A new exhibition has just opened at The Gallery on Charing Cross Road titled ‘Fashion is Art’. A whole host of British/London-based designers have been asked to design and create a piece that demonstrates artistry in fashion and every piece was auctioned off last Wednesday to aid Capital 95.8’s ‘Help a London Child’.
I went to check out the exhibition on Saturday but went away feeling that the title of the exhibition was wrongly named. Fashion can be art, no doubt about that but I don’t think the pieces on display showed pushed the boundaries of artistry in fashion either. Still, it was worth seeing beautiful garments up close even if you did go away feeling a little underwhelmed. With so many designers contributing, I did have to categorise it a little in my head…
The super sculpturalists….
Hussein Chalayan // Bora Aksu
It’s all the in the details….
Giles Deacon // Collado Garcia
I want to wear these straight away and would be tempted to bid….
Jean Pierre Braganza // Camilla Staerk // Hamish Morrow
It’s all about the prints….
Basso & Brooke // Eley Kishimoto // Sinha-Stanic
The grey, the elegant, the super wearable….
Kristian Aadnevik // Ashley Isham // Tracy Mulligan for Xternity (this dressed fetched £1000) // Jasmine Di Milo
The overly colourful, bordering in garish (though the paint effect on the Antoni & Alison is sort of interesting…)
Gharoni Strok // Manish Arora // Antoni & Alison
The slightly comical but intriguing….
Belle & Bunty
The pieces that stole my heart before I even went into the exhibition….
Preen // Tata-Naka
It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re around that area (it’s free!) and on until the 31st July. Do also visit Clare de Rouen books on the 1st floor as their fashion and photography book selection is pretty much second to none in London.
I would love to visit it. The Belle & Bounty one looked so sweet. I really like it.
juliet xxx
beautiful clothes
Gorgeous pictures Susie, thanks for sharing.
Just wondering, maybe there’s no short answer to this, but what exactly did you mean by “I don’t think the pieces on display showed pushed the boundaries of artistry in fashion”?
Why didn’t these pieces fit that criteria?
(I’m not saying this to be combative, I’m genuinely curious in your view)
Miz: Thanks for the curiosity. What I meant was that for the designers chosen, it didn’t feel like they pushed all the boundaries to show ‘artistry’ in fashion – as in some of them didn’t look like special commissions – for example, the Preen dress is from their RTW S/S07 collection. Lovely as it is, if we’re talking about applying full on artistry, then I’m pretty sure all designers are capable of infinitely superior pieces…. something even more amazing.
Yes i definately agree with you Susie. Living in Australia, I won’t be able to see the exhibition in person, but from your pictures it seems to me as well that the concept of artistry has not been explored as fully as possible. Apart from about three of the works (Tata-Naka- which reminds me of an Impressionist work ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose’- Belle & Bunty, and Bora Aksu) none of the clothing looked very different to what the designers would have produced for their next shows. Perhaps time/money constraints were part of the problem, however, i would have expected more, especially with such an interesting concept that had such potential.
I agree with Cat, I’m sure that these designers had major time constraints. It’s much more likely that they would use something from a previous season as they are most likely up to their elbows in production for AW07-08 and creating their SS08 collections.
I agree with you Janice…that probably is it…. still, the exhibition is still a worth the gander considering it’s free…and all the garments were sold for charity anyway….
Spoken as someone who is not really ‘arty’ at all, I had always thought that the ‘art of fashion’ is really something that is intrinsicly linked to the person wearing the clothes, and as such more like ‘performance art’?
Whilst the dresses are beautiful and many of them amazingly intricate, i feel that there is something lacking in the way they are draped on the lifeless mannikins?
just a thought…
there is a quote, the author of which I cant remember ..
but it says that “fashion is what art always wanted to be” .. or something like that..(my lack of attention in class is obvious here)..
THat fashion is a greater sign of the times than art – the importance of fashion as an art form is also due to the fact that it is worn and brought to life by people.
omg, I really need to do sthg later with the fashion exhibit’… it’s so boring on those unliving mannequins…some curators need to work on this…
susie : what are the drawings??? is it the processus of the making of the dress??
Rose & Marie: Very well said….and perhaps Fashion as an ‘art’ can’t be conveyed on mannequins…
Berlinrocks: The drawings on the wall are actually an entirely different exhibition called Napkins….getting artists to express themselves on a napkin… aka serviette…