What am I looking at this time?
Not looking at, but looking through.......
my childhood kaleidoscope. I loved it!
When Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons burst onto the Paris fashion scene in the early 1980s, black was her favoured colour, and critics were rather negative, calling her followers "crows" and the clothes "apocalyptic.
But she was to emerge from that palette.
In the 1996 Spring/Summer collection RK celebrated colour in a collection called 'Kaleidoscope'. It made people sit up. Wonderful candy-floss wigged models strode out in colour-blocked patches of solid colour, looking like "walking rainbows".
Some of the reviewers of this collection expressed it as reminiscent of 'Sportsmen' by Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), painter/ pioneer of geometric abstract art and member of the Russian avant-garde. Maybe it was the inspiration.
And as always, RK takes garments from the collection and adapts them for a general clothes rack.
So, what is colour?
"It is the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way it reflects or emits light."
To see colour you must have "Let there be light!" When light shines on an object some colours bounce off the object and others are absorbed by it. The eye only sees the colour that is bounced off or reflected.
Issac Newton was one of the first to understand the rainbow. He refracted white light with a prism, which resolved it into ROYGBIV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--b1F6jUx44
The different colours have different wavelengths. The longest wavelength that humans can see is Red and the shortest is Violet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8_fZPHasdo
Dyes brought colour to clothing.
Early clothing, which was made from linseed or cotton didn't need dyeing as the garments were used in their natural colour, a pale grey or white.
As civilisations developed, a need to distinguish people's rank, class and gender developed. This encouraged the use of dyeing with natural products, such as plants, minerals and insects/animals.
Mineral dyes come from various minerals found in/on Earth. Such as...
Hemalite - Red
Limonite - Yellow
Lazurite - Blue
Animal dyes involve insects, lichens, shellfish. Like...
Kermes - Scarlet
Cochinial - Crimson Red
Plant/Vegetable dyes come from leaves, bark or roots of trees and plants. For example...
Madder - Red
Saffron & Safflower - Yellow
The dyes used for garments were in proportion to wealth or importance of a person. Wealthy people wore brightly hued colours, lower class people wore clothes in shades of white or brown and slaves clothing was dyed grey, green and brown.
This is a nice little video showing some of the natural dyes, which brought a dash of colour to the early world and still can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIz4DZ84kko
One of the interesting natural dyes was known as Tyrian Purple, the colour of royalty. The source of this highly prized dye was sea snail's secretion...1000's of them, so it was a very labour intensive dye to produce These factors contributed to the high value of the dye, which ensured it became a status symbol, thus restricted to the "high born". Another prized factor was the dyed colour became brighter with weathering and sunlight, quite unusual for a natural dye.
Images of ancient peoples clothed in "Royal Purple"
Empress Theodora, wife of Justinian and a Roman wearing a 'Toga Praetexta'.
Here is a link to a little more information concerning the sea snail that gave rise to purple colour. It's kind of cute.
https://vimeo.com/70961446
Synthetic dyes, which were invented in the mid 19th century, coloured garments in such a way that they became more affordable, coinciding with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the middle class.
The instigator of synthetic dyes, William Henry Perkins, was searching for a cure for malaria, when he discovered the first synthetic dye. The colour was initially named mauvein and later became known as mauve.
Perkins' discovery instigated the massive development of chemically created dye colours.
The basic product required for synthetic dyes in the 19th century was aniline, a by-product of black coal, hence synthetic dyes were often known as aniline dyes.
Germany played a major role in establishing the synthetic dye industry. By the end of the 19th century nearly all new dye stuffs were being invented by German coal-tar dye companies. The dyes were not the only product the aniline dye industry produced. Other materials such as sulphuric acid and chlorine gas were produced, and such gases would be used as chemical weapons in WW1....adds a pertinence to the phrase "colours to dye for" doesn't it.
Regard "colours to dye for", check out this post I received from the Costume Networking Group. Astounding information concerning the colour green in the Victorian era.
https://www.facebook.com/mindovermatterpage/videos/1735563056490409/?t=12
Before leaving the subject of dyes, I must mention Indigo. Fascinating Indigo, that deep dark blue, which has been sought after since ancient times.
Indigotera contains a colouring agent called 'indigotin'. Indigo dyed fabric will only turn blue when it is removed from the dye bath and oxidised by air.
The more times a fabric is dyed and dried, the darker the indigo colour becomes. as seen in the famous 'Yoruba Blue', which is achieved after 7 saturating dips.
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A wonderful image of Yoruba women of the Royal Benin Kingdom
Nice touch of colourful yarn, that has been added to a basic stripwoven indigo cloth
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The image above comes from an intensive slideshow about 'Green Chemistry. Microwave Assisted Organomettallic Reaction'. If it wets your whistle, here you go....
(See my Denim blog https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1545712218411633113#editor/target=post;postID=8133251574188115531;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;pos)
I participated in an Indigo workshop with Clarissa Cochran, in Radwinter. Her cool card...
It was a really interesting experience, observing the fabric turn blue as it came out of the dye vat.
My samples
and the instructions as to how to fold and manipulate the fabric to get the required patterns. Fabric fun.
