For the CdG 1997 Spring collection, Rei Kawakubo said it's "rethinking the body". A number of the fashion press said "it's the ugliest collection of the year."
Rei Kawakubo's infamous 'Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body.'
Down-padded garments of stretch nylon and polyurethane created swellings, subverting the "fashionable female body."
Rei Kawakubo came into the western fashion scene in the late 80s, a time when supermodels, like Jerry Hall, "reigned supreme" as they were "polished and glam". Kawakubo's collections rejected so much of that image. One of her early pieces, which proved shocking to many, was the sweater with holes. RK referred to it as being lace-like.
A link to a previous blog relating to Wabi-sabi and Comme des Garcons, if interested.
Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body was the first time RK really explored a new way of thinking about the physical body.
American dancer Merce Cunningham, after seeing this CdG collection, invited Rei Kawakubo to create the costumes for his new work 'Scenario'.
Cunningham expressed this perspective on the collection...
"looking out the window of my studio, I saw a woman wearing a large winter coat, with a backpack on her back, and carrying a baby in a pouch across her front."
I see it as well, but not so much looking out a New York studio window. I see strong third world women. Physical work and carrying babies going hand in hand.
Cunningham's Scenario. I would love to have seen a live performance of this dance.
Take her CdG 'Monster' 2014/15 A/W collection.
This is the letter that was given to some of the journalists pre the collection show. It explained the "beautiful ugliness of Rei Kawakubo's monsters" and how they are "charged with meaning".
The body was enclosed, arms couldn't move, no displaying of the female form, even the tights were made to look worn and "ugly" looking.
Beyonce seemed to cope with it.
My own inspirations that came out of the collection.
In 2000, Kawakubo said "Beauty is ever-transforming...There is no limit to its expression. If others consider what I do beautiful, that's fantastic, but I can't work expecting a certain reaction. I can only work from an incredibly personal point of view, as I think most authentic artists do." "My objective is to create new ways of looking at beauty, new paths to strength."
In 2014 Valerie Steele, an American fashion historian, plus Director and Chief Curator of The Fashion Institute of Technology,
was interviewed by Lou Stoppard on the subject of 'Ugly Fashion'.
Check it out on this link. There's lots of interesting discussion. One of her quotes "Whenever you have designers who are exploring something that's significantly new it's going to look, for the most part, strange and possibly ugly at first."
Steele mentions some interesting women, individual icons of fashion, who had eccentric images of beauty, the likes of Marchesa Casati and Isabella Blow. These were women who didn't mind wearing something that could be considered ugly.
Isabella Blow I know of, Marchesa Casati, not so much.
Marchesa Casati - Luisa Casati, (born 1881 into tremendous wealth, died 1957 in poverty) was described as "one of the most luminescent figures of the 20th century" and "a fashion eccentric". She was known for wearing live snakes as jewelry and walking cheetahs with diamond encrusted collars.
A photo of her, when she was more bound by society norms, age 20,with her only child. I don't see a "little feral face" not even on the dog!
This is a very good article about Casati, written by Judith Thurman.
The aim of this publication was to celebrate individuality as the new beauty, thus shifting the way beauty is perceived.
Marchesa Casati was there in the first issue, as a "timeless muse" inspiring everyone from Jack Kerouac onwards, 'Marchesa Casati/Is a living doll/Pinned on my Frisco/Skid row wall.'
It was published by Acne Studios, a Swedish fashion house, founded in 1996 by Jonny Johansson and others. Initially Acne stood for Associated Computer Nerd Enterprises, later on changed to Ambition to Create Novel Expressions. Acne Paper was discontinued after its 15th issue in 2014.
Check out this interview, from 2020. There was a second issue, but after that, I wonder if it was hit by Covid pandemic lockdowns, as that brought a lot of activities to a halt.
https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/dyg8nj/fester-new-csm-students-beauty-newspaper
Here is Naomi Wolf, being interviewed in 1991, early days of the book's publication.
Seriously, Dove are suggesting that using skin-firming cream will reduce the appearance of cellulite?!?
taken when I was in my early 20s, I sort of see what she might mean. I can still see some blemishes, but there is also something else there, something vital, something fresh, "a plumpness of the cells"...that younger me, wearing my Annie Hall glasses, and looking okay.
If you don't go to the site, take in this beauty tip advice from the interviewees, 2020 is the decade of "challenging the status quo, use face paint, smudge and experiment with bold colours to create your own character. Complacency is over for many young people. It's about originality. Use what you have, buy less and be more personal." I go with that last sentence.
And, Isabella Blow, she of flamboyant style. Fashion stylist, fashion magazine editor, Isabella Blow was deeply involved in the fashion world.
