Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law & Technology

Geometrically Reconfigured Fractured Fabrics: Anrealage S/S 23

In yesterday's post we looked at the power of geometry via the works of Conrad Shawcross and also mentioned his "Fractures", sculptures composed of hundreds of delicate geometric leaves.

In fashion when we usually think about "fractured" fabrics, our minds immediately evoke patchworked garments. Yet in these garments designers usually stitch together irregular pieces of fabrics in a variety of colours and patterns.

Anrealage's Kunihiko Morinaga has instead presented a different vision of fractured and patchworked fabrics for the brand's S/S 23 collection.

Showcased during Paris Fashion Week, the collection opened with a model in a structured dress with sculpted puff sleeves made with triangular and rectangular patches of washed denim.

Then followed more designs, from tops and sleeveless coats to dresses cinched at the waist with corset belts, from cropped jackets to long romantic dresses with leg-of-mutton sleeves, made with the same technique and employing 200 different deadstock fabrics from past Anrealage collections.

Though sustainability was high on the agenda, craft was the real protagonist of the show: the looks were indeed made in the brand's atelier by five craftspeople who sewed together thousands of scraps of fabrics (one look - a full-skirted dress with double-layered, wide sleeves - integrated 4,000 fragments of fabrics).

This exercise in mathematical and geometrical precision left you wondering if at the atelier they also used a computer modeling program to compose together the "fractured" looks as, even though they were made with tiny geometrical bits and pieces of fabrics, they still retained a great fluidity.

There was also an arty twist in the most colourful pieces that evoked the palette of Sonia Delaunay's geometrical works, while the designs in earthy tones gave you the impression you were looking at an aerial picture, a bird's eye view over a rural or a urban landscape.

In a way the fractured technique wasn't new to Anrealage as Kunihiko Morinaga has a passion for geometrical patchworks, and the silhouettes weren't unfamiliar for the brand as well, but this was a 20th-anniversary show, so it was also a way to take stock and ponder a bit on the history of the brand. Besides, there was also a twist in the collection.

Kunihiko Morinaga is known for his presentations often exploring the theme of duality or divided in two parts with models walking down the runway twice in the same design to show how fabrics may change colour or reveal a pattern when exposed to light.

In this case there were no changes in the colours of the fabrics, but, after an interlude of five all-black patchworked designs, the models walked again down the runway in the same designs they had donned in the first part of the show, but worn inside out. While on Gucci's runway Alessandro Michele worked with the theme of twins and otherness, here the repetition had one main point - showing the level of handicraft behind each design.

Morinaga loves the artisanal aspect of his designs, but also technology and this entered the collection via the open-ear headphones donned by one model and given to the audience as well.

Created by Japanese manufacturer NTT Sonority (the sponsor of the show), the headphones are designed to lay on the ear concha so that the user can still hear the outside world while listening to music.

And there was duplicity in that message as well, reminding us to find a balance between real life and digital life, like the Anrealage-clad heroine of Mamoru Hosoda's anime epic "Belle" (Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime) did in the film.

Dogma of the Tetrahedron: "Cascading Principles: Expansions within Geometry, Philosophy, and Interference" by Conrad Shawcross @ The Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Countless generations of students have been traumatized by their mathematics and geometry classes to the point that, as grown-ups, they simply started avoiding anything containing the dreaded words.

Yet, in previous posts we have seen the power of mathematical equations in art and fashion, the importance of galleries dedicated to maths in museums and of precise mathematical proportions in patterns.

It is undeniable that mathematical ideas have proved very inspiring for many contemporary artists, architects, and fashion designers: in the last few years, we have seen designers creating clever examples of "Math couture", at times based on mathematical or geometrical concepts such as the Fibonacci series or the Navier Stokes equations, or we searched for inspirations in basic mathematical tools like cuisenaire rods, while in yesterday's post we explored the power of variable geometries in a choreography. 

