Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Inspiration from Art
Grafitti Art Movement
in 2001, the design director Marc Jacobs of Louis Vuitton took great pains to convince its managers receiving his idea of innovating classic monogram pattern
This was a movement which achieved an enormous amount of success in
The two most successful figures of this movement were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. The
The genre was big business with artists in the field selling their work for huge amounts.
Futurist Movement
Far left is 1st Season Project Runway winner,Jay McCarrol, 2009, showing an inspired Futurist piece.
Next right is Severini-Danseuse, Articulee
An Italian avant-garde art movement that took speed, technology and modernity as its inspiration, Futurism portrayed the dynamic character of 20th century life, glorified war and the machine age, and favoured the growth of Fascism.
The movement was at its strongest from 1909, when Filippo Marinetti's first manifesto of Futurism appeared, until the end of World War One. Futurism was unique in that it was a
self-invented art movement.
The idea of Futurism came first, followed by a fanfare of publicity; it was only afterwards that artists could find a means to express it.
Folk Art KEY DATES:1909-1944
Anna Sui inspired Folk art Collection, Spring 2009
Phillip Lim folk art inspired collection, Spring 2009
Works of a culturally homogeneous people without formal training, generally according to regional traditions and involving crafts. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic.
Harlem renaissance KEY DATES: 1920-1930s
The September 2009 issue of Vanity Fair demonstrates the epic styles men and women wore during the 1920’s Harlem Renaissance.HARLEM RENAISSANCE From 1920 until about 1930 an outburst of creative activity among African-Americans occurred in all fields of art. Beginning as a series of literary discussions in the lower Manhattan (Greenwich Village) and upper Manhattan (Harlem) sections of New York City, this African-American cultural movement became known as "The New Negro Movement" and later as the Harlem Renaissance. the Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. African-Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage.
One of the factors contributing to the rise of the Harlem Renaissance was the great migration of African-Americans to northern cities (such as New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) between 1919 and 1926. In his influential book The New Negro (1925), Locke described the northward migration of blacks as "something like a spiritual emancipation." Black urban migration, combined with trends in American society as a whole toward experimentation during the 1920s, and the rise of radical black intellectuals — including Locke, Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and W. E. B. Du Bois, editor of The Crisis magazine — all contributed to the particular styles and unprecedented success of black artists during the Harlem Renaissance period.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Cubism KEY DATES: 1908-1914
Maria Blaisse inspired pieces, September 2009
Top left, Vest custom made by Dazed & Confused by Gary Card; leggings by Maison Martin Margiela
Top Right, Jacket by Frankie Morello; leggings by Maison Martin Margiela
Bottom left, Top by Balenciaga by Nicholas Ghesquiere; skirt custom made for Dazed & Confused by Gary Card; leggings by Maison Martin Margiela
Bottom right, Jumpsuit by Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci
Picasso inspired garments from the 2002 Yves St. Laurent runway show
Wendell Rodricks’ Spring/Summer 2010 collection, ‘The Cubist’, which showcased at the WIFW, has been inspired by the Cubist Movement of the 20th century, which began with the likes of Pablo Picasso and was later developed by Juan Gris and others.
The Cubists broke from centuries of tradition in their painting by rejecting the single viewpoint. Instead they used an analytical system in which three-dimensional subjects were fragmented and redefined from several different points of view simultaneously.
The movement was conceived as 'a new way of representing the world', and assimilated outside influences, such as African art, as well as new theories on the nature of reality, such as Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
Baroque BAROQUE KEY DATES: 1600s
Caravaggio, The Young Bacchus
French Baroque wigs by Yuki Saito
Basso and Brooke, Fall 2009 Ready to WearBaroque Art emerged in Europe around 1600. Baroque Art is less complex, more realistic and more emotionally affecting than Mannerism.
This movement was encouraged by the Catholic Church, the most important patron of the arts at that time, as a return to tradition and spirituality.
One of the great periods of art history, Baroque Art was developed by Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, and Gianlorenzo Bernini, among others. This was also the age of Rubens, Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Vermeer.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Suit yourself in a jumpsuit
The jumpsuit is one of the hottest trends that has resurfaced since last year Spring 08. Like most fashions it was bred of function and necessity initially and has been updated to offer not just comfort, but fashion forward style.
The function came into play as jumpsuits were made oversized to be worn over clothes as a protective covering so workers didn’t bring home dirt and grime.
This function of the jumpsuit is known as the coverall. The word “coverall” has been used to describe varied types of protective dress as early as the eighteenth century and is also interchangeable with the term “boilersuit”.
http://www.viewonfashion.com/article/119-2431/THE-JUMPSUIT
Above left is the 1913 Lee Union-alls specifically marketed for “Men who work to build America” This article is actually from a 1947 magazine ad.
The picture on the top right is one of an engineer’s combination boiler suit from the 1920’s
History of Jumpsuits
The jumpsuit was celebrated last year and the beginning of this year in a museum exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum. Above is a picture of some of the garments that were captured in this exhibit.
Jumpsuits and Utility
“Jumpsuits were first introduced around 1913 by the H.D. Lee Mercantile Company and primarily sold as military uniforms or flightsuits during WWI. Other industries soon caught on to the simple duds and soon they were showing up everywhere from farms to factories. Initially designed for men, it wouldn’t be until an industrious icon named Rosie the Riveter starting showing up in her jumpsuit that women recognized the utility of wearing a garment that wouldn’t get caught in machinery as they took to the factories in WWII.”
Of course Rosie was more of a symbol of women working during that time and wasn’t an actual person. Her strong persona was responsible for the encouragement of women workers and the industry hasn’t been the same every since women got the taste for labor.
“Thousands of women participated not only on the home front making the planes but also as Air Force pilots and trainers, all wearing one-piece suits. While it was not yet socially acceptable for women to wear pants except for active sport and work wear until the mid-1960s, these powerful experiences and images became key references in later fashion interpretations.”
http://www.viewonfashion.com/article/119-2431/THE-JUMPSUIT
Spacesuits
When jumpsuits jumped from utility to fashion, it was around the 70’s.
“The one-piece gained high visibility during the mid-1960s and 1970s when man took his first steps on the moon wearing a one-piece space suit and it was adopted by performers such as Elvis and worn by characters in movies such as Star Wars.”
http://www.viewonfashion.com/article/119-2431/THE-JUMPSUIT
Above is a photograph of Mercury Project astronauts Gus & Virgil Grissom with suit technician Joe Schmidt on Apollo Mission Photos. The Mercury Missions were the United States first attempt at putting a man into orbit around the earth. The program ran from 1959-1963.
Jumpsuits and Futurism
“The Mercury Astronauts, known as The Original 7 are pictured above on April 9, 1959. From left to right: Scott Carpenter, Gordo Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.”
You can see the importance of this profession being adapted into fashion, especially in Sci-Fi films that attempted to depict futuristic clothing. Above is a view of the original 7.
“This was the only astronaut group with members who flew on all classes of NASA manned spacecraft of the 20th century, from Mercury, through Gemini and Apollo, and ending with John Glenn's flight on the STS-95 Space Shuttle mission.” 1959
Children's Jumpsuits
The next big introduction of jumpsuits came in the form of children’s wear. This trend has endured through the ages because of their practicality and ease in dressing children. Jumpsuits are especially popular with babies because their one piece function allows little fuss as diapers are changed.
Not sure the year of the picture above, but it’s a great example of an infant jumpsuit. You can see how easy it would be to change the diaper on this suit.
Jumpsuits Today
From left to right:
Etro, Francesco Scognamiglio, Giorgio Armani, Iceberg, Moschino, MaxMara