Are you planning a trip to the U.S. soon, or perhaps you are already in the vicinity of Salem, Massachusetts? If so, then don’t miss the opportunity to visit the Peabody Essex Museum exhibition going on until January 26, entitled:
Future Beauty: Avant-Garde Japanese Fashion
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This obvious borrowing from Apple’s famous 1997 ad campaign Think Different is meant to introduce an event which, for the first time in Italy, will bringing together the works of two Finnish designers who, not only share the same nationality, but also the not so common ability to place poetic abstractions into objects for ordinary use.
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This week we would like to be your guide to the store as if it were another stop on a sight-seeing trip through the charming streets of the historic centre of Padua.
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“The infinity of tailoring” are the laconic words Rei Kawakubo used to close the Comme des Garçons Autumn/Winter 2013-2014 fashion show. The expression is well suited to being used as a pithy title for a collection characterized by a generous abundance of shapes, fabrics and also colours.
Following the thread that starts with menswear in its canonical variations of jackets, suits, trousers, Rei Kawakubo develops a creative plan whose results consistently tend to destabilize what we would expect to see. The choice of fabric and colours, and their extremely traditional usage, from pinstriped grey to dark flannel and Glen plaid, combine not only to intensify the abandonment of traditional industry dictates, but especially to become ductile tools that demonstrate how inventiveness has no limits, even in the changing room.
Thus a commonplace men’s jacket takes the form of three-dimensional poetry through a process of cutting and stitching that, through some incomprehensible tailoring skills, transform the model and enrich it with roses, ribbons or sculptural bows.
The original same-old model of pants seems to expand, as if the fabric scraps from the packaging have been put back together in new forms that rebel against their boring pre-ordained shape.
The Japanese designer’s libertarian provocations finally come to a climax with the prints traced from drawings by Dan Michiels, the psychedelic Hollywood artist.
This open collaboration demonstrates how fashion meets the art world, and is likely an invitation to pursue the follies of their own imagination and to bring them into reality.
After many years working in stores, it still happens that someone stops by with a bewildered expression and asks the same fateful question:
So, what’s in style this year?
A professional, objective response could be to give a broad overview of the season’s trends…like:
stylists say no to the crisis, calling on women to courageously assert their femininity without renouncing the pleasures of luxury, as can be seen in the opulent sequin-covered jackets or leather pants hanging here…
or, the opposite:
the crisis is forcing women to be more modest, serious, and attentive to small everyday things, so here’s a multi-use jacket and top, with a touch of femininity in the key details, like staggeringly high heels and strictly above-the-knee lengths.
But, “we are what we eat”; and the only possible response from a space which feeds on research and clothing that effectively satisfies an independent-minded aesthetic is the following:
You know, I don’t know! I could tell them about this winter’s flights of fantasy and inspirations by Rei Kawakubo-Comme des Garçons;
or about the cuts created by Yohji Yamamoto‘s sartorial musings;
or about Issey Miyake‘s textile experiments;
or if they prefer, I could help them discover the reversibility of every article of clothing by Daniela Gregis.
Otherwise, I could show them the extraordinary cashmere colours made possible by a recent innovation in knitting technology…
…you are right, I am getting off track, but I feel underprepared to describe the trends for autumn-winter 2013-2014, I’m so sorry…
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