Readers who enjoyed those posts will be happy to hear that there is a new exhibition at the Mathematical Institute in Oxford dedicated to Conrad Shawcross that invites visitors to delve into the world of mathematics and geometries. Curated by Fatoş Üstek, "Cascading Principles: Expansions within Geometry, Philosophy, and Interference" (until 8th October 2023), features more than thirty-five sculptures made by the artist over the last seventeen years.

On display across three floors, the artworks try to build relationships and correspondences, dialoguing with the spaces where they are installed, from the reception area to the study and lecture space.

Moving from scientific thought, Shawcross combines in his sculptures, mathematics, physics, and philosophy. Some of his favourite themes seem to be the nature of matter, the relativity of gravity, entropy, and the nature of time itself. While he is an artist, Shawcross works like a scientist in a laboratory, conceiving each work as an experiment.

Often multiplication and repetition allow him to build monumental pieces: moving from a single essential unit, the artist creates large pieces. But, while an atom or electron is a basic unit for physicists, his unit is often the tetrahedron, which in his practice is considered as an artistic building block.

A tetrahedron cannot tessellate with itself, it can't fit together with others of its kind without creating gaps and overlapping, and cannot cover or form a surface through its repetition.

This principle is perfectly demonstrated by Shawcross's "Schisms" consising of twenty tetrahedrons assembled together to form a near-perfect polygonal form. The result is a spherical form split by deep chasms and cracks that pervade the surface. Behind this failed struggle for perfection there are different implied meanings, pointing at the theme of failure in geometry and therefore at the fact that the sculpture can not be used as a scientific model, yet its geometrical failure turns it into an intriguing artwork (so here you have an interesting theme that you can expand on - finding success in failure).

Shawcross continued his investigation into the geometry of the tetrahedron with his "Lattices": some of them are irregular exploded cubic structures forming a system which in theory can expand forever, while his "Paradigm" series follows mathematical logic and a rate of incrementation. 

Built as a spiraling stack of tetrahedral steel blocks that increase in size by a set percentage at every twist, his "Paradigms" grow from the smallest unit, bearing the weight of the others stacked above it. Shawcross's "Fractures", again based on the dogma of the tetrahedron, are expansions composed of hundreds of delicate geometric leaves that move from his "Paradigms".

Shawcross's "Perimeter Studies" explore the geometry and spatial properties of the Platonic solids - the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron - to consider notions of expansion, entropy, growth, and retraction.

There are shapes and configurations that fashion and jewellery designers will find inspiring, while fans of patterns should check out the "Patterns of Absence" and "Beacons", works that are akin to stained glass windows, activated by back light. Composed of two counterrotating discs covered in complex perforations, "The Patterns of Absence" are wall mounted and lit by a bespoke radiant light, whereas the "Beacons" stand on their own and are activated by the sky behind them, but in both cases the works pattern the light through the non-repeating pattern of holes.

"Cascading Principles: Expansions within Geometry, Philosophy, and Interference" will be accompanied by a four-part symposium, with events taking place throughout the year of the exhibition (check out the Oxford Mathematics events page for updates about them). The most exciting thing about the symposium is that scholars and researchers from Oxford Mathematics will be paired with artists and philosophers for talks that will foster cross-fertilisation of thought and creativity.

So, are you still afraid of maths and geometry? Well, you shouldn't, after all even in a simple everyday gesture like drinking a glass of water there is some geometry as the H2O water molecule has a distorted tetrahedral geometry. So, forget the fears and anxieties instilled in you by a failed educational system and delve into a world of new dimensions led by Shawcross's inspiring tetrahedons.

