Art & Fashion

 

Avant-garde style first appeared in the architecture and culture. Sometimes it is quite difficult to define avantgarde. As a fashion style it was born in the 20s in Japan. This style is characterized by straight geometric or shapeless silhouettes. This is a game of forms, demonstration of a very interesting silhouette and cutting. But what does avantgarde fashion stand for in the true sense of its meaning?

Avant-garde fashion is a concept that describes the cutting-edge, innovative and extravagant flow in fashion. It does not fit the generally accepted standards.

Nowadays pure style can rarely be found. It has become fashionable to mix styles. And it is much more interesting, because it gives space for creativity. In the same time not all styles can be mixed. For example, the drama goes well with sports, romance with feminine, sport with feminine. On the contrary, it is very difficult to combine classic with other styles.

Everyone can make up their own combinations. If you are dressed in gray, it can mean that you do not pay attention to clothes, or, more likely, simply seek to merge with the gray mass. Note that creative people dress originally and in an interesting manner. Clothing is one of the means of expression and it should not be ignored.

The basic color in avant-garde style is black. It is used for the background of the model’s perception. Thus, the expression patterns are achieved not by color, but by lines, shapes, cutting. The avant-garde style is using all new fabrics, mesh, paper and cardboard. In fashion and style this style is designed for bright and creative people who want to stand out from the crowd.(avantgardeproject.org/fashion/define-avant-garde)

I would like to invite you to present your art work on my blog Exposition. Please, send me pictures of your work on my e-mail address : milenaolesinska@wp.pl Description should include; your name, some details about your work. All  work will be published on the blog free of charge.

Karl Lagerfeld - Egyptian-themed collection

 Chanel presents Egyptian-themed collection around The Met's Temple of Dendur

 "An ancient Egyptian temple at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art provided the setting for Chanel's latest catwalk show, when the French fashion house debuted a collection featuring glittering tweeds, golden garments and bold jewels. The catwalk looped The Met's Temple of Dendur – an Ancient Egyptian monument completed in 10BC – to create an appropriate setting for the debut of Chanel's 2018/19 Métiers d'art collection earlier this week. With a taste for elaborate shows, creative director Karl Lagerfeld chose the decorative sandstone temple to provide the backdrop for the presentation, as well as inform the Egyptian-style aesthetic of the pieces. "Egyptian civilisation has always fascinated me: I get inspired by an idea, which I make a reality," said Lagerfeld in a project statement. Floating regal garments, bold geometric prints and lavishly colourful accessories featured throughout the collection, along with plenty of golden garments in sparkling, shimmering and crackled textures. Beige, white and black tweeds – a Chanel staple – are threaded with mohair, gold and beaded cotton. "I think the image of this collection is very much down to this refinement which should be seen close up, almost touched, to understand how it is done and to really appreciate the beauty of this work," said Lagerfeld, who also drew on the antiquities for pieces in his first sculptural exhibition. Other motifs included the Ancient Egyptian scarab beetle, which can be seen a necklace, buttons, belt buckle, earrings and handbags, while the models' makeup resembled the Eye of Horus. American music producer Pharrell Williams – who is set to collaborate with Chanel – was adorned with the facial marking while modelling baggy gold trousers and a bejewelled jumper. Other features of this year's garments were intended asa  nod to New York, including street-art-style graphics on printed t-shirts, and a patched denim two-piece worn by model Kaia Gerber. "New York, it's an energy and a melting pot of cultures, it's very stimulating," said Lagerfeld."(Dezeen - youtube )

 Guo Pei  Haute Couture Spring Summer 2018

 "Guo Pei swings between reality and fantasy as easily as one walks through a door. This season, she was firmly in wonderland and turned her set at the Cirque d’Hiver into a gateway toward Elysium, a paradise found. In the middle, the tangled roots of a tree served as an organic chandelier, the work of French papier maché artist Charles Macaire.Out came an oblong dress woven in bamboo harvested from the forests of Huangshan mountain ranges in China, beset with golden flowers; 22 more dresses followed, all inspired by flora and richly embellished. Few take florals to quite the lengths that Guo does. She has been considering life as a quasi-mystical force and shaped her work of the season accordingly, letting handcraft take its most exuberant course.Each look pushed the envelope on a technique that the Chinese couturier harnesses when her real-life clients come calling: appliqués, beading, pleating, fringing. Perching on transparent chopines, models resembled flowers in a violently bountiful garden. One purple pleated number looked like a blowsy peony, while another came heavy with pearly drops. Elsewhere, blooms simply climbed up a tabard.For the finale, an immaculate gown with trailing crystals glided across the slick surface of the circular runway. A djembé performer came out as the models took their place around the circular platform. Feathers fell from the rafters. The clapping was as loud as for any performance.At a time where commercial realities abound even in couture, Guo Pei approaches creation is an end unto itself. Who cares if her designs look like they belong in the costume department of an opera house?"
(By Lily Templeton on January 25, 2018 wwd.com )

 “We are giants!” said one of the models backstage as a sneak peek spoiled the surprise that one of them would be encircled in an embroidered and gilded ovoid shell that might have represented the sun, moon, or perhaps a golden egg. Another looked as though she had been outfitted directly from the forest floor in lustrous leaves and tangles of undergrowth. The recurring presence of dark blue floral embroideries hinted that this could have been dawn or dusk—the so-called l’heure bleue, when twilight casts a mystical blue aura on the world. Each model, no matter what she was embodying through her dress, towered over the heads of humans upon stepping into crystal-like platforms that hovered above the ground. With their gothic crowns and fantastical halos, they embodied Guo Pei’s extraordinary imagination, once again elevating her pursuit of handcraft to the sublime.
Through a translator, the designer explained her vision as something along the lines of representing the life force of roots and flowers, which explained the stylized structure suspended above the stage of the Cirque d’Hiver venue. “Roots are the source of life and vitality,” she said, offering “primitive” as a description of these creations that were anything but. “Without roots, there’s not life. This world is a very mysterious place, but it’s linked intimately with our lives. That’s why the tree is onstage, and you’ll see a lot of flowers.”

 With much of the fabric research done in Switzerland, Pei uses her atelier in the Chaoyang District of Beijing to realize embroideries worthy of royal or religious ceremonial dress. While this extreme flower theme doesn’t technically overlap with the Costume Institute’s forthcoming exhibition “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” several designs would easily qualify for the gala. From her otherworldly gothic theme last Spring to today, a divine aspect remains consistent in Pei’s work. How else to account for all that gold? “I like gold, obviously! I think gold embodies what is at the top in terms of knowledge and wealth,” she said, before offering something of an epiphany: “I think it is the color of our souls.”
Now a regular presence on the Paris calendar, Pei has elected to reserve her fantastical visions for January, while proposing a comparatively wearable offering in July. In other words, don’t expect a similarly ornate adventure next season. But what links them and reflects back on her immense skill is a complete and utter devotion to the handcraft of couture. “You have to have time to do this,” she said. “Just as it embodies life, it is the result of a lifetime.”( Amy Verner www.vogue.com )

Versace Spring 2018

  "Donatella Versace cried at rehearsals the night before her tribute show to her brother Gianni, she said. “So today, I won’t.” By now, what happened has been documented thousand-fold on social media: the curtain draw, the fabulous five lined up in their gold dresses to their personal anthem, George Michael's Freedom: Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen. The supermodels didn’t hesitate to accept Donatella’s invitation to celebrate the life and work of Gianni Versace, she said, in a show that marked the twentieth anniversary of his tragic death. “I finally found the courage to really go to the archives and pay tribute to Gianni,” Donatella explained in a small gathering before the show, noting that “it took a bit of pain” to get to a place where she was comfortable dealing with his legacy. “In one show you can’t really touch on everything Gianni did.” But she did her utmost, in twelve segments presented by current top models clad in outfits covered in her brother’s original prints. “Gianni was joy, he was happiness, full of life; and these prints were a big part of his personality,” Donatella said.

