper, “The Politics of Nature: Reflections on Hedonism, Progress and Ecology” Capitalisim Nature Socialisim 10 (2), June, 1999 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10455759909358857
6) see Kate Soper on Alternative Hedonisim.
by Ingrid Mida
All photos by Autumn de Wilde
Suspended like birds caught in mid-flight, the breath-taking creations of the Kate and Laura Mulleavy of the Rodarte label are presented as sculptures in an exhibition that opened on March 4 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. On display in "Rodarte: States of Matter" are twenty pieces selected from the designers "White Collection" (Fall 2010), "Black Collection" (Spring 2010), "Red Collection" (2008) as well as the Odile/Black Swan tutus worn in the movie "The Black Swan". The title of the exhibition refers to the presentation of "inanimate objects in a state of flux, or animation, signifying the temporary states that material can assume."
Unconventional materials and processes are the hallmarks of the Rodarte label. The Mulleavy sisters subject fabrics, gauze, cotton cheesecloth, wool, rope, leather,and other materials to alchemic manipulations such as burning, stretching, weaving, dying, and stretching. They then layer materials, colours and textures into wearable works of art. With no formal training in fashion design, the two sisters started the Rodarte label in 2005 and in a short time have achieved great acclaim for their work which presents a mix of hard/soft and ugly/beautiful elements. Taking inspiration from the world around them, previous collections have been inspired by concepts such as horror films, architectural elements and California condors. In 2010, an exhibition of their work was presented at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York confirming their place as designers who create art that becomes fashion.
This exhibition at the MOCA Pacific Design Centre in West Hollywood was designed by runway producer Alexandre de Betak, who is also a long-time collaborator of the Mulleavys. Initially the presentation seems quite straightforward as the displays are grouped according to color with the black garments in the first level gallery and the white and red garments in the second level gallery. Suspended by wires from the ceiling, each garment is shaped by a poured resin mannequin form which is largely invisible to the viewer, creating the illusion of a body and enhancing the focus on the garments as singular sculptural objects. But it is the combination of static elements, moving elements and a light installation that make this an authentic contemporary art presentation.
Several of the tutus also spin gently giving the illusion of a ghost ballerina doing pirouhettes. Some of the gowns are suspended over layers of fluorescent tubes that change in colour and intensity in a looped light show that goes from soft and pretty to hard and flashy. This is particularly effective for the grouping of gowns from the Red Collection that includes the bloodied tutu from the final scene in the Black Swan and also seems to reference the Mulleavy sisters' fascination with horror films. Unfortunately the sequencing is so rapid and the cycle so short that it feels like there are only seconds of normal lighting conditions. While the play of light is consistent with a cutting edge contemporary art presentation, it is distracting for visitors that simply want to appreciate the inherent beauty of the garments. Plus it is almost impossible to ignore the loud fan and the clicking noises of the light show.
Such minor flaws are quickly forgotten when compared to the chance to see a Rodarte creation up close. Photos of their creations do not convey the magic of their work. It almost seemed as if the Rodarte gowns were made by fairy sprites as there are no visible seams or points of attachment. Ethereal in their beauty, they are truly works of art.
by Sarah Scaturro
Evening dress, 54.1.324, Silk, lamé and glass, Circa 1912, France?, Gift of the Estate of Minnie Drexel Fell Cassatt
The Drexel Historic Costume Collection at the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel University is known by fashion historians as a gem of a collection - small, but of very high quality. The upcoming exhibition curated by Clare Sauro called "Brave New World: Fashion and Freedom 1911-1919" should raise the profile of the collection, bringing it to the attention of many others as an invaluable resource. Fashion Projects is very pleased to present the following interview with Sauro about her upcoming exhibition and her role as Curator of the Drexel Historic Costume Collection. Besides juggling her curatorial duties, Sauro also teaches in the University and is writing an upcoming book by Berg Publishers titled Jeans (along with Drexel colleague, Joseph H. Hancock). She used to supervise the Accessories Collection and work as the Assistant Curator in the Costume Collection at the Museum at FIT, which is where as a student I first had the opportunity to experience her enthusiasm and desire to share her knowledge about fashion history.
Fashion Projects: The title of your exhibition is highly evocative, even though the time period of your exhibition predates by a decade Aldous Huxely’s novel of the same name. What inspired you to curate an exhibition called "Brave New World" about this moment in fashion history?
Clare Sauro: Congratulations on being the first to pick up on that! While the Huxley novel was published much later, it is part of the general modernist literary movement that emerged during this period. While purists may balk at my use of the title, I felt it was intriguing and captured the spirit of the exhibition. I wanted the title to convey this sense of wonder, excitement and anxiety and felt Brave New World was just right. The literary work I was most closely drawn to during my research was Pale Horse, Pale Rider but thought a reference to the apocalypse was a bit much for a fashion exhibition!
