Fashioning the Object
Surfing around the web I came across the announcement of an upcoming exhibition featuring Bless, Boudicca and Sandra Backlund. As Bless is one of my loves, I started looking for further information but couldn’t find that much because actually we are writing about it in large advance. On view April 11 through August 5 at the Art Institute of Chicago the exhibition titled “Fashioning the Object” explores these fiercely independent and far-reaching young designers from Berlin, London, Paris and Stockholm which are producing fashion objects that straddle the line between traditional craft and cutting-edge technique, both in their use of materials and in the promotion of their brands.
Contemporary fashion over the last 50 years has become increasingly tied to issues surrounding everyday life, fuelled by agendas as diverse as politics, the environment, pop culture, and social reform. Fashion designers, moving beyond traditional presentation methods such as the catwalk show or window displays, have embraced a diversity of methods to push their practice into new arenas. As these themes and experimentation are the ones the mostly affect my research I highly reccomend to visit this exhibition.
Bless, a collaboration between Austrian designer Desiree Heiss and German designer Ines Kaag, blurs the boundary between fashion and designed objects. Founded in 1997, Heiss and Kaag’s practice is informed by a fascination with found objects, recycled materials, and traditional craft techniques. Mentored by Belgian designer Martin Margiela, Bless’s deeply creative designs include a unisex multifunctional clothing line, edible knitwear, and furniture-shaped vacuum cleaners. Bless’s presentation is equally original: lookbooks are distributed inside existing magazines to reach a broader audience, and fashion shows are interactive endeavors; the fall/winter 2011 Paris show was staged in an artist’s studio with models arranged as if they were posing for a drawing class, the output of which was sent to the press in lieu of press photography.
Boudicca, established in 1997 by British designers Zowie Broach and Brian Kirkby, is grounded in a deeply intellectual approach. Acute attention is paid to the construction of garments, reinterpreting tradition with work infused with contemporary ideas and approaches. In 2008, Boudicca launched a perfume called “Wode”, which is sprayed out of a graffiti can and resembles Yves Klein Blue paint before it evaporates, leaving only a lingering scent behind. The house is well known for utilizing film to illustrate their ideas and process behind each collection.
Swedish designer Sandra Backlund established her own label in 2004 and has since created knitwear that expands expectations of this area of fashion design. Backlund’s designs use sophisticated construction to sculpt three-dimensional geometric forms that simultaneously reference art history and street culture while celebrating the movement of the human body. Her spring 2011 collection incorporated works spun entirely from metal yarn.
These designers break conventions and adapt objects to new uses, promulgating their ideas in playful, thought-provoking ways.
And while waiting we can have a look to Valérie Blass‘ work. Employing virtually every sculptural technique from moulding, casting, carving and modelling to assemblage and bricolage she explores the territories between animal, human and inanimate forms, creating strange, hybrid objects.
julikafrombudapest