 The prints drew on collections from 1991 to 1995, but it was the monumental spirit of the really early 1990s that filled the air of this tribute show: a time of unchartered territories, when Gianni was pulling up the roots of bourgeois “good taste” and shifting the paradigms with what Donatella called “take-it-or-leave-it, jaw-dropping, in-your-face sassiness.” It was a time when supermodels were forged, when mannequins became more than just that, and influential people from the arts and beyond came together - Gianni, Elton John, George Michael, Madonna, Princess Diana. It’s 26 years since the show that came to rule them all, autumn/winter 1991’s baroque collection, which saw Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista walk arm-in-arm down Versace’s runway for the finale, and where the designer premiered his swirly, golden baroque print. On Friday evening in her optical white space at the Triennale, Donatella opened her tribute show with that print, passing the baton to a new generation of girls she said are finally reflecting some of the character of the supes."(vogue.co.uk)

Rei Kawakubo

Rei Kawakubo  (b. 1942) is a Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. She is the founder of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market. In recognition of the notable design contributions of Kawakubo, an exhibition of her designs entitled Rei Kawakubo/Commes des Garçons, Art of the In-Between opened on May 5, 2017 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
Rei Kawakubo was born on 11 October 1942 in Tokyo. Her early life in Japan was summarized by Judith Thurman in a New Yorker article from 2005 stating: "She was the oldest of her parents' three children and their only daughter... Their father was an administrator at Keio University, a prestigious institution founded by the great Meiji educator and reformer Fukuzawa Yukichi, a champion of Western culture and, according to Kawakubo, of women's rights."Although not formally trained as a fashion designer, Kawakubo did study fine arts and literature at Keio University. As reported by Thurman, "In 1960, Kawakubo enrolled in her father's university and took a degree in 'the history of aesthetics', a major that included the study of Asian and Western art."After graduation in 1964, Kawakubo worked in the advertising department at the textile company, Ashai Kasei and she went on to work as a freelance stylist in 1967. Two years later, she began to design and make her own clothes under the label Comme des Garçons, French for "like some boys", before incorporating the label in 1973.

n 1973, she established her own company, Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd in Tokyo and opened up her first boutique there in 1975. Starting out with women's clothes, Kawakubo added a men's line in 1978. Three years later, she started presenting her fashion lines in Paris each season, opening up a boutique in Paris in 1982. Comme des Garçons specialises in anti-fashion, austere, sometimes deconstructed garments. Before the end of her first decade with Comme de Garcons in 1982, Kawakubo began to express her dissatisfaction with the early direction of some of her design ideas stating: "Three years ago I became dissatisfied with what I was doing. I felt I should be doing something more directional, more powerful. In fashion we had to get away from the influence of what had been done in the 1920s or the 1930s. We had to get away from the folkloric. I decided to start from zero, from nothing, to do things that have not been done before, things with a strong image."

By 1980, CDG had flourished and according to Thurman, "had a hundred and fifty franchised shops across Japan, eighty employees, and annual revenues of thirty million dollars." During the 1980s, her garments were primarily in black, dark grey or white. The emphasis on black clothing led to the Japanese press describing Kawakubo and her followers as 'The Crows'. The materials were often draped around the body and featured frayed, unfinished edges along with holes and a general asymmetrical shape. Challenging the established notions of beauty she created an uproar at her debut Paris fashion show where journalists labeled her clothes 'Hiroshima chic' amongst other things. Since the late 1980s, her colour palette has grown somewhat.
Kawakubo likes to have input in all the various aspects of her business, rather than just focusing on clothes and accessories. She is greatly involved in graphic design, advertising, and shop interiors believing that all these things are a part of one vision and are inextricably linked. Her Aoyama, Tokyo, store is known for its sloping glass facade decorated with blue dots. This was designed in collaboration between Rei and architect Future Systems and interior designer Takao Kawasaki.Kawakubo published her own bi-annual magazine, 'Six' (standing for 'sixth sense'), in the early 1990s. It featured very little text and consisted mainly of photographs and images that she deemed inspiring.[9] In 1996 Rei was guest editor of the high art publication Visionaire. Kawakubo is known to be quite reclusive and media shy, preferring her innovative creations to speak for themselves. Prior to 2002, Kawakubo has continued support for the use of LGBT references and cultural themes in the photography used in her advertisement and marketing campaigns promoting her clothing and accessories.

Since 2003, Kawakubo has been referenced and cited by other major designers for her originality and contribution to fashion and design marked by a nationally broadcast program of interviews concerning her work by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Company). During the interviews broadcast, Alexander McQueen stated: "When Kawakubo designs a collection, it seems kind of absurd, not just to the general public. But when you watch someone's challenging themselves like she does every season, it makes you understand why you are in fashion in the first place because of people like her." During the same broadcast, Viktor & Rolf added: "The first time we became aware of Comme de Garcons was in the 80s. I think we were 12 or 13. It made a very strong impression because fashion in general was something that we were starting to discover and Rei Kawakubo was part of this ... an enormous outburst of creativity in the beginning of the 80s. So for us she was part of the way we started to think about fashion."Two other early supporters of Kawakubo were Jean-Paul Gaultier and Donna Karan. During the NHK broadcast for Kawakubo, Gaultier stated: "I believe that Kawakubo is a woman with extreme courage. She is a person with exceptional strength. Moreover, she has a poetic spirit. When I see her creations, I feel the spirit of a young girl. A young girl who still has innocence and is a bit romantic. Yet she also has an aspect of a fighting woman, one who fears nothing as she thrusts forward." During the same broadcast of interviews in Japan, Donna Karan added: "Rei Kawakubo is a very interesting designer to me as a woman and a female designer. As a person, she is very quiet and rather withdrawn, yet her clothes make such an enormous statement."

According to Women's Wear Daily, she is a fashion icon but, during an interview, she said she does not think of herself as an icon. Her designs have inspired many other late designers like the Belgian Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester, as well as Austrian designer Helmut Lang. Comme des Garçons collections are designed in the Comme des Garçons studio in Aoyama, Tokyo and are made in Japan, France, Spain, and Turkey. The 2006 autumn/winter collection dealt with the concept of the "persona",the different ways we present ourselves to the world. Fusing tailored menswear with more feminine elements such as corsets and flower printed dress fabrics, "Persona" was another collection that combined the feminine with the masculine by Comme des Garçons.Wikipedia

 Kansai Yamamoto

Kansai Yamamoto (February 8, 1944) is one of the leaders in Japanese Contemporary fashion, in particular during the 1970s and 1980s.Kansai was born in 1944 in Yokohama, Japan. After studying civil engineering and English at Nippon University, got a so-en prise at Bunka Fashion College in 1967.
Among the designers with whom he apprenticed are Junko Koshino and Hisashi Hosono; in 1971, he opened his own company, Yamamoto Kansai Company, Ltd., Tokyo. His first collection debuted in London in 1971 and in the USA at Hess's Department Store in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which was renowned for many avant-garde collections. His 1975 debut in Paris was followed by the opening of his Kansai Boutique in 1977.
In 1999, he and Junko Koshino renewed the kimono, reviving interest in this classical fashion. He is also known for his avant-garde kimono designs, including ones worn by David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust Tour.
In 1999 he organized a fashion program under the aegis of the India-Japan Mixed Cultural Cooperation Committee.
Since 2001, he has been known for his fashion eyewear, sold by Aoyama USA.
He is a recipient of the Soen prize at the Bunka College of Fashion (1967) and the Tokyo Fashion Editors award in 1977.
In 2008, an exhibit named "Netsuki Shinten: Kansai Genki Shugi" (or "Passionate Exhibit: The Energy Principle of Kansai") was held at the Edo-Tokyo Museum.[3] In 2009, a major retrospective of Yamamoto's work was exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Yamamoto designed the Skyliner train, unveiled in 2010, that connects Japan's Narita Airport with central Tokyo.In July 2013, he made a comeback to the fashion industry with a showing in the 19th New Britain Mask Festival in Kokopo, Papua New Guinea.Wikipedia

