Many workshops and lectures going on now... Focus on traditional and tradition-influenced craft
I might attend the lecture for Miao textiles I went to the Shibori one last year
Published: Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Chanel Exhibit Sets Up House in Russia
By Peter Savodnik
MOSCOW — The much-anticipated "Chanel: According to the Laws of Art" exhibit opens here Thursday at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art, bringing together an estimated 400 artworks, photographs, dresses and other memorabilia from across the globe.
The exhibit — including paintings by Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, photographs by Man Ray and dresses, pieces of jewelry and images of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, Jackie Kennedy, Marlene Dietrich and others — seeks to educate Russian consumers about the brand and tap into the booming Russian market, Chanel global chief executive officer Maureen Chiquet said.
She declined to go into detail about the company's plans for the former Soviet Union, saying only: "Russia is a very important market. We're looking at all different opportunities throughout Russia and throughout Ukraine."
The exhibit on the museum's cavernous second floor is divided into five pavilions, fitting for the maker of Chanel No.5 perfume. Each pavilion has its own scent and its own theme — red, black, gold lamé, jersey and tweed — and is cordoned off from adjoining galleries by white walls stretching 15 feet or higher. The pavilions, festooned with Cubist art, priceless necklaces and color photographs of some of the world's most famous women donning Chanel dresses, contrast sharply with the museum's neoclassical interior, with its fluted columns and Corinthian capitals.
Other highlights include artworks by Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable and Jeff Koons; icons and a musical score care of Igor Stravinsky; 25 porcelain figurines by the Russian sculptor Grisha Bruskin; a huge, wide-angle photograph of the interior of the Paris Opera taken by Candida Höfer, and a giant canvas painted solid red with lipstick by Fabrice Hyber. Many of the pieces in the show were created long after Coco Chanel's death in 1971, but convey the timelessness of her designs, curator Jean-Louis Froment said.
The motif that brings together the whole exhibit is the specially installed beige carpet that ascends the grand staircase of the museum and snakes through the second-floor gallery. Chanel, in her early years, was referred to as the Queen of Beige, and her apartment and boutique on Rue Cambon in Paris were famous for having beige carpet."Russia is a very important market. We’re looking at all different opportunities throughout Russia and throughout Ukraine.**"— Maureen Chiquet, ChanelFroment said the exhibit aims to bring to life that artistic universe on Rue Cambon, a world defined by war, privation — and, later, rebirth — and teeming with painters, poets, playwrights, novelists and musicians who razed all the old assumptions about beauty, form and style.
While Chanel surrounded herself with brilliant musicians and writers, such as Stravinsky and Jean Cocteau, Froment said, she had few painters in her immediate circle. This emphasis on the musical and the literary lends an ethereal, almost intangible beauty to her designs, he said. "She created an entire language."
Russian officials were said to have raised some concerns about a French fashion company turning one of the country's leading museums into a set for a fashion show. But once Chanel officials convinced them that they sought to portray the world of Chanel not through fashion, but art, the Russians' worries were apparently assuaged.
Irina Antonova, the Pushkin Museum's director, said she had no worries about the show. "She's a style, not just a fashion, and therefore, really, an artist," Antonova said of Chanel.
The designer had numerous ties to the Russian émigré community in Paris following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Among the most important romantic relationships in her 87 years, which included no marriage or children, was that with the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich. Chanel officials said it was Pavlovich who introduced Chanel to the tsar's perfumer, Ernest Beaux, who concocted several scents for the budding fashion queen. The first four didn't quite live up to her exacting standards, but No.5 did.
Chanel officials would not say how much the company paid to put on the elaborate exhibit, which has drawn journalists from Europe and Asia and included a party at the French ambassador's residence late Tuesday.
The exhibit, which runs through Nov. 21, opens exactly one year after Chanel launched its 3,200-square-foot boutique on Stoleshnikov Pereulok, about a 10-minute walk from Red Square.