A muse for amazing hat designer Philip Treacy,
and the discoverer of many talents, such as Alexander McQueen.
 |
| I wrote on the back of this card- "This came from the Isabella Blow & Philip Treacy exhibition at The Design Museum. Wonderful exhibition, the hats just astounding and so too, is Isabella Blow. The scene of her wedding was fascinating. I thought it quite medieval, and aristocratic." That is Alexander McQueen on the left, Isabella on the right. David LaChapelle, the photographer. |
You could not miss this woman, who was not without her demons, her 'black dog'. As Valerie Steele said in that above interview, "Issy Blow I feel had many complexes about thinking that she was personally unattractive, and some of her extreme fashions like the hats etcetera may have also expressed a desire to hide. That's more complicated." (I know Isabella Blow had an issue with how she viewed her face, but she didn't have to endure the anguish and humiliation Janis Joplin did during the year she spent at the university of Texas at Austin, when she was nominated for the "Ugliest Man on Campus" contest, which was organised by prat fraternity boys! Imagine how hurtful that act would be.)
This may help explain the choices Isabella Blow made with her life.
I think this is also well worth a read, another perspective, with a positive concluding paragraph.
Anything pertaining to Isabella Blow, must feature Alexander McQueen. He is quoted as saying, "I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists. I have to force people to look at things."
Mcqueen liked to challenge people to face themselves, which he literally did in his S/S 2001 collection, VOSS.
This collection was inspired by a Joel-Peter Witkin photograph titled 'Sanitarium'
McQueen engaged the fetish writer Michelle Olley to play the role of the woman, concealed inside a gigantic mirrored box. The audience was forced to look at its own reflection for over an hour before the show started and it was deliberately late in starting.
McQueen said "In this collection the idea was to turn people's faces on themselves. I wanted to turn it around and make them think, "Am I actually as good as what I'm looking at?'...These beautiful models were walking around in the room, and then suddenly this woman who wouldn't be considered beautiful was revealed. It was about trying to show...that beauty comes from within."
Check the show via this video. It did get described as "Francis Bacon via Leigh Bowery and Lucien Freud."
The concept of Beauty.
No longer so clear cut as it once used to be. An interesting article 'Exploring the Concept of Beauty and it's Fashion History' https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/8861/exploring-the-concept-of-beauty-and-its-fashion-history comments "Today, our relationship to both the word and the concept has become somewhat confusing" and artists and designers will always rail against the beauty standard. A pertinent comment "Avant-garde fashion which emerged sought to denounce beauty, or more to the point, the old ideals of beauty that they found so suffocating."
In October of 2020, Jessica Defino wrote an article in TeenVogue, stating how she wants to destroy the beauty standards. She sees them as what is wrong with the industry and maybe even further.
Defino refers to the beauty standards as "tools of oppression that reinforce sexism, racism, colorism, classism, ableism, ageism and gender norms." She defines beauty standards as "the individual qualifications women are expected to meet in order to embody the feminine beauty ideal, and thus succeed personally and professionally."
Here is her article.
DeFino covers all sorts of interesting stuff on the subject, like Naomi Wolf's 'The Beauty Myth:How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women' originally published in 1990.
Interesting to read that Naomi Wolf has gone through a rocky period in the last couple of years. Errors within research for her latest book and expression of conspiracy opinions concerning Covid restraints. This is interesting reading...
The other interesting aspect of Defino's article are her comments concerning Dove's 2004 Campaign for Real Beauty. I remember seeing the billboards in London, where "real" women were featured as opposed to professional models.
This video explains a lot about the campaign and what a difference it made to Dove's sales.
But not without controversy however,and Defino mentions the cellulite issue.
Here's a quote from Defino, "Much of what we believe to be true about our bodies is nothing more than marketing, made up by beauty brands to make a buck."
I remember sitting in the back of a car one time, travelling to Queenstown airport, and my great Aunt was going on about the glories and wonders of Michael Hill, and how well he had done, making his millions, etc, etc. I said, "Well, he hasn't made a cent out of me." Now, the beauty/skincare industry...that's another matter!
Skin, such a personal organ, has been an issue for me just about all my life. Serious hot water burns on my hands when a crawling baby, left me scars, a skin type if ten minutes in the sun,skin grafts could be required, then severe acne in puberty left its scars, external and internal. Anything on the market that alleged to help heal it up, I purchased. But, really, I think I just had to wait for my body to settle down with its hormones, which took decades, and even then...
A friend once told me how her mother said "When you see a photo of yourself taken when you were much younger, it's amazing to see how fab you actually did look" (or words to that effect).