African fashion Alphadi

 Alphadi (born Sidahmed Seidnaly 1 June 1957) is a notable Nigerien fashion designer often known as the "Magician of the Desert". He is Touareg, from an upper caste lineage, on both his parents sides. Alphadi was born in Timbuktu, Mali, but moved to his parents native Niger at a young age.
Alphadi studied at Cardon Savard Studios in Paris, started his label in 1984, and his first haute couture line was released in 1985 at the Paris International Tourism Tradeshow. His line has since extended into sportswear and perfume. The Alphadi line, which has 'Complexe Alphadi' boutiques in Niamey (on Rue Vox),vory Coast and Paris
In 1998 Alphadi was the one of the three African fashion designers to win the Principal Prince Claus Award; the other two were Tetteh Adzedu from Ghana and Oumou Sy.
In 1998, he created the first FIMA, the International Festival of African Fashion which was located in Niger.This event allowed African designers to come together with other international designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Kenzo, Jean Paul Gaultier and Paco Rabanne. Since then, the event has been going on every 2 years.In 2007, he launched a new contest during the FIMA and Hip Hop FIMA Contest.
Alphadi maintains production facilities in Niamey and Morocco, and splits his time between homes in Niamey and Paris. He is married, a father of six children.Wikipedia

  Japanese supermodel Sayoko Yamaguchi and costume designer 

 Sayoko Yamaguchi ( September 19, 1949 – August 14, 2007) was a Japanese model and actress.
Yamaguchi was a Yokohama native and a graduate of Sugino Gakuen's Dressmaker Gakuin design school in Tokyo.
Yamaguchi broke into the international modeling industry in the 1970s.[1] She was one of the first Asians to be featured in the world's top fashion shows and magazines. Yamaguchi made her debut in Paris in 1972.She went on to work in New York City and other international cities. Newsweek Magazine named her one of the world's top six fashion models in 1977.That year, she was featured on the cover of Steely Dan's Aja album.Yamaguchi went on to continue her career as a film and theater actress, as well as a costume designe. Wikipedia

Alexander McQueen – Avant-garde Fashion

 "Alexander McQueen was a London-based, English fashion designer who was head designer of the Louis Vuitton Givenchy fashion line, before starting his own line.Alexander McQueen was born on March 17, 1969, in Lewisham, London. He became head designer of the Louis Vuitton-owned Givenchy fashion line and, in 2004, launched his own menswear line. He earned the British Fashion Council's British Designer of the Year award four times, and was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire. McQueen committed suicide in 2010, shortly after the death of his mother.
Fashion designer. Lee Alexander McQueen was born on March 17, 1969 into a working-class family living in public housing in London's Lewisham district. His father, Ronald, was a cab driver, and his mother, Joyce, taught social science. On their small incomes, they supported McQueen and his five siblings. McQueen, called "Lee" by his friends for most of his life, recognized his homosexuality at an early age and was teased extensively about it by schoolmates.
At age 16, McQueen dropped out of school. He found work on Savile Row, a street in London's Mayfair district famous for offering made-to-order men's suits. He worked first with the tailor shop Anderson and Shephard, and then moved to nearby Gieves and Hawkes.

 McQueen decided to further his clothes-making career, and moved on from Savile Row. McQueen began working with theatrical costume designers Angels and Bermans. The dramatic style of the clothing he made there would become a signature of his later independent design work. McQueen then left London for a short stint in Milan, where he worked as a design assistant to Italian fashion designer Romeo Gigli. Upon his return to London, he enrolled at Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design, and received his M.A. in fashion design in 1992. The collection he produced as the culminating project of his degree was inspired by Jack the Ripper, and was famously bought in its entirety by the well-known London stylist and eccentric Isabella Blow. She became a long-time friend of McQueen, as well as an advocate for his work.

Soon after obtaining his degree, Alexander McQueen started his own business designing clothes for women. He met enormous success with the introduction of his "bumster" pants, so named because of their extremely low-cut waistline. Only four years out of design school, McQueen was named Chief Designer of Louis Vuitton-owned Givenchy, a French haute couture fashion house. Although it was a prestigious job, McQueen took it reluctantly, and his tenure there (from 1996 to 2001) was a tumultuous time in the designer's life. Even as he was pushing the limits of what people expected from fashion (one of his shows featured a model who was an amputee walking the runway on carved wooden legs), McQueen felt he was being held back. He would later say that the job "constrain[ed] his creativity." However, he also made the following admission: "I treated Givenchy badly. It was just money to me. But there was nothing I could do: the only way it would have worked would have been if they had allowed me to change the whole concept of the house, to give it a new identity, and they never wanted me to do that." Even with his reservations about his work, McQueen won British Designer of the year in 1996, 1997, and 2001, all during his time at Givenchy.

 In 2000, Gucci bought a 51 percent stake in Alexander McQueen's private company, and provided the capital for McQueen to expand his business. McQueen left Givenchy shortly thereafter. In 2003, McQueen was declared International Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and A Most Excellent Commander of the British Empire by the Queen of England, and won yet another British Designer of the Year honor. Meanwhile, McQueen opened stores in New York, Milan, London, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. With the help of Gucci's investment, McQueen had become even more successful than he was before. Already known for the flare and passion of his shows, McQueen produced even more interesting spectacles after leaving Givenchy. For example, a hologram of model Kate Moss floated ethereally at the showing of his 2006 Fall/Winter line.Alexander McQueen was also known for not being shy about his lack of traditional good looks or his lower class background. One acquaintance described that during a first encounter, McQueen was "wearing a lumberjack shirt with the most low-class kind of schlubby-looking jeans falling down with a long key chain...[and was] quite podgy." Another friend said that his teeth "looked like Stonehenge." According to those who knew him closely, McQueen was proud of breaking the traditional mold of a successful designer.

 In 2007, the specter of death would come to haunt McQueen, first with the suicide of Isabella Blow. The designer dedicated his 2008 Spring/Summer line to Blow, and said that her death "was the most valuable thing I learnt in fashion." Just two years later, on February 2, 2010, McQueen's mother died. One day before her funeral, on February 11, 2010, McQueen was found dead in his Mayfair, London apartment. The cause of death was determined to be suicide.Alexander McQueen's rise from lower-class high school dropout to internationally famous designer is a remarkable story. His bold styles and fascinating shows inspired and wowed the world of fashion, and his legacy lives on. Longtime co-designer Sarah Burton took over the still-operating Alexander McQueen brand, and McQueen's contribution to fashion was honored by a 2011 exhibition of his creations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City."(Alexander McQueen Biography.com )

Performance art - avant garde designer Leigh Bowery

 Leigh Bowery (26 March 1961 – 31 December 1994) was a London-based performance artist, club promoter, and designer. He was also a significant model for the English painter, Lucian Freud. Bowery was born 26 March 1961 in Sunshine, Australia, a suburb of Melbourne. He studied music, played piano, and in Melbourne he studied fashion and desig.In Australia, he began to feel that he didn't fit well with his conservative surroundings, and became interested in London and the New Romantic club scene while reading British fashion magazines. Bowery then moved to London, where he worked in a clothing shop, did some commercials for Pepe jeans, and created promos for musical artists, including a promo for David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes" video. He soon became an influential and lively figure in the underground clubs of London and New York, as well as in art and fashion circles. He attracted attention by wearing wildly outlandish and creative outfits of his own making. He became friends and roommates with two others, Guy Barnes (known as "Trojan") and David Walls. Bowery created costumes for them to wear, and this trio became known in the clubs as the "Three Kings.

