Art and Fashion – feat. #RickOwens, #SaintLaurent et al.

Angelo Flaccavento – a fine writer and fashion connoisseur with a sociological approach to the game – recently dropped an interesting article on fashion’s fascination with storytelling.

(At the latest round of men’s shows in Paris) ‘We saw Dries Van Noten’s psychedelic peaceniks raiding the Opera Garnier in all manner of morphed, high-ranking uniforms and Raf Simons’ angsty post-teenagers — think Breakfast Club meets Nightmare on Elm Street — meandering in a maze, wearing humongous, moth-holed knits and outsized coats. At Rick Owens, white-faced Mastodons swathed in drapes of duvet or goat fur stormed the brutalist cavern just below the Palais de Tokyo, while Haider Ackermann’s distressed dandies counted their steps over the parquet of the Hotel de Ville and Thom Browne’s sharp dressers pondered over the dialogue between past and present in a vast, dramatically-lit warehouse peppered with giant empty frames. It all made for some truly memorable spectacles that will surely go down in fashion’s history books.’ 

Before he goes on questioning if the spectacle – à la Debord – is good or not for fashion, we want to focus on the the theatre side of it.

As (certain part of) society becomes more complicated, hybridised, and sapiosexually-oriented, art and fashion find each other in a heated love affair, again.

Here is another interesting post on the topic, found on 032c: ‘Why SAINT LAURENT Invitations Are Extremely Collectible Art Editions’

‘Hedi Slimane’s growing series of invitation booklets for SAINT LAURENT encapsulates the designer’s goal to mutate the contemporary culture of Los Angeles with Parisian haute tradition and craft. Each book is around 100 pages, perfect-bound between a black notebook cover, and designed by a different LA-based artist. And as veritable art editions disguised as invitations, they are also the strongest overlooked element of the Saint Laurent hype machinery—small monuments to ephemeral, one-off events.

The contributing artists range from the canonical—John Baldessari and Raymond Pettibon—to the emerging—Theodora Allen—to the bygone—Guy de Cointet—creating a catalog of Slimane’s creative relationships that is as informal and open ended as it is stylistically magnetic. These are the printed-matter prototypes for Slimane’s newfound leadership of the established brand. Designed as complex, sentimental, and, perhaps most significantly, disconnected entrance points into a singular aesthetic world, they are smart decoys for a company that foremost sells ready-to-wear.’ 

Off topic – there is an incredible video of Tom Waits narrating the career of Baldessari; in case you haven’t watched it:

The “art effect” can be obviously also seen in several recent campaigns, whose approach is more intellectually-driven than past episodes.

From DAZED: ‘Revisiting the best fashion campaigns of SS16’

‘Supermodel reunions, paint-splattered carwashes and gender-fluid dressing – here’s some of the best campaigns of the season so far’  

 Outro – talking about art, fashion, and life in general, a little piece of advice from Christopher Wool.