Decoding : Fashion, the Tenth Art ?

The execution of Lady Grey by Delaroche (detail)

 Two days ago, I've had a strange encounter at London Fashion Week during the Giles' show, at the Royal Court of Justice. No, it wasn't Pixie Geldof, but a certain Lady Grey. Is she a close relative to Lady Gaga ? Not at all, Jane Grey was a 16th century English noblewoman who was queen during nine days before her execution for high treason. This woman is mainly famous for a painting of the said execution, by French painter Paul Delaroche. As you suspect, I don't have medium's skills, so, when I talk of encounter, I describe my surprise to see the face of Miss Grey on several outfits of designer Giles Deacon. For me, it was especially relevant to find the detail of a famous painting used as the main pattern of a fashion collection, and I was quite amazed that no one thought about it before.

Giles Fall 2011 ( Style.com )

 Fashion, after all, is just an art like another. Critics accuse Haute Couture of being "Art for Art", that is to say something unwearable, pricey and totally useless. Designers such as Gareth Pugh are forced to defend themselves against that accusation, and to prove that their creations are made for stores and not for galleries . But I don't fit into that scheme. I particularly agree with Vanessa Paradis when she declares that she goes to fashion shows as she would go to real shows, i.e. theatre, dance or another performance. I don't mind if a dress is wearable or not, affordable or not, if it is gorgeous and aesthetic, I consider that it equals a painting or a sculpture. I was maybe influenced by the Parnassian poets during my teenage years, but I proclaim the right to "l'Art pour l'Art" !

Alexander McQueen "Savage beauty" exhibition ( photo Sølve Sundsbø )

 It seems that I am not alone in this process. Museums are opening their doors to designers, launching exhibitions for them as they would do it for masters of paintings, sculpture and photography. This Spring, the Metropolitan Museum of New York will host an exhibition devoted to Alexander McQueen at its Costume Institute. In London, the Victoria & Albert Museum will take a special interest in designer Yohji Yamamoto in March, and in Paris, the Museum of Quai Branly shows the close relationship between East and Christian Lacroix. Long past, fashion photography has been considered as artistic. It is not surprising then that the clothes themselves would enter in the spheres of Fine Arts. To when the creation of Fashion gelleries ? It is nearly here : some brands have already launched short-lived concept stores, mixing clothes with contemporary exhibitions ...

Sergio Rossi "Idol" bodice

 The dialogue between art and fashion started with the artists themselves. Painter Dalì influenced designer Elsa Schiaparelli, but he was a designer himself : he created jewels, and many other artists did the same ( Cesar, Picasso and Arman to name few ). The March issue of Vogue Paris incidentally pays a tribute to the famous artist and finds its inspiration in surrealism.
Not surprising then that jewellers and designers would venture in the world of sculpture : I have already told you about Jordan Askill, but the Fashion Week also reavealed Erickson Beaman, and brand Sergio Rossi launched a surprising line of accessories, close to classic Greek sculpture.

Elle Fanning in a video for Rodarte

Then, Contemporary Art starts to blend in with Fashion : when art performer Olympia Scarry wants to create an art statement at Art Basel, she chooses to appear in a burqua at Playboy's party. But not an ordinary burqua : this one was a piece of black lace and silk custom-tailored by Riccardo Tisci himself ... The designer, at the head of the Givenchy House of Couture, has already expressed his will to send fashion back into the world of luxury and, inevitably, of Art.
Indeed, each Art can easily flirt with Fashion : you can see my article on Architecture and the Lourenços, many singers are moving Music closer to Couture, Comics are often seen in t-shirts, and Dance is in the spotlight since the success of Black Swan ( with costumes by Rodarte ). The 7th art is not forgotten : talking of Rodarte, we have spotted actress Elle Fanning in their last video, a genre which grows faster in the Industry, with Tom Ford distinguishing himself in the cinema. From here, we can imagine more meetings with poetry, literature, gastronomy, television and more ... Imagination has no limit, and so is Art. So, let's create !