He was known as a club promoter, and created the club called "Taboo", which began as an underground party, and then opened as a club in 1985. Taboo soon became "the place to be" with long queues for those waiting to get in. Drugs, particularly ecstasy, became a part of the dancing scene for the attendees. Taboo was known for defying sexual convention, for embracing "polysexualism", for its wild atmosphere, and for its sometimes unexpected song selections.As a fashion designer he had several collections and shows in London, New York and Tokyo. He has influenced designers and artists. He was known for wildly creative costumes, makeup, wigs and headgear, all of which combined to be striking and inventive and often kitschy or beautiful.
He also designed costumes for the Michael Clark Dance Company. When that company performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1987, Bowery won a Bessie Award for his work on "No Fire Escape in Hell"

In London in 1988, Bowery met the noted painter Lucian Freud in his club, Taboo. They were introduced by a friend they had in common, the artist Cerith Wyn Evans. Freud had seen Bowery perform at Anthony d'Offay Gallery, in London. In Bowery's first public appearance in the context of fine art, Bowery posed behind a one-way mirror in the gallery dressed in the flamboyant costumes he was known for.

Bowery used his body and manipulation of his flesh to create personas. This involved almost masochistically taping his torso and piercing his cheeks with pins in order to hold masks, as well as wearing outlandish makeup. Freud said, "the way he edits his body is amazingly aware and amazingly abandoned". In return, Bowery said of Freud: "I love the psychological aspect of his work – in fact I sometimes felt as if I had been undergoing psychoanalysis with him ... His work is full of tension. Like me he is interested in the underbelly of things."Bowery posed for a number of large full-length paintings that are considered among Freud's best work. The paintings tend to exaggerate Bowery's 6-foot 3inch, and 17 stone physique to monumental proportions. The paintings had a strong impact as part of Freud's exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1994. Freud said he found him "perfectly beautiful", and commented, "His wonderfully buoyant bulk was an instrument I felt I could use, especially those extraordinary dancer's legs." Freud noted that Leigh by nature was a shy and gentle man, and his flamboyant persona was in part a form of self-defense.

Jonathan Jones, writing for The Guardian describes Freud’s portrait, Leigh Bowery (seated):
    Bowery is a character out of Renaissance art - perhaps Silenus, the companion of Dionysus. His flesh is a magnificent ruin, at once damaged and riotously alive. Who knew skin was so particoloured? To count the hues of even one of his feet is impossible: purple, grey, yellow, brown, the paint creamy, calloused, bulging. In a velvet chair tilted down towards us on the raked stage of the wooden studio floor, his mass looms up and dwarfs us. Walk close your eyes are probably the height of his penis. Bowery's violet-domed, wrinkly tube hangs between thighs marked with sinister spots or cuts his knees are massive. Bowery is a painted monument who quietly contemplates his existence inside this flesh.
    — Jonathan Jones, The Guardian 18 November 2000..Wikipedia

 Anti-fashion

 " From punk to grunge, from wearable pieces of art to conceptual fashion and crazy body adornments, ‘Anti-Fashion’ describes the ways in which designers and the fashion-aware express their opposition to the fashion establishment.
In the context of contemporary fashion, which has seen various hybridizations between art and fashion, style and design, mainstream and avant-garde, fast-fashion and slow-fashion, where’s the borderline between ‘official’ fashion and its opposite? Can we still trace a clear distinction between what’s ‘Anti-Fashion’, and what’s just plain ‘fashion’?
As we deal with an ambiguous, tricky concept, it is important to underline from the beginning what I mean by Anti-Fashion. In fashion theory, the concept of Anti-Fashion is usually linked to the avant-garde, especially that of the 1990s (an era that is widely believed to have given birth to Anti-Fashion). Fashion theorists debate it in various ways – from Simmel’s ‘differentiation vs. conformism’ to Elizabeth Wilson’s ‘oppositional dress’ or Claire Wilcox’s ‘radical fashion’. Actually, Anti-Fashion is a general term which attempts to cover particular phenomena in the field of fashion, namely uses of fashion that are previously unheard of, or which do not easily fit into an established category or mode of fashion.

While the (un)fashion styles tend to evolve apart from the world of fashion, the concept of Anti-Fashion is closely linked to the intrinsic dynamism of fashion. The history of fashion provides us with many examples. In the ‘20s, Gabrielle Chanel initiated an Anti-Fashion movement, proposing masculine attire for women. About the same time, the Italian artist Thayaht designed the Tuta, an utopian outfit inspired by workwear, which appealed to the Italian elites of the time. The Zoot suit emerged as a product of counterculture in ‘40s America. Rudi Gernreich’s infamous monokini of the early ‘60s was, in its way, a statement of Anti-Fashion, as were Kawakubo’s frayed clothes in the ‘80s. Each phase of avant-garde was initially described as Anti-Fashion – Westwood’s punk style, Hamnett’s militant T-shirts, McQueen’s subversive shows.
As we can see, Anti-Fashion is possible only in the context of the mainstream fashion (without referral to which, Anti-Fashion simply doesn’t make sense). Fashion and Anti-Fashion share a lifelong love-hate relationship. They’re somehow symbiotic, as the evolution of fashion is fuelled by Anti-Fashions, and the Anti-Fashion arises as a reaction to ‘official’ fashion.(notjustalabel.com)"

Shail Upadhya

 Shail Upadhya (1935-2013) was a Nepalese diplomat, United Nations disarmament expert and fashion designer.
In a second career, Upadhya worked as a fashion designer, becoming a social fixture in New York City, known for his flamboyant and colorful suits and outfits. He was a prominent presence in the 2011 documentary film Bill Cunningham New York, about New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham.He lived in New York City, Southampton, New York, and Miami, Florida.
Upadhya was interviewed on Da Ali G Show by Sacha Baron Cohen's character Brüno at New York Fashion Week

 Junya Watanabe

 Junya Watanabe(born in Fukushima, Japan in 1961) is a Japanese fashion designer, originally the protégé of Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo. Born in Fukushima, Japan in 1961, he went on to attend Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, graduating in 1984.[2] At this time he began his apprenticeship at Comme des Garçons as a patternmaker. In 1987, he was promoted to chief designer of Tricot knitwear line and then moved on to design for the Comme Des Garçons Homme line. Starting in 1992, he has worked under his own name as part of Comme des Garçons. He started his own line under the Comme Des Garçons name called 'Junya Watanabe Comme Des Garçons' in 1993 and began showing in Paris that same year.

Watanabe, like his mentor Rei Kawakubo, is renowned for designing innovative and distinctive clothing. He is particularly interested in synthetic and technologically advanced textiles and fabrics as found in his spring/summer 2001 line but also uses more traditional materials such as cotton in his spring/summer 2003 collection. Watanabe is often considered a "techno couture" designer, creating unusually structured clothes out of modern, technical materials.
In 2007, Watanabe was licensed by Converse to design a series of All-Star shoes. Other collaborations involved Levi's, Hervier Productions, Seil Marschall, eYe, Nike, Merz b. Schwanen, The North Face etc.
In March 2016, Watanabe created a solar-power jacket/coat for his FW16 menswear line

“My idea of something being beautiful or aesthetically pleasing is completely different from what Rei Kawakubo’s vision of beauty is,” Watanabe allows. “To this day, seeing Rei Kawakubo’s work, I feel the same. I understand certain points and I can relate to certain areas ... That doesn’t mean that I completely agree. As a person-to-person relationship, I feel that I have a different idea, and I’ll always have a different vision of what is beautiful. Another reason, perhaps, I didn’t end up working right alongside Kawakubo is perhaps she felt that I had a different vision of my own. Maybe that’s why we parted, in terms of creating something that was different.” -Junya Watanabe.Wikipedia

