Bauhaus Apparel

   Bau·haus ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (bouhous)
adj.    

Of, relating to, or characteristic of a 20th-century school of design, the aesthetic of which was influenced by and derived from techniques and materials employed especially in industrial fabrication and manufacture.

London has officially gone Bauhaus mad with the up and coming V&A Modernism  exhibition (can’t wait for this one!!)  and with this sudden interest in all things modernist, it seems to me, that this art & architecture movement has also turned up on the catwalks.  It’s not just the Bauhaus philosophy that has plonked itself on the catwalk – I have also found an architectural quality to a lot of pieces.   

I won’t bore you silly with too much history but ‘Bauhaus’ literally means ‘house for building’.  After the crushing effects of World War I on Germany, the architect Walter Gropius headed up a new institution to rebuild the country – it called for a new social housing.  They rejected any ‘bourgeois detail’ and wanted to use a purer, simpler aesthetic, much like Classical styles.  They used flat roofs, smooth facades and cubic shapes in white, grey beige and black with a focus on the functional – et voila – extremely similar to where are heading for this spring summer in fashion.

Here are some examples of Bauhaus/modernist architecture in Britain:

The Brunswick Centre, London (Patrick Hodgekinson, 1966-71) // The Meeting House, Sussex (Basil Spence, 1965-6) // The Engineering Research Station, Killingworth (Ryder & Yates)

The Dollan Baths, East Kilbride (Alexander Buchannan Campbell, 1963-8) // The Isokon, London (Pritchard & Coates, 1933-4) // Rysted House, Kent (Percy Rothwell, 1931)

What becomes apparant is though there is no ornamentation or fussy details, the simplicity of everything comes off looking very striking.   Though function was the priority, there is no sacrifice of style because there is design merit to every functional feature. 

This most definitely landed on the catwalks for spring/summer 2006 when the key words being bandied about were ‘pared back’, ‘minimalist’, ‘simplistic’.  However this is by no means BLAND – anything the contrast of this summer against last summer makes us wonder why we ever donned flouncy tiered skirts in garish oranges and lurid azures and greens.  This summer will be a cleansing of the palette, a playful refinement.  Damn, I wish it came sooner!  It will definitely be interesting to see how everyone interprets this new mood.

(From left to right) Giles S/S06, Giles S/S06, Peter Som S/S06, John Rocha S/S06, Givenchy S/S06, Chloe S/S06, Ann Sofie Black S/S06, Bruno Pieters S/S06, Hussein Chalayn S/S06, Donna Karen S/S06, Boudicca S/S06, Hussein Chalayan S/S06

(Catwalk pics from vogue.co.uk, architecture pics from c20thcentury.org.uk)