MET Costume Institute Exhibition 2016: "Manus x Machina"

[VersaceVixen009]

I would LOVE to see some vintage McQueen displayed and worn by attendees

 

[Benn98]

Taylor Swift? Really? What on earth is Idris Elba doing there?? He's as out of place as Taylor, tbqh. Anyway, only looking forward to the 100 selected pieces.

I think this year's China theme curbed most of the attendees dress sense in a way, but next year they'll have no excuse, right? But of course Tory Burch's phone will be ringing off the hook from now on.

 

[VersaceVixen009]

I'm expecting a lot of Wang will be worn by attendees

 

[Aoedele]

Taylor? Swift? Really? She has no discernible style. She's all matching crop tops with shorts/skirts, pumps and top handle purses. Rihanna, yes, but Taylor? Swift?? That should be interesting.

 

[krncandi]

I'm hoping everyone will stick to the theme. Hope they wear Chalayan, Iris Van Herpen, Viktor and Rolf, Nicholas Ghesqueiere for Balenciaga, vintage Thierry Mugler, vintage Claude Montana, and Anrealage.

 

[softgrey]

it's weird no one has mentioned issey miyake...
he's a pioneer in this arena...

 

[krncandi]

it's weird no one has mentioned issey miyake...
he's a pioneer in this arena...

I second that as well!

 

[SallyAlbright]

Can't believe it's so soon! Taylor Swift is going to look so odd with her new bleach blonde mullet. Oh well, at least Idris will be handsome. Any other updates/guests confirmed?

 

[happycanadian]

Yeah, I'm rather looking forward to this year's event!

Is this the thread where we'll post info about attendees and what they'll be wearing?

 

[zacatecas570]

I have that same question. Kim Kardashian is attending I just saw her snapchats.

 

[SallyAlbright]

Don't we typically have a thread in Star Style on the actual day? I'm not sure if it's too early to start one there or not. Rosie Huntington Whitely is definitely going too, she mentioned it on instagram.

 

[Wolkfolk]

Yes we usually have a thread in Star Style like during Awards season. Talking about awards season, E! will do an official red carpet coverage of the MET Ball this year with Giuliana on the red carpet and everything.

 

[Marc10]

This thread is for the exhibition, a thread for the red carpet event will be created in due time on Star Style.

---

 

[masquerade]

I am sure we are going to see a lot of 3D printing, at least in accessories and jewelry if not in full on outfits.

I hope we see some LED conductive sewn pieces. There is some interesting stuff happening in the craft world with LEDs that could translate really well to fashion.

 

[Nymphaea]

Meet Iris van Herpen, the Dutch Designer Boldly Going Into the Future

A day or so after Iris van Herpen presented her Fall 2016 collection, dubbed Lucid, in Paris last month, she sat down to talk about the very personal dialogue that has developed in her work between the hand and the machine. Ever since she started her label in 2007—after graduating from Arnhem’s ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in 2006 and a stint working for Alexander McQueen in London and the Dutch artist Claudy Jongstra—Van Herpen has singly (and single-mindedly) been fashion’s leading exponent of what technology can do and what it will mean for us. At the same time, she has nimbly sidestepped categorization as a designer, preferring to let whomever sees or indeed wears her work to choose how to describe it: Fashion? Art? Or simply, quite possibly, the future?

Certainly it’s likely Van Herpen is the only designer around desperate to get her hands on the invisibility cloaking fabric that the U.S. military has been developing; “I’ve been trying for three years,” she said. “I’m dying to work with it!” Given she has pieces in the “Manus x Machina” show at the Anna Wintour Costume Center, opening next week, it seemed timely to check in with her. And in the course of the conversation that afternoon, Van Herpen, erudite, smart, and wry, discussed why she does what she does—and dispelled a few myths in the process.

You started your label in 2007. What drove you to do it, and what is its place in the fashion world?
My general idea of fashion is pretty abstract: It’s more than a garment, and it’s more than a commercial product. Fashion is really an interconnected thing. It’s very locked down in its own system and in its own world, and I really don’t think about it in that way; things are happening all around us, and that should be connected to fashion. I feel it can be a form of art—it doesn’t have to be, but it can be. So from the beginning, I have been trying to define my own language in this locked-down system and get fashion out of its comfort zone, and I’ve been trying to have it interact with other disciplines like the arts, architecture, and science. For some people, it’s unimaginable that fashion and science can even connect, but in my mind they can. The world is changing very rapidly, and technology is a big influence on that, and I think the way a garment can be made can be radically changed and sustainable. It’s very experimental. I’m not trying to change it on a big scale, but I am trying to make little improvements on a smaller scale.

When you started, what materials were available to you? Or were you creating your own?
I really felt that I had to do things in an entirely different way. Even before school, I had been collecting materials. I didn’t know what to do with them; I just collected them. When I started studying fashion, I suddenly felt a reason for all the materials I had been collecting, many of which had nothing to do with fashion. If I look at my earlier work, in terms of the materials, it was probably more extreme or experimental [than it is now]. One collection I made from the boning of umbrellas. It was very sculptural. Another, we wove a very thin metal fabric in collaboration with a factory that normally makes boats. I think at that moment, I was just a little bit bored with the fabrics that I had been taught to work with.

The clothes you make, are they all conceived as one-offs?
I’ve never really stuck to the idea of one-offs because we make the garments, even those in the archive, based on requests. From the beginning, I got the idea to build up my archive for the knowledge of my craftsmanship. Also, when I sold a piece, we would remake it at that time. If you don’t do it then, at that very moment, it’s gone. In five years, you don’t know how to do it anymore.

