Got it Covered

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Depending on how you look at it, I was fortunate/unfortunate enough to interview four designers on stage as part of the Arts of Fashion Tandem Series in Philadelphia. The point was to expose the various facets of being a young independent designer and so the talk was divided into two parts; the first, I interviewed Anthony Vaccarello and Aurore Thibout who are in the primary stages of their designer careers.  In the second part, I interviewed Christian Wijnants and Matthew Ames who are in a latter stage, having established their own business.

So it was FORTUNATE that I got to speak to them and to hear their insight on what are the difficulties facing a young designer but probably UNFORTUNATE for them that I was stuttering the whole time.  I think at one point, Joe's R'n'B classic 'Stutter' kept popping up in my head. 

In my research, I got to take a good look at Matthew Ames' website.  I've written about his early work on a few occasions so it was good to catch up on his more recent work where his concerns with shape and volume have taken a more free-flowing direction.  Where in the beginning his shapes were somewhat very literal and graphic, they have now become more classic whilst still retaining the minimalist dramatics that first caught my eye.  These are various images of his A/W 09 collection which champion a covered-up silhouette and that isn't about screaming in itty-bitty details but rather concentrates on the overall effect of layers and shapes cocooning the body.

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Delving into Ames' website further, I discovered he's been keeping an online journal that sheds further insight into the inspiration images that inform his work.  It's definitely something I'm all for designers doing even if it's a minimal text, max on images type journal just because I find it so interesting peering into people's moodboards.  Matthew Ames' images include these Irving Penn images of Issey Miyake's looks from the early 80s…

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…these images from Wiener Werkst√§tte-Mode archives, the Vienna Workshops's fashion work…
Max Snischek, Photo by Madame d’Ora, 1919 // Pyjama (designer unkown), Photo by Madame d’Ora, 1921

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In particular, I loved these images of Valentina Nicholaevna Sanina Schlee aka Valentina, the Russian √©migr√©e fashion designer who had a New York-based couture/costume house from the 20s to the 50s. I these images especially resonate strongly in Ames' A/W 09 collection where Valentina's famous phrase "Fit the century, forget the year."  Truly gutted I missed the exhibition dedicated to Valentina's work in the Museum of the City of New York.   

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20 comments

  3. i love how japanese deconstruction has been re-discovered — when i look at this designer’s work, it’s lovely to see the big billowing that designers like miyake played with, but melded with that 1940s adrian column-esque draping. what a lovely combo!

  6. WendyB: Not sure who was arsed to tape the thing…. but I can assure you there was much stuttering… and umming and aahing…and saying “Y’know” all the time…

  7. the black and white one with the asian lady…Issey Miyake right? maybe?

  10. Sorry I missed chatting with you at the symposium, Susie, but I agree that the interviews were excellent — nice balance between art and commerce. And I certainly didn’t hear stuttering!

  14. a wonderful post; thoroughly enjoyed the images, thank you xo
    – andrea [www.shewilldressherself.blogspot.com]

  19. Valentina was also a character. Read the stories in the book (also good for photography)… there’s an incident in which she ended a fitting with “madam, you have a very beautiful face, but you must do something about your figure, Valentina is dress maker, not upholsterer!”

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