Spotlight : The Great Circus of Ruth Hogben

Insensate

 You've already read about Ruth Hogben on this blog (see my article "A Future without Catwalks"). A full article on this artist sounds pretty obvious after my yesterday's philosophical thinking on body and fashion.

Ruth Hogben wanted to be a photographer at first, and she had the luck to become the assistant of one of the contemporary top dogs of this art, the famous Nick Knight. One day, while the master was shooting model Lily Donaldson, Hogben decided to use the photoshoot to make a short video. Interested, Knight decided to encourage his pupil in the way of fashion video, and they repeated the experience, within the framework of the website SHOWstudio.

Ruth Hogben

 The duo have then worked for all the rising stars of fashion and design industry : Alexander McQueen, Lady Gaga, Phillipe Starck ... While Knight was shooting designers Rick Owens for magazine Arena Homme (2009), or Martin Margiela's strange hair clothes ( Make up your mind, 2008), his assistant built an impressive self career of fashion filmmaker. For Punk's heir Agent Provocateur, she created a serie of video entitled like a song of Billy Idol, White Wedding (2008), with kitsch and burlesque collages of Kate Moss in lingerie. More than clothes, what fascinates her the most is the body, the aestheticism and eroticism of its movement, as Buttock proves it. A whole video dedicated to this specific body part with a tribute to burlesque and SM, which seems to have escaped from a bobo documentary from Franco-German channel Arte. Not really my cup of tea though.

Perfect



Gareth Pugh A/W 2009

 What I admire the most in Ruth's work are her more "personal" videos ( understand without the visible influence of Nick Knight ), especially the ones she did for designers Pheobe Philo for Celine and Gareth Pugh. Perfect (2010), her video for Celine, focuses on the discreet elegance of the brand and the sensual body language of the model in a succession of peaceful portaits which delicate light reminds us of Renaissance's paintings. But with Pugh, the filmmaker reaches her height. The unusual shapes and the materials used by the British genius create a genuine alchemy with Hogben's fascination with movement and light.

Gareth Pugh Pitti Immagine 2011

Insensate (2008) is a modern version of Shakespeare's suicide scene of Ophelia. Water, and liquids in general, are a recurring tool in Hogben's videos. For this one, she told us a dark tale, mixing mythology, vampiric imagery and horror movies ( listen to the music ). She starts playing with the Chiaroscuro, a technique used in painting and photography to accentuate the silhouettes. It's a game of shadows, of light and of darkness : the videos are either too dark or too bright, and as Pugh's clothes, often in graphic black and white. The only notable explosion of colours in Hogben's filmography are Frieze (2009), an acid trip in a pop and country music (!) universe, and Untitled (2009), which might have inspired singer Kesha.

Joie de Vivre

But aside her use of classical arts ( painting and classic sculpture ), she seems extremely influenced by burlesque, circus and fun fairs. It is clearly visible in Clown (2009), where model Carmen Kass plays a strange creature, mix of Commedia dell'Arte, of Moulin Rouge's dancer and of prostitute ( the video starts with the words "Dark Annie" which refer to Annie Chapman, a victim of Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper ). In Joie de Vivre (2010), she pictures model Raquel Zimmerman ( who, really, is of all the best parties ) as a sinistrous Marylin Monroe and as a dark gogo dancer. Everything is dark, especially the not-so-visible-but-latent humour. In her latest videos for Pugh, the models are puppets with broken joints, dancing robots, hula hoop players, actors of Kabuki theatre or even women cut by a digital magician. 

Rick Owens

Ruth Hogben's universe has also to do with contemporary ballets, danced on intense electro music ( often made by Lukid ), with the inflatable capes of Gareth Pugh as tutu. The models are moon-walking on the screen, alone or multiplied ( a good way to be sure the dancers will always be synchronized ! ) and offer to the viewer images of a breathtaking beauty.  This beauty remains in the recent video for Gareth Pugh 2011's collection, but one cannot but notice that the artist doesn't renew herself a lot. The effects are the same, the movements too. Take a look at those two images, extracted from her 2009 and 2011's movies. Very similar, isn't it ?