Stylized Sculpture: Contemporary Japanese Fashion from the Kyoto Costume Institute. EXCLUSIVE U.S. VENUE October 12, 2007 –January 6, 2008, Hambrecht & Lee Galleries.
Japanese fashion: It’s more than meets the eye. From October 12, 2007, through January 6, 2008, the Asian Art Museum will present Stylized Sculpture: Contemporary Japanese Fashion from the Kyoto Costume Institute, the first major exhibition to combine the collective talents of leading Japanese fashion designers with new work by Hiroshi Sugimoto, one of today’s most compelling artists. This special exhibition—conceived by Sugimoto—spotlights the extraordinary sculptural quality of contemporary Japanese fashion through 21 seminal masterworks by Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe, and Tao Kurihara. The presentation will also feature four new, large-scale photographs by Sugimoto—never-before-seen pieces from a forthcoming body of work—which capture the garments’ shadows, lines, and fullness of form, alongside the innovative creations that inspired them. The garments—borrowed from the Kyoto Costume Institute, one of the world’s leading repositories of haute couture—date from 1983 to 2007, and include a range of materials and methods from various seasons. Co-curated by Kyoto Costume Institute chief curator Akiko Fukai, Sugimoto, and the Asian Art Museum, Stylized Sculpture will be on view exclusively at the Asian Art Museum.
In conceiving of Stylized Sculpture, Sugimoto states that he “looks at the human body and the man-made skins that envelop it as contemporary sculpture. Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, and other Japanese designers have defiantly challenged the elegance of European mainstream fashion, vastly expanding the very concept of this artificial skin … and they have incarnated these creations with textures, colors, and shapes worthy of definition as sculpture.” In an effort to respect, and not distract from, the sculptural aesthetic of the garments on view, the Asian Art Museum’s installation will be sleek and minimal, with careful lighting to heighten the effect of the shadows, as in Sugimoto’s photographs. The garments will be presented on mannequins alongside the photographs, in galleries uncluttered by wall text or object labels. A complimentary brochure will provide didactic information about the exhibition, the garments and the designers, and will include further examples of Sugimoto’s new photography not included in the exhibition.
Japanese Fashion 1983–2007:
Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe, and Tao Kurihara
In the early 1980s, Japanese designers Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, and Yohji Yamamoto took Paris by storm with avant-garde styles that overturned traditional Western conceptions of chic. Informed in part, perhaps, by traditional forms of Japanese clothing such as the kimono, the designers produced radical garments with shapes and textures that didn’t necessarily respond to the contours of the human body. Though they work independently, Miyake, Kawakubo, and Yamamoto share an interest in integrating Japanese tradition and tailoring with contemporary ideologies and technologies, resulting in exaggerated, voluminous pieces made out of unexpected materials. The creations on view in Stylized Sculpture will reflect the broad aesthetic of Japanese fashion over the past twenty years, as well as pinpoint the features for which each designer is best known.
Issey Miyake, born in Hiroshima in 1938, founded Miyake Design Studio in 1970 after early couture training in Paris and New York. By the end of the 1980s, in his effort to increase mobility of the wearer, flexibility of fabric, and ease of production, Miyake had begun to develop an innovative technique he entitled “Garment Pleating,” which ultimately evolved into his iconic 1993 “Pleats Please” line. Miyake’s pleated garments, lying flat and folded like origami, expand dramatically when put on a body. Since turning over the design of his signature label to his understudy in the late 1990s, Miyake now focuses on special projects. One of the most important of these projects has been the “A-POC” collection (the acronym refers to “A Piece of Cloth,” a concept Miyake conceived early in his career), developed together with textile engineer Dai Fujiwara in 1999. A-POC garments come off the loom as single flat tubes of fabric that can be transformed into clothing by cutting along faint outlines on the cloth—requiring no sewing. Along with three key examples of Miyake’s earlier work, the exhibition will feature an A-POC garment that alternately covers the human body and serves as “upholstery” for an Italian chair by renowned product designer Ron Arad.
