“A lot of people think that fashion illustration is something that died circa 1930, when photography came in — but that’s absolutely not true,” says Connie Gray, curator of “Drawing on Style,” an exhibition running during this London Fashion Week. “They ran very much hand-in-hand up until the 1960s and 1970s, and they really complemented each other on the page. Very often there would be a mixture of photography and illustration within the same fashion story.”
Though this kind of artwork doesn’t take center stage in fashion reporting anymore, the medium, Gray says, can sometimes be more effective than photography. “The photography of the 20th century was wonderful, but it was often quite static,” she says. “With illustration, there was a lot more feeling, movement, and expression.” Click through the slideshow for a peek at the new show.
“Drawing on Style,” presented by Gray MCA in collaboration with SHOWstudio, is on display at Gallery 8 in London from September 15–20.
Alexander Wang’s new Adidas collaboration for spring 2017. (Kate Warren for The Washington Post)
NEW YORK — The track pants, T-shirts and jackets are basic black, which doesn’t sound all that interesting, but the color manages to give it all a sleeker look so that it is at once retro and kitschy but also modern. Alexander Wang designed the collection in a collaboration with Adidas Originals, which he unveiled on the runway as part of his spring 2017 presentation.
It may be hard to believe, but once a time sweatpants and sweatshirts were just throwaway garments meant for, well, sweating. Then along came hip hop and Run-DMC and Juicy Couture, and sweatsuits became a fashion thing, a cultural thing, a rarified thing — not because of how they looked but because of how much they cost.
The advertising campaign for the collection features models on the streets of New York looking particularly grumpy, perhaps because several of them appear to be dragging overstuffed garbage bags — or perhaps designer gym bags that just look like Hefty bags. Whatever they are, they don’t look fun to haul around.
Getting one’s hands on this collection will be a complicated endeavor as it will initially be sold via pop-up trucks that will be driving around in New York on Sunday, and in Tokyo and London on Sept. 17. Knowing exactly where those trucks will be or when involves following either Wang or Adidas Originals on Instagram or Snapchat or calling 917-325-3342. For those with more patience, the collection will be available in the usual online and bricks-and-mortar way in the spring.
The unveiling of the 84-piece unisex collection, which also included footwear, was celebrated after the runway show with an elaborate video and giant music festival that suddenly appeared as the catwalks’ backdrop gave way to reveal food trucks, a performance stage, a fully functional 7-Eleven, Slurpee machines, a McDonald’s and plenty of booze.
That is a lot of hoopla to sell track pants, pullovers and sneakers, which speaks to the dominance of street and athletic style over pretty much everything else in the fashion universe. Sacai’s Chitose Abe has created a collection with Nike. So has the brand Undercover. Stella McCartney has a long relationship with Adidas. Athletic gear has influenced everything.
Still, when these sportswear companies step into the fashion ring, they often can’t resist bringing in a celebrity to add sizzle, whether it’s Rihanna at Puma or another Adidas co-conspirator, Kanye West. It’s easy money. But it’s really unnecessary.
In many ways, Wang is a celebrity, but he’s mostly a designer — one sensitive to the relationship between fashion and street style. And the funny thing about Wang’s take on Adidas is that he didn’t move the garments that far from their origins. What would be the point?
High fashion isn’t welcoming lowly streetwear into its rarefied world by giving it a luxury makeover. The balance long ago shifted. Fashion is coming down from its high perch to marvel at the allure of a sweatshirt.
In “The Extraordinary Process,” nine designers — Patrik Schumacher, Ms. Hadid’s partner at Zaha Hadid Architects; Peter Do; Phoebe English; Iris van Herpen; Stephen Jones; Krystyna Kozhoma; Nasir Mazhar; Minimaforms and XO — consider how fashion and design are affected by new technologies and collaborations.
Pieces designed by Patrik Schumacher for an exhibition inspired by the work of the architect Zaha Hadid, who died in March. Credit Damian Griffiths/Courtesy of Maison Maison Non
The architect Zaha Hadid, who died unexpectedly in March, was known for her flamboyant and very personal fashion sense. While her architectural practice become famous for large-scale, soaring structures, like the opera house in Guangzhou, China, or the Maxxi museum in Rome, it has embraced fashion, jewelry design and household items with a similar fervor and spirit of innovation. “In terms of form, all our projects — architecture, fashion and furniture — interest me equally,” Ms. Hadid said in a 2015 interview.
