Ceramics and Pottery Arts and Resources

 

 

Utopian bodies- fashion looks forward

 

 

Imaginable futures for the adorned body
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Forward utopian projections usually lean towards the futuristic, combining surreal and adventurous design elements, sometimes outlandish and impractical, other times visionary and prophetic. The recent Stockholm utopian fashion exhibition was no exception, with many aspects of modern design integrated into the couture that were inventive and served to elevate it into the future.

Liljevalchs´Museum exhibition “Utopian Bodies: Fashion Looks Forward” focused on imaginable futures for the adorned body and useful developments in fashion in a challenging world. Harnessing a combination of high tech innovation and sensitivity to environmental issues, creativity in fashion was taken beyond a purely aesthetic appeal. Curated by Sofia Hedman, Serge Martynov and Mårten Castenfors, vivid, abstract set designs were used to compliment the boldness and originality of the styles.
Utopian ideals were explored with a merging of creativity and technology over eleven themed galleries including Technology, Sustainability, Craft & form, Change, Craft & colour, Resistance & society, Resistance & beauty, Solidarity, Memory, Gender identity and Love.
For example Smart Textiles created the first completely recyclable cotton fabric, which can minimize the environmental impact on cotton growing. The BBsuit 0.2 created by ByBorre and Eva de Laat, cleans polluted air through a portable filtering system, while Pauline Van Dongen’s solar panel shirt stores natural energy. Valerie Lamontagnes’ clothes change their properties according to the weather, pointing towards a future with less over specified garments, which would consume fewer natural resources.
The technology section featured garments, made with laser cutting, that had sensors embedded into the fabric, to convert pressure, temperature, speed and movement into signals that mimicked some of the performances of the wearer’s skin.

 

Elena Slivnyak for Iimuahii

 

Other inventive designs were Billie Whitehouse’s and Ben Moir’s Navigate Jacket that come with vibrating mechanisms embedded in the shoulders, allowing wearer’s to find their way without looking at a map. Cutecircuit’s shirts allowed you to send hugs to other wearers of their garments and Ying Gao made clothes that interact with an onlookers gaze or voice. From a recycling perspective, Miguel Mesa Posadas’s clothes were made from recycled car tires, while Qmilks created clothes out of biologically degradable milk fibres.
Recent fashion contributions from Viktor & Rolf’s, Issy Miyake , Dior, and Mcqueen were highlighted. Also on display were Hussein Chalayan’s ground-breaking table skirt and moulded plastic dress and Walter Van Beirendonck’s Stop Racism headdress from Crossed Crocodiles.
While functionality wasn’t exactly the primary focus, this avant garde fashion, like any art or design form, faithfully reproduced and reflected the needs and obsessions of a society, during the times in which they appear.

 

 

‘Mini Miki’ (centre red outfit) by Bea Szenfeld, Resistance and Beauty gallery

 

 

 

Utopian bodies- fashion looks forward

 

 

Utopian bodies- fashion looks forward

Liljevalchs, Stockholm

2015 – Feb 2016

 

 

Charlie le Mindu headpiece ‘Kiss Me’

 2011  photo by Vernie Yeung

 

 

Utopian Bodies, installation view of Sustainability gallery, with dresses by Issey Miyake, Dai Fujiwara, H&M, Hussein Chalaya and Miguel Mesa Posada

Liljevalchs, Stockholm

 

 

 

H&M “Love” dress, in the exhibition gallery of the same name.

Photo by Mattias Lindbäck

 

 

Manish Arora – Utopian Bodies costume

 

 

 

Utopian Bodies, Viktor & Rolf “Hana Bedtime Story”

Photo by Mattias Lindbäck

 

 

 

Viktor & Rolf – ‘Hana Bedtime Stories’

foto -Peter Stigter

 

 

 

Utopian Bodies – Craft Colour Gallery

Photo by Mattias Lindbäck

 

Utopian bodies- fashion looks forward

Liljevalchs, Stockholm

 

 

The BBsuit 0.2 created by ByBorre and Eva de Laat, cleans polluted air through a portable filtering system

 

 

 

Utopian Bodies, Resistance & Society gallery

 

 

Utopian Bodies, installation shot of Resistance & Beauty gallery

Photo by Mattias Lindbäck.

 

 

 

Utopian bodies- fashion looks forward

Liljevalchs, Stockholm

 

 

 

Walter Van Beirendonck, Headwear, “Weird” Collection (Autumn/Winter 2005)
Courtesy of Mode Museum Antwerp
Foto: Roland Stoops

 

 

Utopian Bodies, installation view of Solidarity gallery. A room entirely in white, with custom-made wigs by Perry Patrasczewski, clothes by Minna Palmqvist, Gudrun Sjoden, Ida Sajasedt and Sandra Backlund.