What about 3-D printing?
I did my first 3-D-printed dresses in 2009. We couldn’t print to make it flexible yet, so I had to be inventive in how I was incorporating it into my collections. The good thing about it now is that flexible printing is much more durable than it used to be, so you can really do the usual stuff to it—you can wash it, you can press it . . . I was hoping in my mind it would go faster, but it doesn’t happen overnight.

Quite literally: I was told that 3-D printing can take ages.
Well, it goes so much faster today. I remember the first piece I printed took seven days, 24 hours a day, to print. If you count that in hours, it’s massive, but it doesn’t take that long anymore. It’s pretty fast.

I guess historically, until now, designing starts from a sketch or a drape. What is your process?
I never sketch apart from the 3-D prints, which is the opposite of what you would expect. All of the garments I design are created by draping, and that’s really my way of working, because I need the interaction with the material. Only with the 3-D printing do I start with a sketch and then we go to the computer with the architect.

What about your design studio? Does yours differ from the conventional idea of what a designer’s studio is?
It is different and the same. When you go into my atelier, you will see all the standard things: a sewing machine, people working on patterns, the mannequins, the fabrics; but at the same time, we also have other elements like laser cutting and molding. Some dresses we make from a complete molding in clay first, so it’s a different process. There’s also a lot of computer work involved, so you will see the office part. That part looks like an office, but the most interesting thing is that I don’t confine my workspace only to Amsterdam; there are a lot of people I work with outside of my atelier, like Philip Beesley, an architect who’s based in Toronto.

When one looks at your Fall 2016 collection, for instance, one might think that it is super–high-tech.
The funny thing is that when I started in fashion I only did handwork. I’m really not technology-focused. Inspiration for me does not come from technology; I really see it as a tool. The process of making a 3-D print is boring because it’s all done on a computer, but I love the end result and the things I can make with it. I hope in the future it becomes more human and more interactive.

Would you say that everything you do is about technology is the biggest misconception about your work?
I think so. People think that everything I make is 3-D printed, but the basis of my work is really craftsmanship. I think a lot of people try to separate the two. You have traditional houses that focus on craftsmanship, and then you have people who are into technology, but I don’t really see that they have to be apart. I see them as equal, and I actually think that they can complement each other. Sometimes a texture that I’ve been developing on a 3-D printer can be an inspiration for a handwork technique, and sometimes it’s the other way around.

I’d like to know about your upbringing.
I grew up with parents who were pretty hippie, and I didn’t have a television or a computer. Even when I was studying at the academy, I didn’t use a computer. I actually remember having a big conversation with my computer teacher because I was expected to create my drawings on the computer, and I really felt I didn’t need that for my creative process. I still feel like that. Sitting behind a screen is not very creative in general, but I really believe in it for the future, so I go there. My whole youth has nothing to do with technology, and maybe that’s why it’s even more fascinating for me now.

What about popular culture? Do you connect to things like the movie Ex Machina, for example?
It’s inspiring and frightening to think about humanity and the future in general. Biology and technology will fuse together, and that’s a very interesting direction, but I don’t like to judge it because it’s such a big subject. Reality and non-reality will become one, in a way, and it’s super-fascinating, but it’s too complex to really define, though I definitely like to think about it. One collection, called Biopiracy, was inspired by this fusion of biology and technology and what it will mean. It’s amazing how transformable we are as people, what the escalation of technology will do to the brain and the body.

Tell me a bit about the pieces that are in the “Manus x Machina” show.
The way I connect to those pieces, I think, is very much based on the process and the challenges they gave me. My personal clients, they connect to my work for different reasons, and I think it should be that way. It’s again that notion of fashion and art. Some people see my work as art and others see just the beauty of a dress. I want to keep it that open. I’m just not very branded in that sense!

vogue

 

[JunyaSchick]

Commes des Garçons, Gareth Pugh, Sandra Backlund and Alexandre McQueen among others already mentioned here.

For me the topic is a bit pre-crisis... because nowadays fashion doesn't seen to be that innovative and prefer to play on the safe side, focusing on styling rather than actual design. There are a few exceptions but to get a slice of the whole concept you must look back to collections from late 90s and early 2000s. Don't you think? - as well as the 60s, where many designers put a lot on emphasis on futuristic design.

It seems to me that the innovation in the last 7-8 years was more focused on printing and some fabrics.

 

[Benn98]

I think apart from actual futuristic design, the theme also seems to cover the use of modern/tech apparatus to achieve certain motifs on a look. Like that embroided Chanel outfit above which in theory doesn't look futuristic. This would broaden the pool a bit. I'm thinking the foam dress Saskia wore for Chanel's SS 2012 campaign, or Dita von Teese in Iris van Herpen's 3D print/laser cut number.

 

[Marc10]

Today, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its new Costume Institute exhibition, “Manus x Machina.” Nestled in a cathedral-like structure inside the Robert Lehman Wing, the show highlights couture and ready-to-wear techniques in an elaborate and exacting fashion. Fortuny pleats live beside Issey Miyake ones, while the techno fashion of Iris van Herpen is highlighted alongside the hand-done work of Alexander McQueen. A Chanel Haute Couture dress by Karl Lagerfeld welcomes guests to the space, its golden train flickering in the lights.

Here, a first look inside the exhibition curated by Andrew Bolton.

vogue

 

[softgrey]

thx marc...
finally some pics from the show~~~!!!

 

[softgrey]

http://bcove.me/mka4359g

video of and about the show...