Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Textiles











N Ruttan-Stack 2011
Indigo ikat weft 



N Ruttan-Stack 2011
Black on Black textured plaid

Sunday, November 27, 2011

I wish I owned this


Kamelia Med Crepe de Chine Vest 

Mother of Pearl, 2011

Celine S/S 2012, how does she always get it right?



Gustav Metzger


Gustav Metzger, Hayward Action October 2006 
Tribute to Alexander Mcqueen by Nick Knight

I wish I owned this

Jasmin Shokrian

Thoughts on fashion and obscenity: Chalayan


Perhaps obscene may seem too strong of a word for this image.  It's not meant in a derogatory way, more of an observation about whats so captivating about Hussein Chalayan collection from 1998 titled Between.  I read once that so much of what is key and yet detrimental to using obscenity in fashion as a tool for larger ideas is the ever changing erogenous zones that fashion continuously redefines.  Sometimes I worry, what is left to still challenge the viewer when it comes to exposing woman's bodies?
I think this might be one of my favorite works/collections ever.  To think about when this takes place in the late 90's, the infancy of western's mass society notions of woman in Islam.  It almost seems to be forshadowing our confusion and hostility towards a completely covered woman's body.   Is it virtuouse or does it seperate her person from herself in ways seem to steel something from these woman's rights to be individuals.  It plays so well with parallel notions of anonymity, woman's bodies, virtuosity, and the commodity we've made of skinny childlike woman to display those things that should make us feel more desirable.
Loschek writes, "What protects a person's individuality more from view-batula [the word for the woman's face masks] or eyes uncovered.  Who is staring at whom, the wearer at the audience, or the audience at the wearer, who is the voyeur?"

Some of what is so agitating about this work is that fashion always has such well defined borders between the observer and the observed.  Fashion shows create a feast for the eyes, the young and lovely present the works of the designer to be enjoyed with their flawless appearances.  I like to imagine being at the show feeling the intensity of your gaze returned, being unable to read the rest of the model's facial expressions since they are covered.  I imagine the audience would have felt extreme discomfort at not being able to read the emotional expressions of the models, where would queues as how to react come from?  Would the audience commiserate with the discomfort of the models or in turn themselves, or is it with the detached observation reserved for traditional fashion presentations and works of art that would create an almost clinical approach to viewing these woman?