Rei Kawakubo, born in Tokyo in 1942, is the head and sole owner of Comme des Garçons, the fashion house she founded in 1973. Comme des Garçons gained international recognition in the early 1980s for its achromatic palette, asymmetry, and deconstructed, frayed edges. The exhibition will feature six original Kawakubo designs, including signature distressed looks from her early career, as well as more playful examples from the 1990s, such as a baby pink sweater and skirt ensemble with pronounced bustle and petticoat from the 1995 “Sweeter Than Sweet” line and a stretch nylon dress with a huge Quasimodo-like protuberance, which radically distorts the female figure, from the famed Spring/Summer 1997 collection, popularily known as “lumps and bumps.”
Yohji Yamamoto, born in Tokyo in 1943, launched his own collection in 1977 and debuted in Paris in 1981. While throughout his career Yamamoto has exhibited a great amount of loyalty to the fabric and structured planes of traditional Japanese clothing, the kimono in particular, in the past decade he has moved to incorporate more aspects of traditional Western tailoring. Stylized Sculpture will present four original Yamototo designs, including a highly formal, wool felt dress from the 1996 Autumn/Winter collection that recalls in its refinement the work of the great post-World War II couturier Christobal Balenciaga; at the same time it evokes the appeal of the Japanese kimono with its sculptural back. Stylized Sculpture will also feature a Yamamoto creation from 1998 that demonstrates the designer’s method of twisting and wrapping the fabric around the body, in a way sculpting the shape of the female figure without extensive cutting of the cloth—another characteristic of traditional Japanese clothing.
While Miyake, Kawakubo, and Yamamoto continue to design, they also mentor younger designers, and ensure the future of their respective fashion houses, through an age-old, and uniquely Japanese, apprenticeship system. The presentation will contain five pieces by Junya Watanabe, who, under Kawakubo’s tutelage, has come to design under his own name at Comme des Garçons. Born in Fukushima in 1961, Watanabe is often referred to as a “techno couture” designer, utilizing industrial or technologically advanced materials in his creations. An ensemble from Watanabe’s 1998 line, which incorporates wire and wool serge to create a capacious structure around the waist of the wearer, will be on view. Also included in the exhibition is a striking new 2007 work by Watanabe’s 33-year-old protégé Tao Kurihara. Considered one of the hottest new talents on the Paris runway circuit, Kurihara now designs under her own name for Comme des Garçons.
About the Kyoto Costume Institute
Founded in 1978, the Kyoto Costume Institute (KCI) is one of the world’s leading repositories of historical costumes and contemporary fashion with a collection of more than eleven thousand original works. Under the leadership of Chief Curator Akiko Fukai, who has been with the Institute since its inception, KCI has organized numerous critically acclaimed fashion exhibitions in Japan and throughout the world, including Ancien Regime and Japonism in Fashion, and generated important publications such as Fashion: A History from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century; Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute (Taschen, 2002). In recent years, the Institute has placed greater emphasis on Japanese contemporary fashion and its position within the global context.
About Hiroshi Sugimoto
Born in Tokyo in 1948, Hiroshi Sugimoto, best known for his photographic series of ethereal seascapes, dioramas, empty movie theaters and wax museums, has recently turned his attention to contemporary Japanese fashion, with a stunning new series of black-and-white photographs that highlight the sculptural, almost architectural, formations from Japan’s fashion pioneers.
Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History
Sugimoto is also the subject, and curator, of the critically touted Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History, which will be on view at the Asian Art Museum—in the final stop of an international tour—concurrently with Stylized Sculpture. History of History juxtaposes Sugimoto's exquisitely minimalist photographs with fossils, artworks and religious artifacts ranging from prehistoric to the fifteenth century, all drawn from his own collection. The result is an extended exploration of time, life, and spirituality as perceived in the contexts of nature and history.
Matthew Williamson is a unique success story within the British fashion industry. Setting out on his career as a fashion graduate with no financial backing in 1997, he now has his own store in the heart of Mayfair, and his acclaimed collections are worn by international celebrity clients.