Yohji Yamamoto

 Yohji Yamamoto ( born 1943[1]) is an influential Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Considered a master tailor alongside those such as Madeleine Vionnet, he is known for his avant-garde tailoring featuring Japanese design aesthetics.
Yamamoto has won notable awards for his contributions to fashion, including the Chevalier of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, the Ordre national du Mérite, the Royal Designer for Industry and the Master of Design award by Fashion Group International
Born in Tokyo, Yamamoto graduated from Keio University with a degree in law in 1966. He gave up a prospective legal career to assist his mother in her dressmaking business, from where he learned his tailoring skills. He further studied fashion design at Bunka Fashion College, getting a degree in 1969

 Yamamoto debuted in Paris in 1981. In an interview with the New York Times in 1983, Yamamoto said of his designs, "'I think that my men's clothes look as good on women as my women's clothing […] When I started designing, I wanted to make men's clothes for women." More recently he has expounded: “When I started making clothes for my line Y’s in 1977, all I wanted was for women to wear men’s clothes. I jumped on the idea of designing coats for women. It meant something to me – the idea of a coat guarding and hiding a woman’s body. I wanted to protect the woman’s body from something – maybe from men’s eyes or a cold wind.”

 His commercially successful main line, Yohji Yamamoto (women/men) and Y's, are especially popular in Tokyo. These two lines are also available at his flagship stores in New York, Paris, and Antwerp, and at high-end department stores worldwide. Other principal lines include Pour Homme, Costume d'Homme, and the diffusion line Coming Soon. Yohji Yamamoto Inc. reported in 2007 that the sales of Yamamoto's two main lines average above $100 million annually.
Yamamoto is known for an avant-garde spirit in his clothing, frequently creating designs far removed from current trends. His signature oversized silhouettes often feature drapery in varying textures. Yohji' collections are predominately made in black, a colour which Yamamoto has described as “modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy - but mysterious. But above all black says this: "I don’t bother you - don’t bother me Yamamoto's work has also become familiar to consumers through his collaborations with other fashion brands, including Adidas (Y-3), Hermès, Mikimoto and Mandarina Duck; and with artists of different genres, such as Tina Turner, Sir Elton John, Placebo, Takeshi Kitano, Pina Bausch and Heiner Müller.

 Yohji Yamamoto was invited to curate the second issue of A MAGAZINE curated by in 2005, following Martin Margiela.
Poor decisions by finance managers pushed the brand into debts of more than 65 million US dollars in 2009, which angered Yamamoto and led to a company restructuring from 2009 to 2010. The private equity firm Integral Corp was identified as the Japanese company who will restructure the Yohji Yamamoto Inc and by November 2010 the company was out of debt and avoiding the risk of bankruptcy.
Yohji has expressed a deep love for designing clothing, going so far as to say he 'cannot imagine  retired'.In 2008, the Yohji Yamamoto Fund for Peace was established to foster development of China's fashion industry and to help heal the long-standing enmity between China and Japan. Each year, an emerging Chinese designer will be awarded with a two-year scholarship to a fashion college in Japan or Europe, and a male or female Chinese fashion model will be selected to make a runway debut during the Paris prêt-à-porter season.
Yamamoto has been quoted as saying: "they must have so many angry young people. Being a fashion designer or an artist, you have to be angry." Of the fashion show he staged in Beijing in spring 2008 to launch this initiative, Yamamoto said, "It's not political. I am going to open a store here, then Chinese people will come and shop there, and then they are happy. The real art is making people happy, but also asking questions about society.Wikipedia

Avant-garde fashion  Hu Sheguang

 "Spectators in the front row could have been forgiven for thinking they had wandered into a screening of a horror film rather than a catwalk presentation at China Fashion Week today. Designer Hu Sheguang's show was a riot of red with unsettling touches such as a model holding two dolls that looked as if they were covered in blood; horned figures and numerous prosthetic hands adorning the necks of garments.
The Chinese-Dutch fashion designer sent his models down the catwalk in nightmarish creations at the show in Beijing, with liberal splatterings of fake blood. 

One model stepped down the catwalk in a full-length red gown accessorised with a fake mask and huge devil horns. Another made for a creepy sight as she walked with a model who looked as she could be her twin.
The sinister pair's appearance was enhanced as one was wearing a top that looked a lot like a straitjaket, binding her arms to her sides. A fake hand stuck out from each of their shoulders.
Even the models' hair was red, and was given a shiny appearance, possibly to echo the appearance of flowing blood as the showed off the designer's Autumn Winter 2016 collection.
A PVC dress with a huge flower on the shoulder made for a dramatic site, and was even more arresting as the model wore a matching mask covering her entire face with two slits for the eyes and one for the mouth.
Masks were a popular element of the collection with another model sporting a full face mask with two huge ears at the side, looking like a large bow. 

Although there were slits for the eyes and mouth, the person's face was completely invisible behind the creation.
Body parts such as hands and heads featured liberally with one model sporting a huge cape-like garment with prosthetic hands emerging from the neckline.
Another had give red heads with no eyes lined up along their shoulders, while a model walked down the catwalk with her face painted red and her eyes closed was almost impossible to distinguish from the mannequin heads around her shoulders
A full skirted ballgown with coils of wire on top made the blood covered model look as if she'd been involved in a particularly nasty accident.
While models are known for strutting down the catwalk with blank sphinx-like expressions to let the clothes do the talking, this particular fashionista got into the spirit of things, with the angry look of a wild animal ready to pounce. Another paused for effect and stretched out her arms as she showed off her elaborate head gear, which featured a kite with ribbons that streamed to the floor.The designer moved to the Netherlands aged 16 and runs a fashion store in Amsterdam, and he's known for designs being at the more extreme end of the spectrum.."(  "Sexy as hell! PVC-clad models clutch demonic dolls and sprout devil's horns in bizarre Chinese catwalk show that is the stuff of nightmares" dailymail.co.uk )

Surrealism and Fashion

 "Though surrealism's founding fathers would not have concerned themselves with the attire of their movement, the metaphorical and meaningful attributes of fashion created a natural avenue for expression of surrealist ideas (Martin 1987, p. 9). Its appeal to the fashion industry was instantly obvious in the use of ordinary everyday objects and weird landscapes that transferred easily to fabric printing, jewelry, hats, couture etc, allowing designers the freedom to create "art pieces". The amalgamation of surrealism and fashion changed the view of fashion from being disposable and unsubstantial to an art form in its own right (Warburton T, 2008, P. 2).

 As surrealism evolved into an artistic style through the 1930's and beyond, fashion became one of surrealism's most observable juxtapositions between the ordinary and extraordinary, disfigurement and embellishment, body and concept, pretence and reality. This fascination worked both ways as what covered the body had always been important to the Surrealist philosophy, in the way that it allowed the imagination to wonder what lay underneath, and this translated easily into wearable garments. The inherent characteristics of fashion offered a natural association to the physical properties of disfigurement that was central to the Surrealist style.

Throughout the 1930s and 40s major Surrealist figures entered the realm of fashion, fashion advertising and shop front displays. Spurned by the first generation of pure Surrealists they sought a channel to continue their exploration into the reconciliation of revolutionary art and everyday realities. By enlisting the talents of notable Surrealists such as Jean-Michel Frank, Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton and May Ray, fashion magazines became the method for the propagation of Surrealist style.
The partial figure, dislocation of body parts and the placement of these parts in unnatural settings were adopted by new fashion imagery in the 1930s. The Surrealist's ability to juxtapose the real and the imaginary made it an ideal form for advertising and media expression.(www.ukessays.com)"

Carnival masks - Carnival of Venice

The Carnival of Venice (Italian: Carnevale di Venezia) is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival ends with the Christian celebration of Lent, forty days before Easter, on Shrove Tuesday (Martedì Grasso or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday. The festival is world famous for its elaborate masks.
It's said that the Carnival of Venice was started from a victory of the "Serenissima Repubblica" against the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ulrico di Treven in the year 1162. In the honour of this victory, the people started to dance and gather in San Marco Square. Apparently, this festival started on that period and became official in the Renaissance.In the seventeenth century, the baroque carnival was a way to save the prestigious image of Venice in the world. It was very famous during the eighteenth century It encouraged licence and pleasure, but it was also used to protect Venetians from present and future anguish. However, under the rule of the King of Austria, the festival was outlawed entirely in 1797 and the use of masks became strictly forbidden. It reappeared gradually in the nineteenth century, but only for short periods and above all for private feasts, where it became an occasion for artistic creations.