Gareth Pugh 2009 and 2011

But considering that Ruth Hogben is still young and that her career is already impressive, I guess that her talent will find many new forms in the future, and even if her last video is nothing new, I am still an admirer of her sense of aesthetism and her phantasmagoria. Few are able to do such gorgeous fashion ( and artistic ! ) videos and to make Gareth Pugh's clothes more desirable and fantastic than they already are.
 http://showstudio.com/contributors/27349
 All images are Ruth Hogben and SHOWstudio all rights reserved.

Gareth Pugh Pitti 2011 and Clown



Trend : This is What I Call Summer

A priori, the fashionistas who follow this blog may not have a faint idea of who John Simm, Philip Glenister and Marc Warren are. You usually don't find them in the pages of fashion magazines. They were recently featured on GQ mag, so perhaps your boyfriend or brother would know them better. The last time those three brilliant English actors were in the same fiction, it was State of Play by Paul Abbott, and it was pure genius. So I was pretty thrilled when I've learned that they will re-enlist for a new Sky fiction, which was also a dark humor thriller. Everyting I was waiting for. But, you would ask 'how is that related to fashion ?' And then, I will answer : because the guy who directed the promos already made that before :

"Model Eaten By Shark" David LaChapelle

Yes, the provocative, twisted, sexy, most famous fashion photographer David LaChapelle. Yes, the one who usually shot Lady Gaga, Naomi Campbell, Alexander McQueen and Uma Thurman. I don't know who got this brilliant idea at Sky, but kuddos. The result is a serie of short videos in the classic plastic mood of the master, with a sexy model, a cut foot, Tony Blair, guns and loads of humour noir. Aesthetic and fun, everything you're expecting from LaChapelle and the perfect antidote to the boring campaign of Louis Vuitton Resort 2011. I like my fashion better with a twist of madness ...
This also heralds a great success for Mad Dogs, the Sky serie, a sort of Very Bad Things with an English flavour ... A comedy that will certainly raise the temperature of the Spring ( in UK first and hopefully in Europe and USA after ).

Decoding : A future without catwalks

We now are into the period of the Fashion Weeks, and the models are bustling about going back up the catwalks. The catwalk, symbol of fashion, engraved in people's mind as the only way to show collections for what it seems to be forever. But, already back in July, when I saw that Givenchy chose to exhibit only few dresses in a private lounge, to happy few, I started to ask myself if the catwalk wasn't out of date. My impression is now confirmed by Gareth Pugh's choice for his Paris Fashion Week presentation.

He showed a video clip, directed by Ruth Hogben, a name that you surely will heard again in the future. The video possesses an aesthetic quality which bluffed me. The video, quite long, is a game of moving images of model Kristen McMenamy, wearing Pugh's incredibly gorgeous collection. But what amazed me the most, is the designer's statement. He claimed that it was the 'modern alternative' to catwalk shows. Pugh is of the avant-garde, a sort of Cassandra of Fashion. Could he be right ?

Can we imagine Fashion without catwalks ? No more plethora of models and outfits, no more front row icons, no more direct contact with fabrics, no more journalists. We would go to see a collection like we go to see a movie or an art exhibition. We can even imagine 3D movies projected in streets, monuments or museums, a technological version of Chanel, catwalking at the Grand Palais, in Paris. It would place Fashion in the domain of Fine Arts again, and allow creators like Gareth Pugh to express all their creativity.

Givenchy chosed an elitist version of this futuristic caltwalk, bringing back fashion to luxury and patricians. But, with Pugh's vision, we could imagine a democratisation of catwalks, where everyone could witness designers's collections. Which direction will we choose ?

But, maybe this is only a passing snobism, a Fashion equivalent of singer Prince's reaction to online downloading. Only future will tell us, but Pugh's initiative is certainly refreshing. Would you like a world without catwalks ? I, I would like to see more videos like this in the next years, and less private lounges.

Gareth Pugh's video : http://vimeo.com/15395630

Photos Ron Rox, Chanel, Givenchy and extracts from Gareth Pugh S/S 2011 Collection's video.