Here are edited extracts from the conversations:
Patrik Schumacher
I teach at the design lab at the Architectural Association, and we have been working on texture-like materials to use in construction. But in our architectural designs, we have done origami-style curved folding. It’s a world of forms, more than anything, and then you seek customization. For the exhibition, I’ve designed a three-piece suit using neoprene and mesh because I want that elasticity and comfort. Instead of buttons, there are zippers, and the way the suit is constructed and layered is unconventional. At the same time, it is still recognizably a suit, elegant and very wearable, and you could go jogging after dinner without changing.
Krystyna Kozhoma
A design by Krystyna Kozhoma. Credit Damian Griffiths/Maison Maison Non
I saw a video about curved folding in architecture, and it inspired me to create clothes with programmed shapes. So I’ve embedded clear bars in the fabric of a jacket and trousers to create a structured shape. I worked with an engineer, and there was no pattern cutting; the clothes were made by a computer program. That’s still limited in fashion and mostly used for 3-D printing. This is a translation from architecture to fashion, and the shapes and fluidity of the lines show how much my work is inspired by Zaha. She took a lot of inspiration from nature but then computerized it. What’s interesting is that if the embedded material reacted to light, or temperature, you could make the garment a smart one. That’s the next project.
Iris van Herpen
From Iris van Herpen’s Lucid collection. Credit Iris Van Herpen Lucid Collection/AW16
I’m showing a dress from my Lucid collection that is built of thousands of small transparent pieces. They create a bubble or halo around the body, and around the dress we have built an installation of optical light feeds from thin, transparent sheets that bend the light. From each angle, you see the garment in a different perspective and with a sense of movement. For me, that reflects the future: uncertain and personal to each individual. I think Zaha’s work is a beautiful balance between the futuristic and the organic, and I tried to stay true to that balance.
Peter Do
Peter Do made a unisex coat, sweaters and boots. Credit Damian Griffiths/Courtesy of Maison Maison Non
I was thinking about minimizing one’s wardrobe and functionality, so I used a single yarn, made from cellophane, woven in many different ways, and made a unisex coat, sweaters and boots. Each looks different because of the way it is fabricated and layered. I worked with Stoll, a knitwear company in New York who make incredible knitting machines that can do extraordinary things. In the future, I think they’ll be much more simple to use, and I had this idea that everyone could have a Stoll machine at home, download your patterns, choose your yarns and your garment would be knitted by the time you got home from work.
Phoebe English
Phoebe English’s piece. Credit Damian Griffiths/Courtesy of Maison Maison Non
I realized, when I got the brief, that I felt a bit frightened of the future. So I designed an enclosure or private space, a kind of safety shell. It’s constructed from a heavily smocked textile with very closely packed pleating. It’s half calico and half plastic, so it has both a rawness and a sheen. I’ve always admired the shapes and forms of Zaha’s work; there is something about that fluid line that I feel has a strong feminine aesthetic. That has been a big influence on me. When people envisage future design, it often looks hard and polished and technological. I wanted something with a different vision.
Stephen Jones
Photo
Stephen Jones’s design. Credit Damian Griffiths/Courtesy of Maison Maison Non
Zaha was a client of mine, and I felt we had a similar approach. She made forms, constructions which relate to people, and I do the same thing as a milliner, but put them on people’s heads. She once gave me a sketch of a vortex that she had used as a design element in a restaurant in Sapporo, and I took that as my inspiration. My tribute to her is a red, spinning vortex hat over a stool she designed and a cushion made from the Issey Miyake pleated fabric she always wore. For me, it’s an idea of energy, speed and transformation. I love the idea that in the future you’ll put a magical hat on, and it will make you feel a certain way.
Inspired by the videos of Andy Warhol, the SSENSE “Screen Test” series is a way to evaluate the camera-readiness of our products.
For this season, SSENSE has invited photographer Rebecca Storm to create a series of Screen Tests inspired by the ASMR video genre. Short for “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response,” ASMR videos explore objects as objects, especially the spine-tingling sensations evoked by the sounds of crinkling paper, brushing hair, and hushed whispers. They occupy the grey terrain between the digital and the bodily, broadcasting Internet-induced head massages to hundreds of thousands of YouTube followers.
Not so long ago, Demna Gvasalia found himself at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, which looks like part of the yawning, gargantuan Warner Bros. lot was transported, hurricane-in-Kansas-direct-to-Oz style, from Hollywood; the particular place he was standing was, Gvasalia said, with a gravelly, approving laugh, like something out of American Horror Story. Turns out ideal spots are something he has been giving an awful lot of thought to, because days earlier, he’d been in Los Angeles, finalizing his first Balenciaga store, a schedule broken up with expeditions to find particularly inspiring vintage pieces, of which more later.
