Fashion as Art .... From Museum to Runway and Back?

[gius]

Check out the article at style.com;
features painting-inspired designs on the runway
(comes with a photo slideshow).

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/stylehunter/editorial/news/data/style_hunter/051606.xml

Hanging Threads
Famous Paintings Go from Wall to Wardrobe for Fall

May 17, 2006 – Looking for proof that designers do occasionally leave the studio? It could be found in some of fall's art-inspired collections. The Whitney's recent Cy Twombly exhibition, for example, reverberated at Ralph Rucci Chado and Proenza Schouler, where the artist's familiar scribbles materialized on evening gowns and fitted shifts, respectively. In Paris, Valentino paid homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat with graphic prints and sequined separates based on the painter's graffiti-style works, some of which hang on the designer's walls.

But it was Mark Rothko's distinctive use of color that left the most lasting impression of the season. Inspired by "the strange dark beauty and sophistication" of his palette, Vera Wang crafted dresses from watercolor silks. As for Rothko's attraction for the art-happy Proenza Schouler duo, Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough explain, "There's a surface simplicity in his canvases that at first belies his complex use of proportion and composition. That's such an interesting idea. Subtlety is always coolest."

 

[PradaBoy]

A Stella McCartney gown in a fabric by Jeff Koons, at her Spring 2006 Ready-to-Wear runway show

 

[piep]

a short version of this dress is on the first page of this thread

 

[PradaBoy]

a short version of this dress is on the first page of this thread

Yes, indeed

 

[Lena]

art in fashion

Tantric and Stone-Age art influenced the artists' designs

Artist Asha Dangol used canvas for his Picasso-inspired dress

Nepal show fuses art and fashion
Charles Haviland
BBC News, Kathmandu

Imagine an exhibition where instead of the art-lover walking among the paintings, the paintings walk among the public.

That is the concept of Wearable Art, which has been displayed at a unique show in Kathmandu.

It has been created by seven young Nepali artists and the exhibition's curator, Deneth Piumakshi from Sri Lanka.

In a palace garden after dark, performers walk the catwalk to the accompaniment of carefully selected music.

'Art not fashion'

For the first half of the show each artist has chosen an influence from a different period of history, from cave painting via the Renaissance through to Cubism.

I don't like canvas or paper - so I started painting on clothes
Deneth Piumakshi, artist

One performer is dressed like a Roman gladiator, his cloak adorned by sensuous female forms; another wears a version of Picasso's "Guernica", the depiction of a Spanish town destroyed by fascist bombing in 1937.

In the second half, the artists have created modern wearable art of their choice. Some draw influences from the folk art of their own people; another is Buddhist-influenced; further works show two faces intertwined, a traditional festival, or a mosaic of mirrors.

Deneth, 26, is at pains to say this is art, not "fashion".

"Art doesn't have to be in a square on a wall," she says. "I don't like canvas or paper. So I started painting on clothes."

She chose Nepal for this project because from the moment she first visited the country in 2004 she fell in love with it, staying 10 months.

"People basically live in art in this country," she says, meaning that not only are artists devoted to their workshops but also that wonderful historical cityscapes are permanently inhabited, unlike in her own country.

"Nepali artists are very creative, although they sometimes follow others a little too closely."

The seven Nepali artists agreed to make wearable art if Deneth returned to work with them on it. The result: the creation of these artworks over 100 days in the art studio where the seven are based - Kasthamandap, in Kathmandu.

"It's totally different and I'm very excited," says 33-year-old Asha Dangol. "Even if on canvas we've been using new media and textures."

He uses canvas for his reproduction of Guernica, which is fairly faithful to the original and adds bull's horns on the performer's head, the animal being picked out from the painting and from Spanish culture.

Asha chose the Picasso as a reminder of the destructive effect of Nepal's own conflict. His modern work - on cotton - is completely different, inspired by Tantric art - a common form displayed on temple pillars in the Kathmandu Valley and depicting the sensual bonds between men and women.

for the whole article, visit the bbc here

article and photos credited at bbc.co.uk

 

[Estella*]

thanks for the article, lena.
here is a related thread if anyone's interested


art in fashion for autumn and winter

 

[runner]

Dead art icons live on, in a fashion

Dead art icons live on, in a fashion
Designers cut deals with estates of such stars as Warhol, Mapplethorpe.