After a long absence, the Carnival returned in 1979.The Italian government decided to bring back the history and culture of Venice, and sought to use the traditional Carnival as the centerpiece of its efforts. The redevelopment of the masks began as the pursuit of some Venetian college students for the tourist trade. Since then, approximately 3 million visitors come to Venice every year for the Carnival. One of the most important events is the contest for la maschera più bella ("the most beautiful mask") which will be judged by a panel of international costume and fashion designers.
Masks have always been an important feature of the Venetian carnival. Traditionally people were allowed to wear them between the festival of Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, December 26) and the start of the carnival season at midnight of Shrove Tuesday. As masks were also allowed on Ascension and from October 5 to Christmas, people could spend a large portion of the year in disguise. Maskmakers (mascherari) enjoyed a special position in society, with their own laws and their own guild.

 Venetian masks can be made of leather, porcelain or using the original glass technique. The original masks were rather simple in design, decoration, and often had a symbolic and practical function. Nowadays, most Italian masks are made with the application of gesso and gold leaf and are hand-painted using natural feathers and gems to decorate.However, this makes them rather expensive when compared to the widespread, low-quality masks produced mainly by American factories. This competition accelerates the decline of this historical craftsmanship peculiar to the city of Venice.Wikipedia

Guo Pei

Guo Pei ( born 1967) is a Chinese fashion designer. She is best known for designing dresses for Chinese celebrities, and in America for Rihanna's trailing yellow gown at the 2015 Met Ball. Guo is the first born-and-raised Asian designer to be invited to become a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.In 2016, Time Magazine listed her as one of the World's 100 Most Influential People
Guo was born in Beijing in 1967. Her father was a senior official and her mother a kindergarten teacher. In 1986, she graduated after studying fashion design at the Beijing Second Light Industry School.Three years later, Guo became chief designer at one of Beijing's first independently owned clothing companies in the post-Cultural Revolution era. She left the company in 1997 to form her own fashion brand.

 Based in Beijing, Guo's fashion style borrows heavily from traditional Chinese imperial court design. Many pieces in her collection involve silk, fur and embroidery work.Guo's work includes those at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the annual CCTV New Year's Gala.She designed the dress worn by Song Zuying during her duet with Plácido Domingo at the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.The dress took two weeks to create, with 200,000 Swarovski crystals hand-sewn into the white gown.
Her “One Thousand and Two Nights” collection debuted in November 2009, during China Fashion Week. American model, Carmen Dell’Orefice appeared in the show wearing an elaborate white embroidered fur-lined gown, with an escort of four to help carry its train. Dell’Orefice later went on to compare Guo to Charles James. Guo was credited as a costume designer on the set of the 2014 film The Monkey King. The film's makeup and costume departments were nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award the following year but lost out to Man Lim Chung, in The Golden Era.

 In 2008, Guo conceived a canary yellow floor-length dress with a large circular train, edged with yellow coloured fur and embroidered with silver floral patterns. It took approximately 50,000 hours over two years for her design team to create and weighed about 25 kg (55 lb) on completion Bajan singer Rihanna came across the piece on the internet while researching a design for the China-themed New York Met Gala in 2015. According to Guo, when first asked she agreed to the proposal but was wary about whether the singer would be able to withstand the weight. Rihanna appeared on the red carpet in the gown, followed by a three-person entourage to hold the large train. Early reactions to the dress design spawned viral memes on social media, with the eye catching yellow material and sizable train drawing comparisons to omelettes and pizzas. A photo of the design worn by the singer was featured on the front page of Vogue's Met Gala edition. This media exposure made Guo more recognizable among Western audiences.

 Guo Pei’s works were also exhibited at the annual exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, titled "China: Through the Looking Glass".In 2016, Guo Pei became a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Her first collection to be showcased as a part of Paris Fashion Week was her Spring Summer 2016 collection. Inspired by Spring flowers for femininity and the phoenix for peace and purity, the collection had traditional Chinese influences like gold tassles, intricate threadwork embroidery over silk, bibs and long trains.Wikipedia

 Katheryn Berrios

  My name is Katheryn Berrios, was born in Lima, Peru, resident in Rio de Janeiro. I'm Visual artist & Fashion designer, among other artistic expressions.

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 Abstract expressionism from art to fashion 

A lot of designers have worked with this "Pollock impulse" that makes every garment become a unique piece, thanks to the random falling of paint. A few seasons ago Yves Saint Laurent (Cruise 2008), Dolce & Gabbana (SS RTW 2008), Proenza Shouler (2010), Tory Burch (2010) and many others built their clothes with paint splatters.

Graffiti Pop Art in Manish Aroras Collection

 Manish Arora Fashionshow Winter 2012 Paris

 Manish Arora is an Indian fashion designer based in New Delhi. In early 2011, he was appointed creative director of the womenswear collection of the French fashion house Paco Rabanne,although he left the company in May 2012

Vivienne Westwood

Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood  (née Swire; born 8 April 1941) is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.
Westwood came to public notice when she made clothes for Malcolm McLaren's boutique in the King's Road, which became famous as "SEX". It was their ability to synthesise clothing and music that shaped the 1970s UK punk scene, dominated by McLaren's band, the Sex Pistols. She was deeply inspired by the shock-value of punk—"seeing if one could put a spoke in the system".
Westwood went on to open four shops in London, eventually expanding throughout the United Kingdom and the world, selling an increasingly varied range of merchandise, some of it linked to her many political causes such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, climate change and the civil rights group Liberty. She has been married twice, and has two children.

Westwood was one of the architects of the punk fashion phenomenon of the 1970s, saying "I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in the system in some way".The "punk style" included BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins, razor blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars for jewellery, as well as outrageous make-up and hair. Essential design elements include the adoption of traditional elements of Scottish design such as tartan fabric. Among the more unusual elements of her style is the use of historical 17th- and 18th-century cloth-cutting principles, and reinterpreting these in, for instance, radical cutting lines to men's trousers. Use of these traditional elements make the overall effect of her designs more "shocking

 Westwood was a designer who often let her clothes speak for themselves, as independent designs and as her own statements of culture. This idea that she uses her clothing as a statement of her own is a motif consistent throughout her time as a designer. Although this is also a factor as to why she was ridiculed as a designer, it was such a strong proclamation to her and her designs that she remained this way within her collections. This idea partially was attrributed to her past collaborations with Gary Ness, who assisted Westwood throughout her designing with inspirations and titles for her collections.

 Westwood's designs were featured in the 2008 film adaptation of the television series Sex and the City. In the film, Carrie Bradshaw becomes engaged to long-term lover Mr. Big. Being a writer at Vogue, she is invited by her editor to model wedding dresses, including a design made by Westwood. The dress is subsequently sent to Carrie as a gift, with a handwritten note from Westwood herself, and Carrie decides to use the Westwood gown. The wedding dress has been described as one of the movie's most iconic features, leading Westwood to approach the producers about being involved in making a sequel.Wikipedia

Visual kei Fashion 

 Visual kei is a style created in the mid-1980s by Japanese musicians consisting of striking makeup, unusual hair styles and flamboyant costumes, similar to Western glam rock and glam metal. Androgyny is also a popular aspect of the style. Some of the more well-known and influential artists of the style include X Japan, Luna Sea, Versailles, The Gazette, Mejibray, Royz, L'Arc en Ciel, An Cafe, Malice Mizer, and Diaura.

