• ART IN FASHION: AN INTELLECTUAL EXPLORATION OF THE SELF

    Written by Ksenia Rundin

    The curator of the fashion section at Antwerp 93, Linda Loppa stated once about avant-garde designers, “We do not just make clothes.” She meant that avant-garde fashion designers looked at other creative disciplines and their aim was to show the ideas behind the collections. As a teacher at the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Linda Loppa thought of fashion designers as “trendsetters, almost artists, because they approach research similarly as well as translate influences from outside their creation” (Rossels, 1993, p. 25). Meanwhile, the art historian Meyer Shapiro in his essay The Liberating Quality of Avant-Garde Art (1957) stated that the artist’s power of creation, when it concerns art affected by “the tase of industry, technology and science”, seems analogous to the designer’s and engineer’s.

    In the exhibition Art in Fashion at Sven-Harry's art museum, the curator Cay Bond merges together the ideas expressed by Loppa and Shapiro into a new contemporary context, exposing a new dimension of avant-garde fashion. The exhibition introduces unique pieces of Nikoline Liv Andersen, BITE, Martin Bergström, Ann Bonander Looft, Selam Fessahaye, Mark Kenly Domino Tan, Linda Nurk, Astrid Ohlson, Diana Orving, Stina Randestad, Olivier Saillard, Bea Szenfeld, Henrik Vibskov och Wilhja.

    From being a product of creative resistance, seeking to recover the ideological approach of historical Avant-gardes, the objects presented in the exhibition reveal something that has, in my view, often been concealed — the idea of self. While observing the objects, one could feel own participation in the storytelling each object implicates, like a continuation of the artist idea through the viewer’s own imagination. The outcome is an unusual presence of fashion at the emotional level, bestowing a broader understanding of the essence of fashion than the limited possibilities that a museum could provide. What is the most amazing is that such effect is achieved with no application of any digital devices but merely imagination and the exhibited pieces, reaffirmed by the beholder and thus brought closer to the latter.

    Meyer Shapiro also claimed that paintings and sculptures are the last handmade, personal objects within our culture, because almost everything else is produced industrially, leaving few people “fortunate enough to make something that represents themselves, that issues entirely from their hands and mind, and to which they can affix their names”. Cay Bond seems to have a solution to that by making the audience affix their feelings and emotions to the fashion objects and experience the exhibited designers' ideas as own intellectual solution.

    Odalisque Magazine had an opportunity to ask Cay Bond some questions about the exhibition.

    How did the idea to create this exhibition evolve?
    I got the request from the museum to suggest a fashion exhibition suitable for Sven Harrys artmuseum. I suggested ART IN FASHION and some fashion designers working with that state of mind.

    Why Avant-garde?
    Art is often in itself avant-garde as it is created here and now and often leading to something else. In this exhibition I have gathered fashion artists who are experimenting, innovating and creating new conscious attitudes.

    What made you choose these particular fashion designers?
    As an analyst, my profession, I follow all cultural movements in society, art and fashion is only two of them. I’m fond of lifting talents especially in Sweden as we have a poor insight and respect for fashion creators compared to France and Italy. Historically we have a severe mass-market situation in the nordic countries and no real fashion culture. Although Denmark has become a visible fashion design market with a famous catwalk in Copenhagen linked to a conscious forum Copenhagen Fashion Summit.

    Fashion is not art but fashion can be a form of art. The passion of creating fashion is an international phenomenon especially as it characterize different cultures and traditions. With the creator in focus who has a lot to tell through his or her artistique craft, talent and education. My intention with this exhibition is to show how these talented individual artists are inspired by both contemporary and historical art expressions. Mind you it has always been relevant to follow your time through various arts and crafts. 1920 ́s for example when you lived the artistic community, England, France, USA, Italy there were no barriers, it was a give and take. And look what came out of it! Modernity!

    As a spectator of today you have to ask yourself, what you see and what you with yourself and your personal intellect can get out of it.

    What does the choice of exhibition space add to the exhibition as such?
    I find this space (Sven-Harry's art museum) architecturally is the perfect contemporary frame (Gert Wingårdh) for this innovative fashion scene ART IN FASHION.

    What do you think contemporary art could learn from fashion today? And the other way around, what could fashion ”borrow” from contemporary art? And why?
    Contemporary art will probably notice the respect for environment in creating new materials in fashion could be inspiring and more fashion designers will realise that uniqueness and artistry is a great inspiration for a new look! Among probably many other influences.

    Photography by Johan Eldrot
  •         Copyright by Bruno Gianesi

    GIANNI VERSACE: THE END OF HISTORY?

