Tags
autumn/winter 2015, avant garde, avant garde fashion, Comme des Garcons., conceptual clothing, conceptual fashion design, Paris Fashion Week, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto
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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