2007 marks ten years of Matthew Williamson’s career in fashion, and to celebrate the Design Museum will hold a retrospective of his work from 17 October to 31 January 2008.
Matthew Williamson – 10 Years in Fashion will focus on the process and use of pattern, print and colour which have defined Williamson’s work. Centralised around 4 main themes: Colour and Psychedelia; Hyper-nature; Global extravaganza; and Lifestyle, the exhibition will feature iconic pieces from the past decade, including dresses made famous on the red carpet by Sienna Miller, Jade Jagger, Nicole Kidman and Kylie Minogue.
A specially commissioned film will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the energy and vision that goes into launching a new collection. Williamson’s sketchbooks will also be on display, providing an unparalleled insight into the way he has worked since his days as a fashion student, from an initial inspiration of a pattern, texture or colour, to the finished product worn on the catwalk.
Born in Chorlton, Manchester, Williamson grew up there until the age of 17, when he moved to London to study at Central St Martins. In the summer of 1997, a phone call to British Vogue led to meeting Plum Sykes, then fashion assistant at the magazine. Encouraged by her reaction to his ideas, Williamson created a women's wear collection which resulted in a September fashion show Electric Angels during London Fashion Week, in which Jade Jagger, Helena Christensen and Kate Moss agreed to model. The show was an immediate success.
Over the past 10 years Williamson's collections have continued to grow cementing his reputation as one of the UK's leading designers. He won Elle Designer of the Year 2004, has been nominated three times for British Designer of the Year, and in 2005 was awarded the prestigious Moet and Chandon Fashion Award. In 2005 Williamson became Creative Director at Emilio Pucci.
The Design Museum exhibition, sponsored by Coutts, will tour in spring 2008 to Urbis in Manchester.
Design Museum, Shad Thames, London SE1 2YD
Tickets: Adults £7; Students + Concessions £4; Free To Under 12s
Opening: 10.00-17.45 Daily. Last Admission: 17.15
Last edited by twin star : 13-10-2007 at 06:55 AM.
"Myths" by Heimo Schmidt, proudly presented by Point of View Gallery.
In his first solo exhibition entitled "Myths", Heimo Schmidt presents a minimal and contemporary vision of postmodern photography. Embodied with a detailed fashion sensibility, his iconic compositions of Icelandic landscapes and portraits are captured with haunting realism. Through his camera lens, Heimo captures an almost monochromatic austerity and infuses his own colorful creativity, enhancing the visual drama of the already powerful composition.
For more information, please contact Point of View Gallery at 212-967-3936.
* i went to this...
it was really nice...
there is also a short film...
all clothing used on the models is also by icelandic designers...
click the above link for more images...
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down below those dandy clothes you're just a shade too white...
it's a cruel...cruel summer...
theme: Christian Lacroix 'Histoires De Mode' - Exhibition (to mark Lacroix's 20 years in fashion)
date: from 8 Nov '07 to 20 APRIL '08
venue: Musee de la Mode et du Textile in Paris
there is an article in the NYT today by Guy Trebay about the line between fine and commercial art embodied by fashion photographers.
here are two excerpts, but its worth reading the whole story here
Quote:
And this week, fashion photography makes its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach, the annual trade fair that is to the art world what the Coachella festival in Southern California is to indie rock. In Fashion ’07, an assembly of 20 contemporary photographers brought together by Marion de Beaupre, a curator and author, opened Dec. 2 at the Surfcomber Hotel. Part survey and part marketing trial balloon, the show also tests the premise that the traditional borders between fine and commercial art are now permeable.
Quote:
Whether or not by intention, he is helping propel fashion photographs in the direction of art and in the process creating an alluring hybrid, one that sometimes supports an aesthetics of glamour and just as often parodies it. “Fashion photography now is not about fashion alone,” Ms. de Beaupre said. “The material is of interest now because there is this strong creative and personal language,” Ms. de Beaupre said, “that belongs very much to our times.”
I went to the Shibori one last year
Linear Mode