 

 

More utopianesque designs

 

Model – Edie Campbell, Photographer  – Tim Walker

2014

 

 

Israeli fashion designer Noa Raviv has integrated 3D-printed elements into ruffled garments influenced by distorted digital drawings. Grid-like patterns are warped and stretched across parts of the garments to create optical illusions across the body. “I’ve translated those lines into textiles that creates this sort of optical illusion.”

 

 

 

Luana Teifke, photo Fabio Bartelt

Vogue Brazil

 

 

‘Eos’ is a creation of stitched and plaited sterling silver wire, copper wire, beads and silk by Claire Prebble

 

 

 

‘Amor’– Molly Bair in Alexander Mcqueen – Fashion Week 2015 by Nick Knight for V Magazine

Inspired by Anselm Kiefer’s blackened sunflower heads, the project explores the parallels between creativity and love.

 

 

 

MGPIN Make-up Styling spring / summer 2012 Photo Lintao Zhang Getty image

 

 

 

Nick Knight photography for Vogue

 

 

Dutch designer Iris van Herpen merges 3-D printer technology with high-end fashion skeletal form

 

 

 

Brutalist cage couture –  Gareth Pugh Black Leather Cage Jacket

Photo by Hyuna Shin

 

 

 

Kitty Kouture by Ophelia-Overdose

miss-overdose.com

 

 

 

Korean designer Lie Sang Bong

 

 

‘Medusa’ – photo by Wilfred Dy

 

 

 

Hauteur Space –  Nick Knight

Nick Knight looked to the timeless language of elegance expounded in the works of Erté, Aubrey Beardsley, Lillian Bassman and Irina Ionesco, amongst others, to explore the future-fantastic visions of Spring/Summer 2012 for W magazine.

 

 

 

‘Into Bloom’ by Hyuna Shin

 

 

Nicolas Jebran couture 2012-2013

 

 

 

Triple vortex  – Pierre Cardin

 

 

 

Art Deco geometric design by shotopop  (created in photoshop)

 

 

 

Polish designer Bea Szenfeld  ‘Haute Papier’ collection of handmade organic and futuristic paper garments.

photographer Joel Rhodin

 

 

Kate Forbes Warrior collection

photographer – Troyt Coburn

 

 

‘Rain’ costume – Alexandra Kokinova

 

 

 

Manual Diaz futuristic Egyptian Art Deco clear plastic design

 

 

 

Pagoda samauri inspired costume – Rinaldy A. Yunardi

Jakarta Fashion Week 2016

 

 

Shao Yen Chen designed sculptural fluffy white dress with dramatic silhouette

 

 

 

Alla Nazimova in Salomé 1923 directed by Charles Bryant

 

 

Inspired by naked burlap cockatoo knights – Rinaldy A. Yunardi

 

 

 

Christine Kreiselmaier photography for Steinrohner design

 

 

 

‘Suprematism II’ by Olga Zavershinskaya

 

 

 

University of Westminster graduate Valeska Jasso Collado was inspired by the color, finish and form of Memphis furniture to create this avant-garde collection of wearable structure

 

 

 

‘The missing moon of Sedna’  photo by Pinch Martin Tremblay

via Behance

 

Designer Marjolein Dallinga

WOW – world of wearable art. NZ

 

 

 

‘The Nativity of Pearl’ – photography Wilfred Dy

 

 

 

Russian fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin

 

 

 

Venetian crow costume

 

 

 

Venetian turquoise ocean theme kitsch, 2016

 

 

 

Venice illuminated light costume, Venice 2016

 

 

 

Gondola inspired masquerade costume, Venice

 

 

 

“The Zoo Of Venice” by Tanja Schulz-Hess, Venice carnival 2012

World Of Costumes

 

 

 

Viktor & Rolf red cube gown inspired by Noguchi

 

 

 

Splash Calendar 2011 by Tejal Patni

 

 

Water splash crystallization dress – Iris Van Herpen

 

 

 

Tejal Patni and Kirstan Hermans photography and digital art

 

 

 

Cactus inspired dress – Designer Xinyuan Xu

 

 

 

Givenchy

 

Designer David Ferreira – 2015

 

 

Pine‘Tree Girl’ by Toon Van Stralen (design by Pim van den Akker)

 

 

Gareth Pugh, Paris

2012

 

 

Christian Dior Haute Couture

photo Patrick Demarchelier

 

 

Hussein Chalayan avant garde fashion

 

Lai Kit Ling, Hong Kong Design Institute.

 

 

Line & form – Korean Seoul’s Christian Dior Couture Store

 

 

 

 Designer Vingi Wong  –  Central Saint Martins

 

 

 

 

Katerina – Intro magazine

photo by Sofia Zasheva

 

 

 

 

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