A runway of living masterpieces was the idea behind the couture “Wearable Art” collection.
Viktor & Rolf
had models walk around wearing human size canvases for their Fall 2015
couture show. The girls were coming out wearing a denim apron and a
framed canvas at first white and then punctuated by paintings inspired
by Dutch golden age painter Jan Asselijn. As the show went on, both
designers appeared on stage to undress a model out of three, delicately
taking off the painting they were wearing as a dress and hanging it on a
hook off a wall.
The show was held at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, a location known
for it’s contemporary art and where designers have previously held their
show. (Rick Owens, Phillip Lim and Maison Rabih Kayrouz to name a
few). Viktor & Rolf gave an updated version of a fashion show,
instead of having regular models strutting up and down the runway,
the designers gave a performance. Trying to get as close to an art
performance, blending art and fashion and demonstrating once again their
genius in pattern making. Watching the video (see below) will make it
much more clearer that this has nothing to do with fashion per say.
The designers are experimenting wearable art. Instead of trying to
prove that fashion is art they are subtely implying that fashion is
inspired by the excellence of art. By taking the clothes off the models
and hanging up the garments they are claiming that fashion is humble and
vulnerable compared to art. There is something naive and touching about
this show. Fashion designers following the footsteps of art performers,
clearly inspired and admirative of the art world.
By the end of the show, art collector Han Nefkens acquired one of the pieces to donate to the
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in The Netherlands (via
Dezeen).