    Written by Ksenia Rundin

    For Hegel, freedom was not just a psychological phenomenon, but the essence of what was distinctively human. In this sense, freedom and nature are diametrically opposed. Freedom does not mean the freedom to live in nature or according to nature; rather, freedom begins only where nature ends. Human freedom emerges only when man is able to transcend his natural, animal existence, and to create a new self for himself.”
    — Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man

    Experiencing the full blossom of his career as a fashion designer during the 1990s, Gianni Versace  seems to have brought together freedom and nature. By breaking the rules and expanding the borders of the acceptable, he used his creativity as a remedy to build an empire, where history would become the starting point of searching for future fashion in nature and in freedom. It was never about vulgarity of glamour but a celebration of the human nature, shaped by the past, and instinctively longing for a future. Curated by Karl von der Ahé, the exhibition ‘Gianni Versace Retrospective’ at the Textile Museum of Sweden in Boras has introduced Gianni Versace’s unconditional reverence for Italian culture with its beauty, hospitality, playful landscape, colour palette and craftsmanship traditions.

    A fastidiously created narrative within the frame of the exhibition space, depicts an image of Gianni Versace that extends beyond our ordinary comprehension of the fashion designer and his creations. His cultural legacy is reflected upon in the garments, which with time have been transformed into art objects, to a significant extent scrupulously amassed by a prominent Versace-collector Antonio Caravano.  The collection has changed Antonio’s life by adding a deep cultural meaning to it. Former Versace’s chief designer Bruno Gianesi has eternalised Versace’s fearless freedom of creativity in his fashion sketches and drawings from the 1980s and 1990s. Once, discerning Bruno’s artistic talent, Gianni offered him a post of chief designer at his fashion house. That circumstance made Bruno reconsider his entire career choice by following his heart and becoming an artist.

    Furthermore, Versace was one of the first luxury brands that dared to penetrate post-Soviet Russia by opening their first store in the center of Saint Petersburg. The aesthetics rapidly became an established dress code in the ‘Nouveau Riche’ circles. However, Versace also became a certain cultural symbol for freedom, where everyone could suddenly see their own individual purpose.

    While interviewing Karl von der Ahé, Bruno Gianesi and Antonio Caravano, I could hear how much the personality of Gianni Versace with his incredible inner freedom means for each of them. They find something very personal and unique in his legacy, what creates a significant essence, evolving into something new. Ostensibly, Gianni Versace is not about the end of history but about its pure fearless reincarnation in a new contemporary context.

    Bruno, what was the philosophy of Gianni Versace’s brand, when you worked with Gianni?
    Bruno: It was all about beauty, which was the essence of everything, every collection. Gianni was obsessed with beauty, not the classic one but the real historic beauty that can transform into a futuristic one. He was a man of no limits, fearing nothing, very open-minded. We always started from the past, glancing at the Italian culture and considering how we would translate the latter into the future. Greek drapery framed in a new interpretation of Gianni, embellished with for example art of Kandinsky, Picasso, Warhol, creating optical nuances was our foundation.

    Karl, how was your and Antonio’s idea of creating a Versace-exhibition evolving during the production process?
    Karl: Our first idea was much simpler than it looks today. We happened to meet prior to the 20th anniversary of Gianni’s death and the fashion house’s 40th anniversary. When I read about these particular dates and thought about Gianni Versace’s last exhibition in Berlin in 1994, which he curated himself, I was struck with an idea. Antonio had this incredible collection, which had never before been shown to the world, excepting few pieces.

    Antonio: My first much smaller museum exhibition took place at The National Archaeological Museum of Naples. However, while the exhibition was ongoing, we had already started preparing for the next much bigger one in Berlin, in a completely different location in Europe. The Museum lies within the Magna Graecia (“Great Greece”) area. Southern Italy was a great source of inspiration for Gianni Versace, what also could be recognised in a number of outfits presented in my collection.

    Karl: Thus, we had a certain route to follow with the final destination in Berlin and later Boras. The advantage was that I had lived in Berlin and knew my bearings there. Our decision was to make a retrospective, gaining some structure in it. However, a structure is thoroughly dependent on the construction of a building, where exhibition would take place, the target group and the collection that is to be displayed. Seemingly, we had to bring all those three elements together and difference between Berlin and Boras has been significant. In Berlin it was a bigger exhibition than in Boras but the approach was slightly more general. Meanwhile, Boras offers a smaller exhibition space, what makes this show more focused. We had to sit together and discuss themes, questions, interesting aspects of Gianni Versace’s work. Personally, I like this exhibition very much because you can focus on such things as Magna Graecia for instance. That was the beginning, where you always have a good spirit. But next step requires a more strategic approach. The main general theme was thinking without borders, although it had to be adapted to the cultural spirit of the country. Therefore, we decided to make it more focused and visually intercultural at the same time. Ostensibly, Gianni’s personal creative limitlessness had to be put into a concrete cultural context and to be interpreted accordingly. 

    Karl, what was the biggest challenge during the creative process, preparing the exhibition in Boras?
    Karl: My background is in cultural sociology and history. That is what I like and therefore, I am always eager to discuss things. Here we have a designer from Italy, while I am German and we are all in Sweden. It creates an interesting context, where we have an opportunity to learn from each other. What I have learned is that in Europe we are able to understand the European art history without any further declaration. And I have also realised how much Italy brought into Europe through Magna Graecia, Romans, Renaissance, Barocco. It was so much before Italy actually became a state. Culture has always been the identity of Italy and it survived by the culture. Both Germany and Italy were parts of the Holy Empire but they were not actual states. However, when they became states, the cultural traditions were still there. Even take the example with Milan and Naples, where Milan constituted a part of the Holy Empire, while Naples did not. You still fill the different cultural backgrounds.

