(Image from NASA. All credit)
Greatest war we ever raged, against the scourge of disease. Destroy what harms us. Our purpose is not to bow down before the majestic, but rise to defy it. Human fragility, the flesh is weak against the power of the Universe. Despite it’s indifference it serves to destroy the genome. For us to rise and conquer we must rid the human self destructive. Our enemy is not ourselves.
“What makes night within us may leave stars.” Victor Hugo
Yohji Yamamoto as a master designer can show that even the absolute has a mystique. Both the subtle and blunt in particular should be studied. At times the artist will need to move back to boldness. Like the seasons, adaptation, utilizing the spectrum of intricacies and deconstructions of form. For his Y-3 Fall 2017 and Winter 2018 collection it is the choice of a stark postulation – within the darkness. A serious affair, cast of shadows provide a backdrop onto the brutalist concrete runway. First lit with the projection of an artificial swirling tree-line, then light from the dark, as models make their way walking through the after affects of consequences. Determined to move into the light, to walk out of hell.
Strong and purposeful, once again Yamamoto can work the starkness of black, layer and style the achromatic. Master what does not reflect light. A grimness that must be understood and embraced, not rejected. You cannot reject the darkness as it is part of life, as is the light. Dualities that are one in the same. The black is divine because it challenges you to harness the void and make it yours. Yamamoto‘s mastery has achieved this ambivalence with the dark. Open jackets, ‘picked‘ stitch work, clean and efficient clothing. Tough and combat orientated. Baseball caps, beanies, lined and padded jackets. Draped styles that portray a cloak liked sibylline. Broken and fragmented prints of the Earth overlaid as camouflage on some of the pieces. Which would be the Fall 2017 prints for Y-3. Although noted with the Fall range is a single peach coloured sleeveless smock that sits over black pants. Possible a homage to the Japanese folk story Momotarō.
A humanist avant garde style collection. Rebellious and seeking hope from a tumultuous reality, the cycles of bliss and pain. That rather than being at war with our selfs, we should know that our common enemy is the natural construct in it’s entirety. That is our true collective adversary. Undoubtedly Winter 2018 will be a dark for fashion. Which would mean a lot of black, how designers can master the achromatic will be another question. Yohji Yamamoto as a master has shown how it can be achieved.
(Image from the public domain)
“The secret of a full life is to live and relate to others as if they might not be there tomorrow, as if you might not be there tomorrow. It eliminates the vice of procrastination, the sin of postponement, failed communications, failed communions. This thought has made me more and more attentive to all encounters. meetings, introductions, which might contain the seed of depth that might be carelessly overlooked.” Anaïs Nin
“The Cenotaphs of Human conquest”
(Image from Vogue.com All credit)
A geometric surrealism is what Iris Van Herpen has pioneered with her clothing designs. Utilizing Thermoplastic Polyurethane (above creation is 3d printed plexiglass), a flexible and durable material used in creating 3d garments. She builds a construct that is visually striking and immersive within new realities. A fusion of the human and alien-structuralist form, created by three dimensional modeling and printed into formation. A technological process created by machines, inspired by human ideas.
Also to be noted, pointed out by the incredibly talented and visionary shoe designer Peter Popps (www.peterpopps.com), are the shoes designed by Carolin Nini Holzhuber.
Despite the obvious trends emerging, which started with the Pre-Fall 2017 editorials, namley tartan, early 80s punk styles. There is no doubt that Rick Owens assigns his own trends and influences prior to a season exposé. An extremely talented designer, who sets a benchmark rather than following an emerging trend. For a designer or artist to be their own influence and inspiration shows a discipline and mastery. This in turn comes from experience and the many years that entails in building your ideas.
The apparent name for his Men’s Fall 2017 show was titled “Glitter”. A tribute to a time in history, that was just as tumultuous, but at the same time an innovative and creative period in modern history. Owens retrospection with his Fall 2017 collection relates to the early 1970s ala Glam and disco. A developing style which falls under Owens distinct creations, in which I picked up on with his Paris (Men’s) Spring Summer 2017 show in June 2016. My review is as follows. “Extraordinary original styling via Rick Owens. It’s Studio 54, David Bowie and the spectra of death.” An overview that I felt had to be concise, yet descriptive, as a single sentence.
In reviewing Rick Owens new collection for Paris Fashion week Fall 2017 my attention was drawn to paradoxical title for the show (Glitter). Noting his prior 1970s influences, however with this Fall collection there is more of a rawness forming within his creations. The neutrality of its tones, with no reflection, no mirrored 1970s vanity as once again Owens has used the Palais de Tokyo architecture. With it’s spiraling staircase that leads down into it’s concrete bunker, an expansive tomb. Entering into Owens world. It feels bleak, the safe appeal of the subterranean with it’s concrete and steel. Models are adorned with oversize clothing, thick, layered. A patch work of stylized protection from the indifference of nature and, at times, humanities brutality against itself. To me, despite drawing from periods of history for influence. This collection represents a future within the now. A dystopian construct that exists all around us. Prefabrication is only the facade, beneath in it’s broken and unsure foundation is an evolving beautification. A new construct is forming.
CATACLYSMAL
An object, the size of a Hypergiant star has appeared close to our Solar System. In conjunction with an unusual detection of the elusive ‘Ghost Particle’ known as the Neutrino. An astrophysical mystery unfolds. As the political and social dynamics on Earth change and a new Cold War has begun. There is an urgent race against time to investigate the strange phenomenon. Dr Elly Jansky acclaimed author, Astrophysicist and Cosmologist has been asked to assist in the investigation of this cosmic aberration. While the military, amidst global tensions, monitor the structure as an attempt to determine if the object is a threat against the Earth. The eminent physicist Professor Ivane Tori aware that space time, within it’s distortion of what we deem as reality, knows that the impending danger against humanity may not be the strange abnormality, but something more sinister. Elly Jansky must complete Professor Tori’s equations to reveal the meaning of the Cataclysmal.
A very concise video narrative via Khan Academy re: modern symbolism relating to Franz von Stuck’s ‘The Sin’
C H I A S M U S 