By Booth Moore, Times Staff Writer
December 16, 2006


LVMH, the luxury conglomerate with Vuitton and Dior in its stable, announces that it will build a contemporary art museum in Paris. MAC cosmetics serves up burlesque glamour girl Dita von Teese at a swank dinner at Art Basel Miami. And suddenly, dead artists are at the center of a major holiday campaign and a luxury designer product launch.

The mutual admiration between art and fashion is turning into a full-on love fest.

For the holidays, Barneys New York launched the ultimate art-meets-fashion marketing blitz working with the Warhol Foundation on Pop Art windows, shopping bags, a special pair of Levi's, even actual cans of Campbell Soup, at $12 each. Portraits of the artist by schoolchildren are being exhibited and sold in stores to benefit local arts programs.

"Increasingly I noticed that everyone has been talking Warhol ? two documentaries, skyrocketing auction prices, the imminent Edie Sedgwick movie ? it was the perfect year for us to have a Happy Warhol-iday," says Simon Doonan, the store's creative director.

Still, it's not like we're in the middle of a 1960s moment on the runways, or in interior design for that matter, so why Warhol now?

"Everybody wants to be cool and groovy, and there is this nagging feeling that nobody was more cool and groovy than Andy," Doonan offers. "He invented it. Every few years a new generation discovers him and then all the old geezers like me get reminded of how great he was … and funny." One of Doonan's favorite Warholisms? "Employees make the best dates: You don't have to pick them up and they are always tax deductible."

Marketing Warhol's work is almost too easy, as fascinated as he was by conspicuous consumption. But what do you do with an artist whose medium was photography and whose oeuvre included not only flowers but crosses and phalluses too?

The Robert Mapplethorpe Estate is turning to Chrome Hearts, the L.A.-based rock 'n' roll luxury brand designed by motorcycle enthusiast Richard Stark and his wife, Laurie.

In February, several limited-edition items will land in Chrome Hearts boutiques and in museum stores, including Hermes-quality silk chiffon scarves ($620) with a kaleidoscopic print intertwined with Mapplethorpe's cross, flag and nude torso imagery, and black leather JJ Dean leather jackets with the scarf lining (women's $6,160; men's $6,765). There's also jewelry ? dog tags in silver with pave diamonds ($935), and crosses in silver and gold with and without diamonds ($715 to $46,250).

"We have been very conservative about licensing, limiting it to paper products like calendars and note cards, and not many of them," says Michael Ward Stout, the lawyer who administers Mapplethorpe's estate and heads the foundation. Stout has also handled the estates of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, among others.

"Robert on the other hand was very enthusiastic about licensing products. One reason he hired me is that I was Salvador Dali's lawyer, someone who had the licensing empire of the world."

Until now, the foundation didn't even allow Mapplethorpe's images to be cropped or written over for postcards or posters, Stout says. So allowing his work to be reinterpreted by a fashion designer is quite a departure.

"It's hard to make decisions about what an artist would have done, but it's important to keep an artist young, to keep people interested," he says. "That's why in the exhibition world we are having Mapplethorpe exhibits curated by other artists, like Catherine Opie did in L.A. Then younger people write about it."

The idea for the collaboration was hatched last year over a casual dinner in Sao Paulo. Stout and Sean Kelly, the gallery owner who represents Mapplethorpe in New York, were in Brazil for an exhibition and they got talking; someone in the group mentioned that if Robert were alive today he would be wearing Chrome Hearts.

Started by Stark in 1988, Chrome Hearts is known for handmade jewelry, leather clothing and accessories, sunglasses and wood furniture with gothic motifs, long before gothic motifs were everywhere. It's a favorite with Lenny Kravitz, Cher and the Osbournes.

The Starks already owned two Mapplethorpe works (Laurie is a photographer in her own right), so they were thrilled with the idea. Over the last year they have been submitting, fine-tuning and retooling designs. Transferring the images onto fabric was so involved, that alone took several months.