Take in this video about an Indian family of Indigo Dyers. It explains a little bit more about the process involved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hes05oYzd6c
Check out their colours in this link
http://www.pantone-colours.com/
and take a tour of a Pantone factory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqqf8Mab7Rg
Panto even name a colour of the year, and this year, it is....
Here is someone having fun with a QE2 Pantone System.
My own pantone mugs...earthy colours..
Maybe we have a sort of equivalent to Pantone, in Resene Paints Ltd. Resene is New Zealand's largest privately owned operated paint manufacturing company. The company, established in 1946, has the vision "To be respected as an ethical and sustainable company and acknowledged as the leading provider of innovative paint and colour technology."
Resene NZ Fashion Tech Colour of Fashion is a collaboration with fashion students and colour. Each year the collaboration instigates fashion design around a strong colour theme.
The 2017 collaboration
I particularly like the creation on the right. Designer N. Taulagaua found inspiration "closer to home in a comfy green couch, making use of quilting techniques and gold domed buttons."
Here's a cool & colourful Junya Watanabe t-shirt..
I'm sure it came out of his Spring/Summer 2001 collection
even the model's hair is wonderfully colour cool!
It would go well with JW's Fall 2000 'Techno Couture' collection. The lightweight red and yellow are fabulous together.
And these garments from Junya's A/W 2001 have an interesting colour aesthetic. Very geometric, rubric cube like.
Reminds me of one of the works at Gibbs Sculpture Farm,which I visited a couple of months back.
'Red Cloud Confrontation in Landscape', by Leon van den Eijkel.
It's about colour harmonies based on red, yellow and blue pitted against against "pacific colours".
Red, yellow & blue, the primary colours.
Take in this cute video, educating you about the primary colours. It is fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddYUw7a4erk
And another take on primary colours....who do you think inspired it?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRGht33B32k
Leon van den Eijkel's 'Wellington Urban Forest'
Splashes of colour in environmental installations always appeal to me, like Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone's large scale Nevada desert installation. I would love coming upon this, as I traipsed across the desert, with my water bottle in hand.
Issey Miyake's wonderful S/S 1994 Flying Saucer Dress always brings a colourful smile to my face. This garment is totally timeless.
In 2004 the 'Fashion in Colours' exhibition celebrated the perception and relevance of colour across more than 300 years of fashion.
Clothes from the 18th, 19th, 20th & early 21st centuries were grouped into blocks of colour: black, blue, multicolour, red, yellow and white
Go on a virtual tour of the exhibition via this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3PSb2H36KM
The Victor and Rolf harlequin garment that was referred to in the virtual tour.
There is something about it that makes me think of my CdG inspired top, bit obscure, but it's there..
Maybe it's the colours I worked with. They are kinda unconventional, but it is only the use of the pink that makes me think that. Substitute white for pink and what are you looking at...a standard Republic of Ireland flag.
Comme des Garcons Spring/Summer 2018 "Multidimensional Graffiti" collection was a wonderful mash of colourful art and illustration.
If the runway garment isn't quite your style down the high street, then wear it shirt style. It's still eye-catching.
The collection silhouettes exploded outwards, or exposed holes, which reveled layers of different fabrics. One particular garment was described as having colours of "teenage innocence"...red, flesh and white
Interesting. When I wore my "Dicky Argyle" t-shirt to work, someone said 'Oh, The Breakfast Club, Molly Ringwald'. The 1985 film, which was rife with various teenage angst over the struggle to be understood!
Back to the overall collection...a mosaic of colours and styles.
Garments appeared to include trinkets from Takeshita Dori, a very popular pedestrian street in the Tokyo district Harajuku. Trinkets like... colourful resin jewellery from Thai designer Ek Thongprasert,
baubles from Florian of Austria
and lego art by Nathan Sawaya.
I like this concept 'Merry Happy Crazy Colour'. It was a 2010 CdG campaign, inspired by the manic colours in the work of visual and performing artist group, 'Assume Visual Astro Focus' aka 'avaf'.
T-shirts and accessories made up the collection, and each item had a hand tag showing the work of avaf.
https://alchetron.com/Assume-Vivid-Astro-Focus
There's something about this perfume graphic, which reminds me of a cardigan I made. I think it's the red and the orange colours that are placed together, otherwise my creation is muted down by the brown and light pink colours.
It's all about the way colours work together.
My wonderful Gina, who comes along to Sew What Club, has been working on an amazing number of collections. One is a 'Colour Collection'
Emily and Paige had a little project they worked on during the last Sew What Club.
Harold from LifeEd needed a new garment
What a colourful product they produced for Harold.
There was another thing that occurred at school, which related to colour in my world...although it was actually about writing essays.
"Red, white, and blue" is an example of the Oxford comma at work.
That's all very well, but what I thought about was my own red, white and blue..3 colours, which always make an impact.
and, a red, white, and blue felt collar cape (have I got my commas correct...probably not!)
What do you think of, when the words 'red, white, and blue' are said to you?
The colouring of clothing is very much taken for granted, because generally, we don't give the actual dyeing process a second thought. As fossil resources become more scarce, it will become a challenge to keep colours available and avoidable for the masses. (Something I have never considered!)
What will be the dyes and dying methods of the future?Will green become the new black.....I think it simply as to!
SLTSLTBsigning off
Great post! Lots of interesting links to explore .
ReplyDeleteThanks Rebecca. Colour is a science.
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