Well, I look at this photo...
Margaret Atwood, kind of sums it up in this quote from 'The Blind Assassin'
“The Three of them were beautiful, in the way all girls of that age are beautiful. It can't be helped, that sort of beauty, nor can it be conserved; it's a freshness, a plumpness of the cells, that's unearned and temporary, and that nothing can replicate. None of them was satisfied with it, however; already they were making attempts to alter themselves into some impossible, imaginary mould, plucking and pencilling away at their faces. I didn't blame them, having done the same once myself.”
There was a newspaper/magazine called ACNE PAPER. I initially thought, what a name for a publication, perhaps a little sensitive to the subject matter.
I purchased the above one because of these cool images using clothing from the CdG S/S 2008 collection, which RK described as "Clusters/Randomness/Cacophony".
Acne Paper was renown for its cool photography, like this shoot, the 2009 F/W edition,
photographer Paolo Roversi and model Tilda Swinton. Two big names in that industry.
Her models are great. Letizia has Down's syndrome, Jasroop has vitiligo and Nan has albinism and identifies as non-binary.
Bring on these women a lot more, is what I say. They look great, with bodies many of us can relate to.
It is good to see more models of diversity in photographs and on the runways these days. Diversity is 'the mix' of something. It is the difference within a group of people, and that difference can be gender, sexuality, disability or body image/size.
For some further information about models and albinism, check out my 'Mad Hats and Toadstools' blog.
Scroll way down to the section about Thando Hopa, fascinating albino woman.
Jean-Paul Gaultier was known and admired for putting women of all shapes and sizes on his runway.
His Spring/Summer 2011 collection, was his most size diverse collection.
American singer songwriter Beth Ditto opened the collection
and American plus-size models Crystal Renn and Marguita Pring delivered their strut as well, ala Joan Jett wigs
Rick Owens presented a fascinating Spring/Summer 2014 Collection. Cool women from American college step teams wore the clothes, and delivered them with attitude! Owens said, "We're rejecting conventional beauty, creating our own beauty."
The 'Grit face' is all about intimidating the opponent in a step competition.
I am pleased that one eye still looks out at the world, although I do not think of myself as one-eyed, yet maybe I am when it comes to "ugly"..I don't go with it. Many times, in class, I have said "Did I hear someone using the word 'ugly'? That word is banned in this room. There is no ugly in here. Maybe something you are working on isn't looking so good at the moment, keep at it, it will get better, you will get better at doing it. There is no ugly, there is only work in progress."
Check it out.
However, not everyone saw it positively, and it is worth reading another perspective, written by a black woman.
Rick Owens worked with more models of diversity in his 2014 F/W collection. (I look forward to when we don't talk about 'models of diversity', because they are a normal accepted aspect of life, like when I am asked in a survey am I male/female/gender diverse, it's just there, 'cos that's how it is.)
Anyway in this collection Owens worked with "mature" models. I think many of them were women he worked with. I say, yay, long live the mature woman on the runway!
Now, what about Sylvia and her look?
On the left is 'Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden' painted by Otto Dix in 1926. On the right is a garment from a Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel 'The Brasserie Gabrielle' 2015 collection. It's here due its similar setting, a cafe, similar hair style, that parting, and similar fabric. It's one of those lookalike things. The story behind the portrait of Sylvia is the interesting factor.
Apparently Dix met Sylvia on the street by chance and was taken with her looks. He said 'I must paint you! I simply must! You are representative of an entire epoch!'
'So, you want to paint my lacklustre eyes, my ornate ears, my long nose, my thin lips; you want to paint my long hands, my short legs, my big feet - things which can only scare people off and delight no-one?'
'You have brilliantly characterised yourself, and all that will lead to a portrait representative of an epoch concerned not with the outward beauty of a woman, but rather with her psychological condition.'
Like to know more, listen to this interesting discussion about the painting, the artist and the sitter.
We all know the stories about the movie stars/celebrities fearing their looks are fading, so they go in for plastic surgery, and in some cases, far too many times! Yikes!
Maybe playing around with Stephen J. Shanabrook 'Paper Surgeries' would be a better bet. His work plays with beauty and ugliness at the same time.
Rei Kawakubo commissioned his work for the CdG Shirt S/S 2010 ad campaign
I've had a go at my own Paper Surgery.
and, I go with Tyra Banks on this one,
“Girls of all kinds can be beautiful—from the thin, plus-sized, short,
very tall, ebony to porcelain-skinned; the quirky, clumsy, shy, outgoing and
all in between. It’s not easy though because many people still put beauty into
a confining, narrow box…think outside of the box.”
sltsltbsigning off, always wanting to think outside the box!
