Over the years it has become routine that designers are often been as much defined by their clothes as by the manner in which they are presented. Fashion and spectacle have long been well married together and it’s the most spectacular that are the most memorable: Alexander McQueen ‘s psychiatric ward in SS01′s ‘Voss’. Viktor and Rolf often hold unauthorised, underground shows during Paris fashion week and have even tap-danced in one of their own shows. Maison Martin Margiela has used dummies and giant dolls instead of models. It’s well-known that McQueen in particular has developed an almost Artaudian approach to his shows, attaching value to the sensory experience beyond the clothes themselves.
Fashion and art label Cosmic Wonder, owned by Yukinori Maeda, sees its fashion cell Cosmic Wonder Light Source also experimenting with the boundaries in which collections can be presented, attempting to evoke a response from consumers who perhaps don’t always engage with a designer’s thought-process. In the case of its SS09 collection, we find the garments on show in perhaps the least exciting of arenas – an office.
Upon entry, it seems like a regular day. Desks, shelves, pot plants, whitewashed walls – that sense of despair. Yet there’s something dodgy going on. Have you seen The Truman Show? That bit where he suddenly bangs into the skyline? Well, here, the office workers just so happen to be models, the books and magazines are blank, and there are box files that simply read ‘Business Business Business’. The office, as a site perhaps most associated with loss of identity that manifests even in what we wear, seems an ideal centre to explore different ways to express yourself via the medium of fashion. Similarly by choosing the most utilitarian of spaces, the functional aspect of the clothing is examined, whilst eliciting the idea that on a day- to- day basis there is something intimate about the garments we choose to live our lives in. The line itself is chic and edgy, sometimes androgynous and with voluminous silhouettes – with soft pastels playing with ideas of light with the aim to produce an environmental effect.
Achieving a cult status after appearing in Paris Fashion Week in the Pompidou Centre in 2001, Cosmic Wonder shares with Comme de Garcons the wish to operate outside of pop culture. Instead it shows a willingness to examine how art, fashion and commerce can successfully interact together that prioritises wearability at the appropriate times, at one point showing a giant bra that filled a whole space by itself (now that’s not for a faint-hearted fellow). Cosmic Wonder’s line can be bought on b-store: gigantic bras not currently available much to our disappointment!
Categories ,Art, ,Avant-garde, ,Modern Tailoring, ,Pastels, ,Volume
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