One of the themes of the exhibition (and PIFA) is the cross-disciplinary explosion of creativity that occurred during this period. The 1910s were a transitional period where the lingering traditions of the 19th century gave way to the modernism of the 20th. Many art forms struggled against tradition and sought new, often radical forms of expression to make sense of modern life. Fashion was a part of this movement and during this brief time period, women adopted short skirts, abandoned their corsets and cut their hair. The difference between a fashionable woman of 1910 and a decade later is astonishing.
Delphos dress, 2010.29.1, Mariano Fortuny, Silk & glass , Circa 1919, Italy, DHCC purchase and Negligee, no accession number, Silk & metallic lace, Circa 1912, France
What are your favorite objects in the exhibition? Were there any objects that you wish you could display (extant or not) that could have enriched your story even further?
The exhibition is relatively small (14 garments) so everything on display is a favorite in some way. The DHCC is fortunate to have many examples from this particular period and I had many to choose from when making my selection. Despite this, I searched and searched but did not turn up a Poiret from the teens. However, I was able to unearth a gorgeous Lucile evening dress (circa 1914) which conveys the right sense of luxury, sensuality, and exoticism needed for the exhibition. It really is a spectacular piece and the star of the show. Unfortunately, it needed conservation and missed the deadline for photography. I guess that means you all have to come see it in person!
All of the pieces are from the Drexel Historic Costume Collection. Can you tell us a little bit about the collection as a whole? What are you goals for your collection?
The Drexel Historic Costume Collection is a relatively small (10,000+ objects) collection of historic costume but a good one. It was founded in the early years of the 20th century to support and inspire the students of Drexel University. Since the collection began before many others of its kind, we are blessed to have strong holdings of early 20th century couture. There are some sizable gaps in content but overall the collection is of extremely fine quality. I have been curator of the DHCC for a little over two years and hope to someday establish it as one of the preeminent university costume collections in the United States. I plan to achieve this through judicious acquisitions, careful deaccessions and increased visibility through exhibitions and publications. I am fortunate to be very happy here at Drexel because I have quite a lot of work ahead of me!
Coat & dress, 67.46.31 and 67.46.40, Circa 1915, USA, Gift of Miss Elizabeth Jane Anderson
You used to supervise the Accessories Collection and work as the Assistant Curator in the Costume Collection at the Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology). Interestingly both MFIT and Drexel collections are housed at teaching universities. Have you found there to be similarities and differences in how the collections are used? How has your role changed?
I believe strongly in teaching collections. I get a great joy from sharing objects with students and seeing the lightbulbs go off over their heads. MFIT is a large and well-established collection with a conservation lab and dedicated galleries. While the collection is used for teaching and research it still adheres to established museum standards of care. The DHCC is much smaller and I am the only official staff member. As such, I have to handle all responsibilities related to the collection and must wear many hats. This is very different from MFIT where I was able to hand over a task to another staff member and know it would get done. Here at Drexel, I rely on students for day to day collections management and spend a good deal of time training them in correct handling protocol and basic registrarial work. Despite this, I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the challenges of this position and the opportunity being able to really make a difference. It is exhausting but extremely gratifying. I love teaching, something I did not get to do while I was at FIT.
Walking suit, 54.1.408, Doucet, Velvet with grosgrain ribbon, Circa 1916, France, Gift of the Estate of Minnie Drexel Fell Cassatt
It was wonderful getting an opportunity to visit your collection last fall at the Fashion in Fiction conference held at Drexel University. Your personalized tour was inspiring as you revealed the joys and difficulties in discovering and caring for your collection. Would it be possible to talk about any special “a-ha!” moments you’ve had?
My personal growth has been tremendous- I am much calmer and patient person than I was a few years ago. The DHCC has shown me that I can’t get upset over what has happened in the past, I can only do the very best I can for the collection with the resources I have. Working with the students in the collection has taught me to explain myself better and in a more direct manner. I realize that not everything is ideal but that is ok. We make it a little bit better every day. ______________________________________________
Fashion historian Rebecca Jumper Matheson will give the lecture “Beyond Romanticism: The Art, Commerce and Modernity of Lucile” on Thursday, April 14th at 7 PM as part of the exhibition.
Brave New World: Fashion and Freedom 1911-1919
April 7th through May 7th, 2011
Location: Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, Nesbitt Hall, 3215 Market St, Philadelphia, PA
Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Cost: FREE and open to the public
More Information: 215-895-1029 or visit http://www.drexel.edu/westphal
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