
Plan
of Exhibition
The pamphlet notes that the designer "has consistently defined and
redefined the aesthetics of our time," adding that "season after
season, collection after collection, she upends conventional notions of
beauty and disrupts accepted characteristics of the fashionable body."
"Her fashions not only stand apart from the genealogy of clothing but
also resist definition and confound interpretation. They can be
read as Zen koans or riddles devised to baffle, bemuse and
bewilder. At the heart of her work are the koan mu (emptiness) and the related
notion of ma (space), which
coexist in the concept of the 'in-between.'"
In
his foreword to the catalogue, Thomas R. Campbell, the museum's
director, noted that since her Paris debut in 1981, the designer "has
blurred the divide between art and fashion and transformed customary
notions of beauty, identity, and the body."
The catalogue
begins with the following quote by the designer:
"I have never
thought about fashion. In other words, I have almost no interest
in it. What I've only ever been interested in is clothes that one
has never seen before, that are completely new, and how and in what way
they can be expressed. Is that called fashion? I don't know the
answer."
The
designer's fashion creations are quite remarkable, unusual and
generally fascinating, and are greatly enhanced by the "headware" in
many instances that is not shown in the catalogue.Se
Pleated outfit from the "Clustering
Beauty" spring/summer collection 1998
For
the "Clustering Beauty" 1998 collection, the designer noted that "there
is a certain beauty in the unfinished" adding that "it allows the
garment to project itself into the future."
Outfit on the left is from the designer's
2016-7 "18th Century Punk" autumn/winter collection
In
the catallogue the designer has the following 2016 comment on the
outfit shown above at the left: "I suppose there was punk spirit in
every age. [When I was designing my autumn/dinter 2016-2017
collection] I was thinking that there had to be women in the 18th
century who wanted to live strongly. So I designed what I
imagined this type of woman would have worn, and called it "18th
Century Punk."
"18th Century Punk"
fashions from the 2016-7 autumn/winter collection. The catalogue
image on the right is more exciting than the manekin group on the left
For
the very animated catalogue photograph on the right, the catalogue
provides the following 1997 quote from the designer: "The act
that my clothes shock is geniunely never my intention. I do in
fact want to rebel against established ideas. I want to work in
an inspiring way and stimulate others."
Detail from the designer's "Abstract
Excellence" spring/summer 2004 collection
In
the catalogue, the designer said of the "Abstract Excellence"
collection that its focus was "designing from shapeless, abstract,
intangible forms, not taking into account the body," adding that "the
best way to express the collection is the skirt."
Outfits from the designer's "Blood and
Roses" spring/summer 2015 collection
Outfits from the designer's "Blood and
Roses" spring/summer 2015 collection
The
designer's quotation for the outfit at the left is "[Blood is] the
state of being alive."
The designer's 2010 quotation for the outfit on the right is:
"One cannot fight the battle without freedom. I think the best
way to find that battle, which equals the unyielding spirit, is in the
realm of creation. That's exactly why freedom and the spirit of
defiance is the source...of my energy.
Several
designs from the designer's "Not Making Clothing" spring/summer 2014
collection
In
2007, the designer is quoted in the catalogue as stating that "Being
curious is something that adults often forget how to be."
Her caption of the pink confection that seems to tuck a large floral
animal under a skirt, far right, is "in a sense, they are not clothes,
they are children's clothes, childish clothes." The blue and red
concoction on the right is from the designer's "2 Dimensions"
autumn/winter 2012 collection and the designer's comment on it is "The
absence of concept is the concept itself."
Several dresses from the designer's
"Cubisme" show for spring/summer 2007
In
2006, the designer is quoted as stating that "To me [the circle] is the
purest form of design in existence" and "it's very simple, and it's
beautiful."
The catalogue entry for this section includes the following commentary
by Adrian Joffe, CEO of the designer's company:
"She never gave herself any ethnic boundaries, nor let them interfere
with her work. From the beginning, she dispensed with any
preconceived notions about western and eastern social mores and
cultures, as all these things were irrelevant to her world....She
deliberately casts away all questions of upbringing, nationality,
sociology and the like. So many times it comes from just a
feeling, an emotion, not a concrete reference."
Outfits from the designer's "Ceremony of
Separation" autumn/winter 2015-6 collection
The
designer's 2000 comment in the catalogue under a photograph of the
outfit on the left: "I amnot making any statements. It is for
others to interpret what I create. I only want to continue
creating work that is intrinsically strong. It is not intended to
spur change in society or the world. I have no agenda.
Creativity is simply a central aspect of my life."
The designer's 2015 comment in the catalogue under a photograph of the
outfit on the right: "[The show] had nothing to with politics or
wars. It's about something deeper, some horror solidly anchored
in me."
Click here to order the
248-page catalogue from Amazon.com for $35.65, 29 percent off its $50
list price.
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