    Antonio, how did you start collecting Versace-garments and why?
    Antonio: It is very emotional question and the answer is on the bottom of my heart. I started my collection in January 1998, after the designer’s death. I was a young boy living in Miami, where I saw Gianni Versace several times. When I found out about his assassination, it affected me tremendously. I was in chock. Somehow, I instinctively felt that I should start to collect Gianni Versace’s pieces. Today my collection counts 4022 pieces.

    Bruno, you have made a few theatre productions during your time at Versace. Is there any production that you remember the most?
    Bruno: It is definitely the collaboration for ‘Pyramide’ (1990), a ballet directed by the French choreographer Maurice Béjart and his Béjart Ballet Lausanne. As an artist, I consider theatre to be of great importance for my work. For ‘Pyramide’ we conducted a tremendous research and even travelled to Egypt, where we performed the final rehearsal. Afterwards, we used our findings and inspiration from the costumes that we had created for the performance, in Versace’s future collections, translating theatre into fashion through our previous work.

    Bruno, originally you studied economics and later you radically changed your direction. Gianni Versace has something to do with it. How and to what extent do you think he has shaped you as an artist?
    Bruno: Well, my father never wanted me to be an artist, but I could become an engineer, lawyer or economist. Gianni let me become an artist through my work, by doing, while drawing a new collection, doing research for a theatre project, preparing an exhibition. Curiosity is the key and I was curious.

    What have you personally discovered, while working on the exhibition, first in Berlin and later in Stockholm?
    Bruno: I could return to the past and recall my time with Gianni, comparing it to my current life, which is completely different than it used to be then. It was very enjoyable to “step into the same river twice”.

    Antonio: For me it is an opportunity to improve myself.

    Karl: I think, in a certain way it was about coming back in time, as for Bruno, remembering when we were young at the 1980s and 1990s. There was a world before the world we have today, both in fashion and in general. I feel that we have lost a lot on the way. Today there is too much marketing, too much talking but not much friendship and reliability. All the production that could be performed in Italy and other places in Europe is now relocated. It is about going back, while thinking about the future as Gianni Versace did in his approach to fashion. He went back, re-thought it and created something new. His blossoming was in the 1990s, when we thought that it was “the end of history”. Now we see that it was not the case and there are new ways to travel and to communicate, but we lost a lot on the way. This is what I have learned.

    Photography by Maria Fallbäck
             Photography by Maria Fallbäck
             Potography by Jan Berg

             Photography by Jan Berg

             Installation design by Aia Jüdes

  • Whisper, don’t shout – notes on Brion’s 75th anniversary celebration at Pitti Uomo 97

    Written by Philip Warkander by Sandra Myhrberg

    The cleverest way of speaking about fashion is to discuss something else entirely, letting the subject only appear in-between the lines, as subtle allusions while seemingly seeming to focus on something else entirely. During Pitti Uomo 97, at the beautiful, 15th-century Palazzo Gerini in central Florence, Brioni celebrated their 75-year anniversary by doing just that. As guests arrived to the candle-lit hallways of the palazzo’s ground floor, servants circulated with silver trays serving prosecco, drinks and sparkling water. On the primo piano, a long series of rooms that were interconnected with one another had been carefully staged by Olivier Saillard, famous for his romantic and rather personal approach to fashion. Magical and mysterious (at times so much that it was bordering kitsch), the rooms were dark and the large chandeliers had been wrapped in thin, white cloth, the only source of light coming from the many candles placed on floors, shelves and tables all around us.

    In every room, a small concert was being performed. Beginning with a quartet performing Italian classics, the next offered a quintet playing Mozart, followed by yet another playing Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme for two cellos”, and so on for what seemed like a moment lasting forever. All guests were quiet, listening only to the music while being escorted by elegant young men, all dressed in (Brioni) black. Due to the beauty of the spaces and the music playing, it took me some time to realize that the musicians were all dressed in Brioni’s AW20-collection. Showcasing a collection on non-models can be challenging, which might in part explain the subdued lighting at the Palazzo, but it also speaks to the brand’s ambition to be part of men’s everyday experience, rather than be seen as merely yet another fashion statement.

    For those interested in fashion history, the event could also be considered a nod to the past as in 1952, at Florence’s Palazzo Pitti, just a few hundred meters away, Brioni organized the world’s first ever fashion show for men. After passing through all six concerts, guests gathered once more on the ground level, speaking quietly amongst themselves about what they had just witnessed. Most seemed to agree that this is how fashion should be presented in order to fully make sense – as part of a larger cultural landscape, integrated with other expressions such as music, architecture and historical interiors, instead of as a 15 minutes show with limited longevity. Speaking to our emotions and intellect at the same time, this even will linger on in memory.

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