Oshare kei is a version of Visual kei and is seen as the most fashionable and cutting edge of the styles. The style focuses a lot on mixing different patterns, bright colors and punk elements to create a unique look. Unlike Visual kei, the make-up is toned down a bit and focuses more on the eyes alone. Facial piercings are also common. Just like Visual kei, Oshare kei has been largely influenced by musical artists. Some of those include An Cafe, Panic Channel, Ichigo69, Lolita23q, SuG, Delacroix, LM.C, and Aicle

Angura kei is the darkest visual kei style. The clothes of the style tend to be mostly black, but with spikes and chains. Make-up is worn dark and heavy. The style has been compared to the modern goth. Like the other two styles mentioned, Angura kei is heavily influenced by underground music with the same name. Some of the most well-known ones include MUCC, Floppy, Guniw Tools, Metronome and Nookicky

Fashion inspired art of Jean-Michel Basquiat's

 Neo-expressionism often explores social commentary and individuality using bold colors and violent, emotive lines, as if the artist threw the paint onto the canvas. Undoubtedly, neo-expressionism has also strongly influenced street art (and vice versa), through the use of crude materials and hasty production

Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist. He first achieved notoriety as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, post-punk, and street art movements had coalesced. By the 1980s, he was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries and museums internationally. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992.
Basquiat's art focused on "suggestive dichotomies", such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, and figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique.
Basquiat used social commentary in his paintings as a "springboard to deeper truths about the individual",as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism, while his poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. He died of a heroin overdose at his art studio at age 27.Wikipedia

"Fashion Inspired by Art is based on Jean-Michel Basquiat's Scull. Basquiat is known for his abstract, street art styled paintings that offer social commentary and underlying messages. Below you'll find three outfits inspired by Basquiat's amazing street art and learn more about the artist!
Basquiat's work explores social commentary and dichotomies (such as wealth vs. poverty) through a mix of poetry, painting, and abstraction. Scull is a great representation of his style. Its mix of graffiti creates the powerful impression that the head is full of forms. The face is peeled off in areas, exposing teeth and bone without really showing it. Basquiat's abstract lines and shapes coalesce to form what looks like a skull.
This look is inspired by the bold colors and edgy subject matter of Basquiat's work. It's street-inspired fashion to reflect his street art roots. Let the shoes be the star of the show by keeping the rest of your outfit monochromatic. Pair a loose shirt with some skinny jeans or leggings to balance each other out. For a more edgy look, add a strappy bralette to peek out from under the shirt. Accessorize with some cage-shaped rings or a bracelet."(collegefashion.net)

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Louis Vuitton & Yayoi Kusama  Collection 


Yayoi Kusama ( born March 22, 1929) is a Japanese artist and writer. Throughout her career she has worked in a wide variety of media, including painting, collage, scat sculpture, performance art, and environmental installations, most of which exhibit her thematic interest in psychedelic colors, repetition and pattern. A precursor of the pop art, minimalist and feminist art movements, Kusama influenced contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Although largely forgotten after departing the New York art scene in the early 1970s, Kusama is now acknowledged as one of the most important living artists to come out of Japan, and an important voice of the avant-garde.
Kusama's work is based in conceptual art and shows some attributes of feminism, minimalism, surrealism, Art Brut, pop art, and abstract expressionism, and is infused with autobiographical, psychological, and sexual content. Kusama is also a published novelist and poet, and has created notable work in film and fashion design. Major retrospectives of her work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1998, the Whitney Museum in 2012, and Tate Modern in 2012. In 2006, she received a Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2008, Christie's New York sold a work by her for $5.1 million, then a record for a living female artist. In 2015 Artsy named her one of the Top 10 Living Artists of 2015.Wikipedia

Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton, or shortened to LV, is a house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes, watches, jewelry, accessories, sunglasses and books. Louis Vuitton is one of the world's leading international fashion houses; it sells its products through standalone boutiques, lease departments in high-end department stores, and through the e-commerce section of its website.For six consecutive years (2006–2012), Louis Vuitton was named the world's most valuable luxury brand.

 "Louis Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs first met 83-year-old Kusama in 2006 and became enraptured by her "endless energy" and her ability to create, through her work, a " world that never ends". The first instalment of the collaboration will be followed by a second collection, which will launch in Selfridges on August 24.
Bold, playful and not for the faint-hearted, the offering features the artist's signature bold spots - which cover every item, from bags to dresses. The range is the house's most significant artist collaboration since it teamed up with Steven Sprouse in 2001 to create his now-iconic graffiti bags. Highlights from the Kusama collection include a yellow drop-waisted dress with a frill skirt; cropped trousers in red and black; classic trench coats, given a surreal twist with the artist's vibrant spots; and silk scarves - which offer a more subtle way to buy into the collection."(www.vogue.co.uk)

Viktor & Rolf

Viktor & Rolf is a Dutch luxury fashion house. The company was founded in 1993 by designers Viktor Horsting (born 1969, Geldrop) and Rolf Snoeren (born 1969, Dongen).
Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren met while studying fashion at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design in The Netherlands. They began working together upon graduation. In 1993 they won a talent contest at the Festival International de Mode et de Photographie in Hyères, and moved to Paris in the same year.
Viktor & Rolf started making ready-to-wear clothes in 2000. In 2006, they designed clothes for the high street chain H&M.
In 2008 Italian clothing magnate Renzo Rosso, President of OTB Group, the holding group of Maison Martin Margiela, Marni and Diesel, bought a controlling interest in the company.
In 1998, Viktor & Rolf put on an unauthorized fashion show during Paris Fashion Week to attract members of the press.In a show called "Russian Doll" they dressed model Maggie Rizer in layer upon layer of couture dresses, piled on top of one another.[4] They have also used a collection of International Klein Blue clothes as a chroma-key blue-screen to project video. Their collections have featured performers such as Tilda Swinton, Tori Amos, Rufus Wainwright, Róisín Murphy, Brigitte and Joan Wasser. Another longtime cooperation is with photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.
In 2005 they opened their first shop in the Golden Quadrilateral (Quadrilatero d'Oro) in Milan (which closed in 2008), and were contracted by L'Oréal to develop their first perfume, called Flowerbomb. In 2006, their first men's perfume, Antidote, was introduced in the United States.
In 2008 an exhibition entitled "The House of Viktor & Rolf" was presented at the Barbican Art Gallery.Wikipedia

Punk fashion

Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewellery, and body modifications of the punk subculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited to the dressed-down look of North American hardcore. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including glam rock, skinheads, rude boys, greasers, and mods have influenced punk fashion. Punk fashion has likewise influenced the styles of these groups, as well as those of popular culture. Many punks use clothing as a way of making a statement.
Punk fashion has been extremely commercialized at various times, and many well-established fashion designers—such as Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier—have used punk elements in their production. Punk clothing, which was initially handmade, became mass-produced and sold in record stores and some smaller specialty clothing stores by the 1980s. Many fashion magazines and other glamour-oriented media have featured classic punk hairstyles and punk-influenced clothing.Wikipedia

Manish Arora

 Manish Arora  is an Indian fashion designer based in New Delhi. In early 2011, he was appointed creative director of the womenswear collection of the French fashion house Paco Rabanne, although he left the company in May 2012.
Born and brought up in Mumbai, Manish was studying to graduate in Commerce, when he decided to change his career path and applied for the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi. He graduated in 1994 after winning the Best Student Award
Manish Arora is regarded by many as "the John Galliano of India". He is known for a rich palette of psychedelic colours and kitsch motifs in garments that combine traditional Indian crafts like embroidery, appliqué and beading with Western silhouettes.Wikipedia

Japanese street fashion

There are many styles of street fashion in Japan, created from a mix of both local and foreign labels. Some of these styles are extreme and avant-garde, similar to the haute couture seen on European catwalks. The rise and fall of many of these trends has been chronicled by Shoichi Aoki since 1997 in the fashion magazine Fruits, which is a notable magazine for the promotion of street fashion in Japan.

