If conceptual art is an expression of imagination in physical form-

then fashion is art: an inspired thought

made tangible with fabric and other materials.

 

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Creating with this intent, designers challenge the norm

to produce avant garde garments.

Not for practical wear, these pieces symbolise an idea(s) and

are often in conflict with conventional aesthetics.

Fashion of this type is of the genre of conceptual art-

whereby the idea is paramount, not the form it takes.

 

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For Paris Fashion Week (PFW)  a ’15

philosopher/designer Yohji Yamamoto and

avant garde designer Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garçons)

each presented collections of the abstract:

provocative, speculative, enigmatic.

 

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(images from style.com):

by Yohji Yamamoto

 

 

The Idea(s)

Garments which evince a visual of things architectural, structural,

encircled by scaffolding, of construction in progress.

The eye make-up ‘wink’  seems signal to acknowledge

the state of noncompletion:  of the ‘garments under work’.

Is the collection’s seeming reference to

construction underway,  a metaphor for life;

that of life as a state of constant change, planning, developing, building?

 

 

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PFW,  a ’15

 

Partially opened umbrella frame

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At angles

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Crinoline aspect

 

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by Rei Kawakubo

Comme des Garçons

 

 

The Idea(s)

Covered, hidden beneath layers-

seemingly not for protective purposes

as the fabrication is light in colours and weight.

The use of light lace and a peek of hand(s) exposed in certain looks,

seems to suggest that this state of covering is temporary.

Maybe the idea of Ms, Kawakubo’s pieces

is that of something/someone being momentarily cocooned:

to emerge fully and with ease, at some later point .

 

Yet, there is some contradiction and tension-

a sense that an eventual uncovering

might not be always be easily accomplished.

In certain looks, the model is tightly enveloped in the wrappings

while in others, less so:

 

 

The collection unsettles-

no matter the amount used of lace, bows and brocade.

 

 

 

PFW,  a ’15

 

 

 

Tightly wound

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Barred

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Trapped, but with possibilities opening up

 

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