"We had to go through a lot, putting it in front of the board. And it's never going to be a big money-making thing," Stark says at his factory on a leafy street in Hollywood, where craftsmen work in the back making wax molds for jewelry and cutting patterns for leather jackets. "Maybe we'll be surprised, but it's more about creating awareness in the art community. They're collectible pieces."

Mapplethorpe's work is also being licensed for limited-edition porcelain, Stout says, but don't expect his nude torsos to be splashed on the side of holiday shopping bags any time soon. "Our whole approach to Mapplethorpe has been sophisticated," Stout says. "We don't want to go crazy. This is probably all we'll do for the next five or 10 years. I'm concerned that the artwork is rare and fragile. It is different from Warhol's, which was accessible in a populist way."

Meanwhile, Chrome Hearts has had quite a year. There's the new shop on Avenue Montaigne in Paris (adding to a roster of boutiques in New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Honolulu and here in L.A. on Robertson Boulevard and in Malibu) and the new partnership with Baccarat to produce crystal vases, barware and ashtrays starting at $600.

While the brand will always be exclusive (they just got an order to do the interior of a recording studio in an Airstream trailer), Laurie Stark has started to design smaller leather goods for those of us without rock-star incomes. For the holiday, she introduced adorable clutch purses in soft gold or silver metallic leather with a single fleur-de-lis or filigree cross detail on the front. They're still limited in production and they do cost $1,265, but that's nothing compared to the Airstream.

latimes.com

 

[softgrey]

hmmm---mapplethorpe and chrome hearts

a dark and appropriate match...

i imagine this will not do incredibly well in this country...
but will be more of a success overseas where you find less conservative customers...

any images yet?

 

[runner]

Chrome Hearts for Mapplethorpe


http://www.***************/image/2007/Q1/031420071751198015.jpg


http://www.***************/image/2007/Q1/031420071751207018.jpg


http://www.***************/image/2007/Q1/031420071751206275.jpg

http://www.***************/image/2007/Q1/031420071751204228.jpg

 

[runner]

http://www.***************/image/2007/Q1/031420071751209119.jpg

http://www.***************/image/2007/Q1/031420071751201599.jpg

http://www.***************/image/2007/Q1/031420071751193767.jpg


http://www.***************/image/2007/Q1/031420071751198462.jpg




elle.com

 

[softgrey]

hmmm--- the scarves and silk lining look a bit too much like the very worst kind of versace...

but i think they did a nice job with that flower necklace and whoever did the pictures certainly did an amazing job...
i think mapplethorpe would approve of the photography....


thanks runner...!!...

 

[Spike413]

I agree with softie about the scarves...

They're a bit too Versace in South Beach and not enough Mapplethorpe.

 

[Scott]

^ditto.

i like the images but i don't see enough mapplethorpe in the work itself. perhaps,patti smith with ann demeulemeester should have been consultants for this?? they would have worked on this perfectly seeing as Patti was his best friend and Ann has and always been greatly inspired by them both.

 

[Whitelinen]

Somehow this doesn't remind me of Mapplethorpe at all. Even if I try to imagine the clothes and jewellery without the notion that they got their inspiration from Mapplethorpe, I find it hard to like them.

 

[PerfectPerfect]

At Magic, there was a whole booth full of the new Andy Warhol brand. It was tacky, just an overkill. Theres one thing trying to envoke AW, then another thing to try to be him.

 

[markie]

I don't like the Mapplethorpe-inspired things posted in this thread at all... very, very tacky.

 

[ilaughead]

I don't like the Mapplethorpe-inspired things posted in this thread at all... very, very tacky.

Agreed. It's not very well done.

 

[runner]

you're welcome softgrey



the scarves should be expected to be like museum souvenir products in some way.
Helmut Lang in the mid 90's might have done it well, in a crisp way.
but the white gold cross pendant is about 6000000 yen.
considering the target market here, I'd say they did a fine job on the whole.

 

[ChrissyM]

giving this thread a little bump

 

[eugenius]

Fashion inspired by art, in the most literal sense..
Grace Jones, "dressed" by Keith Haring
(source: keithharing.com)