In 2003, Japanese hip-hop, which had long been present among underground Tokyo's club scene, influenced the mainstream fashion industry. The popularity of the music was so influential that Tokyo's youth imitated their favorite hip hop stars from the way they dress with oversized clothes to tanned skin

Though the styles have changed over the years, street fashion is still prominent in Japan today. Young adults can often be found wearing subculture attire in large urban fashion districts such as Harajuku, Ginza, Odaiba, Shinjuku, and Shibuya.

Kuroi Niji - s a Streetfashion founded by Bou Osaki nearly 2012. The Style is usually a mix of rainbow & black and also a mix of cute & creepy. 

 

Gyaru, which is sometimes known as ganguro, which is actually a subcategory of gyaru, is a type of Japanese street fashion that originated in the 1970s. Gyaru focuses on girly-glam style, dwelling on man-made beauty (wigs, fake lashes, fake nails etc.). Gyaru is also heavily inspired by Western fashion.

Ganguro - The ganguro style of Japanese street fashion became popular among Japanese girls in the early 1990s and peaked in the early 2000s. Ganguro falls into the larger subculture of gyaru fashion. Ganguro typically includes brightly coloured outfits, mini-skirts, and tie-dyed sarongs. The ganguro style consists of bleached hair, a deep tan, fake eyelashes, black and white eyeliner, bracelets, earrings, rings, necklaces and platform shoes.

The kogal (kogyaru) look is based on a high school uniform, but with a shorter skirt, loose socks, and often dyed hair and a scarf as well. The girls sometimes call themselves gyaru (gals). This style was prominent in the 1990s, but has since declined.

While bōsōzoku fashion has not been popular since the 1990s, the stereotypical bōsōzoku look is often portrayed, and even caricatured, in many forms of Japanese media such as anime, manga and films. The typical bōsōzoku member is often depicted in a uniform consisting of a jumpsuit like those worn by manual laborers or a tokko-fuku, a type of military issued over-coat with kanji slogans. These are usually worn open, with no shirt underneath, showing off bandaged torsos and matching baggy pants tucked inside tall boots.

The Decora style originated in the late 1990s/early 2000s and rose to great popularity both in and outside Japan. The clothes are usually in black, dark pink or baby pink, but other neon colors were also acceptable. A plain shirt and hoodie was often worn with short tutu-like skirts. The hair (often worn in low ponytails with long bangs) and make-up itself tends to be quite plain. However, the most significant part of decora is to pile on many layers of cute accessories until the bangs and shirt are barely visible. Stockings, legwarmers, armwarmers, and knee socks are also worn over each other in different layers. Common details also include leopard prints and patterned dental masks. The style was eventually merged/replaced in the late 2000s by fairy kei and OTT (over-the-top) lolita in Japan, though it is still a relatively popular style overseas.

Visual kei is a style created in the mid-1980s by Japanese musicians consisting of striking makeup, unusual hair styles and flamboyant costumes, similar to Western glam rock and glam metal. Androgyny is also a popular aspect of the style. Some of the more well-known and influential artists of the style include X Japan, Luna Sea, Versailles, The Gazette, Mejibray, Royz, L'Arc en Ciel, An Cafe, Malice Mizer, and Diaura.

Oshare kei is a version of Visual kei and is seen as the most fashionable and cutting edge of the styles. The style focuses a lot on mixing different patterns, bright colors and punk elements to create a unique look. Unlike Visual kei, the make-up is toned down a bit and focuses more on the eyes alone. Facial piercings are also common. Just like Visual kei, Oshare kei has been largely influenced by musical artists.

Angura kei is the darkest visual kei style. The clothes of the style tend to be mostly black, but with spikes and chains. Make-up is worn dark and heavy. The style has been compared to the modern goth. Like the other two styles mentioned, Angura kei is heavily influenced by underground music with the same name. Some of the most well-known ones include MUCC, Floppy, Guniw Tools, Metronome and Nookicky.

Cult party kei, named after the Harajuku shop Cult Party (now known as the Virgin Mary), is a relatively new coined style that is based on Western religious artifacts like crosses or bibles. Common aspects include crosses wired in yarn, layers of fabric in soft colors, lots of cream lace, satin bows and bible prints. The make-up and hairstyle is not as over the top as other styles. In fact, Cult party kei is often worn with natural looking make-up without any larger emphasis on the eyes and simple hair-dos with roses. Cult party kei is considered by some to be a subset of dolly kei.

Dolly kei is a style based on Japan's view of the Middle Ages and European fairy tales, especially the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. It includes a lot of vintage-style clothing and sometimes has religious symbols. Grimoire is a store in Japan that has been described as 'the pioneering store behind the Dolly-kei fashion scene'

Japanese fashion is influenced by historic culture, we can now still see Japanese people wearing kimono on the street in Japan, especially in Ginza. In addition they now still keep the culture of wearing kimono for special and important events, such as mitzvah, funeral, etc. The younger generation in Japan do also accept mixing kimono and modern style in fashion. They usually mix and match their own style to kimono, like wearing designers bags instead of traditional basket, wearing high heels instead of clogs.Wikipedia

Cybergoth

 Cybergoth is a subculture that derives from elements of goth, raver, and rivethead fashion. Unlike traditional goths, Cybergoths follow electronic dance music more often than rock
Cybergoth fashion combines rave, rivethead, and goth fashion, as well as drawing inspiration from other forms of science fiction. Androgyny is common. The style sometimes features one starkly contrasting bright or neon-reactive theme color, such as red, blue, neon green, chrome, or pink, set against a basic, black gothic outfit. Matte or glossy black materials such as rubber and shiny black PVC can be mixed and matched in an effort to create a more artificial look.

The black-and-monochromatic juxtaposition can take a variety of forms, including brightly colored hair and make-up, cybernetic patterns such as live LED circuit boards, body modification, gas masks and goggles (especially aviator-style), typically worn on the forehead or around the neck rather than on the eyes. The most common use of a theme color is in the hair or eye make-up. Artificial, extended hair or "falls" are sometimes used to create this added effect. Falls can be made of various materials, ranging from yarn to fluorescent tubing to electrical wiring. Popular club gear for cybergoths includes tight black pants, tight black vests or shirts cut from ripped, solid or fishnet fabrics, fluffies, resembling costumes from 19th Century Gothic novels or early black and white horror films from the mid-20th century. Companies that specialize in the style include Cyberdog, DANE in London, Pen & Lolly Clubwear based in Sheffield (UK), Lip Service, based in Southern California (US), and Diabolik, a shop in Montrea.Wikipedia

Gothic Fashion Show - Mera Luna 2013

Alexander McQueen

 Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He is known for having worked as chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and for founding his own Alexander McQueen label.His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003), as well as the CFDA's International Designer of the Year award in 2003. McQueen committed suicide in 2010 at the age of forty.

 Katarzyna Konieczka’s avant garde fashion creations
atalia Fedoruk
May 4, 2014
COUTURE, PHOTOGRAPHY

 Kasia Konieczka is a costume maker and avant garde fashion designer from Poland. The main aim of her designs is to create an impact on the viewer and evoke feelings. Each costume has been created as a one off, the techniques used to create them have been developed by Kasia herself, by experimenting with textiles, fabric and paint. The main motifs in her designs are asymmetry, destruction, dramatism, macabre. (cruzine.com)