Image credits for this post

Conrad Shawcross, Perimeter Study (Arrangement 5), 2019

Conrad Shawcross, Formation Study I (The Dappled Light of The Sun), 2016

Conrad Shawcross, Schism, 2019

Conrad Shawcross, Lattice Cube, 2008

Conrad Shawcross, Patterns of Absence "O", 2021

Conrad Shawcross, Fracture (R24W4), 2018

The Added Value of Variable Geometries: Sadeck Waff X Moncler

Quite often, from opportunities to look at trendy clothes for the next season, fashion weeks turn into moments to live an experience. As we saw in yesterday's posts, modern shows can be theatrical displays in which designers explore their passions, interests, fears and anxieties, or attempt to make a comment about society.

Yet shows can also be celebratory events, a good example is Moncler's celebration of the brand's 70th anniversary, that took place last week in Milan's Piazza del Duomo. The event was open to the public and thousands watched the performance from the main square, and the surrounding balconies and terraces.

For the occasion, the brand went monumental enlisting the principal dancer of Milan's La Scala, Virna Toppi, who opened the show in a white tutu and a Moncler jacket.

Besides, there were also 700 dancers, 200 musicians, 100 choir members and 952 models, a total of 1,952 performers (a symbolical number representing the founding year of Moncler), all of them wearing a white Moncler Maya '70' edition jacket (Toppi matched the jacket with a tutu, a rather unfortunate combination, while the brand may have created for her something more extraordinary maybe moving from Pierpaolo Piccioli's Genius designs).

On Gucci’s runway, Alessandro Michele explored the power of the double and the possibility of multiplying onself; Moncler's show was more focused on repetition, also thanks to the choreography (yes, having a cool choreographer is another key to a memorable fashion show) orchestrated by artistic director Sadeck Berrabah, better known as Sadeck Waff.

If you like follow dance/choreography accounts on Instagram, you may have stumbled upon Waff's mesmerizing choreographies.

The French-Algerian artist who choreographed the hand-off ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games and the 2024 games in Paris, produces highly visual and physical performances in which the focus is on the bust and the arms of the dancers who are usually sitting down. 

Imagine vogueing, but more angular and linear and less graceful, more rigid and robotic and geometrical rather than glamorous, but in both cases the dancer moves the arms swiftly from one static position to another. Besides, Waff's "Géométrie Variable" choreographies work much better with a large group of people who move their arms in perfect synchronicity and create geometrical configurations, while Waff stands in front of them giving directions like an orchestra conductor. 

At the Moncler show, dancers in white Maya jackets had their sleeves rolled to reveal underneath a black jumper, that helped Waff punctuating the visually striking movements he designed for this show, at times inspired by the aggregations of starlings. 

You don't need to be a professional dancer to know that reaching this level of co-ordination is extremely difficult: Waff’s mathematically precise choreographies designing shapes, lines and geometries first make you go wow, but then immediately prompt you to wonder how the hell he manages to perfectly co-ordinate large groups of dancers.

Waff's input added an arty touch to the event that was otherwise a huge marketing exercise: this show focused on dance was more stylish than visions of Milan's "paninari" (a youth culture that fascinated even the Pet Shop Boys in the '80s) in Moncler jackets, but its monumental scale seemed to have only one main purpose - promoting the Maya jacket in a new, lightweight, washed and lacquered nylon (by the way, 500 limited-edition platinum Moncler Maya 70 jackets will be associated with - surprise, surprise - an NFT).

The jacket will also be revisited through seven collaborations (with Francesco Ragazzi of Palm Angels; Thom Browne; Hiroshi Fujiwara; Rick Owens; Giambattista Valli; Pierpaolo Piccioli, and Pharrell Williams; you wonder if brands nowadays have a list of things for their shows that goes Choreographer - TICK; NFT - TICK; Collaboration - TICK), launching on a weekly basis from 15th October.

Moncler seems currently interested in exploring new territories in dance and the brand has been getting its inspirations from '90s dance subcultures as proved by the images and video campaign by movement artist Thomas Heyes and director Eddie Whelan for the Moncler1952 collection.

Will this passion for dance and choreography continue for Moncler? Well, having an original choreographer on your side is an asset nowadays if you're a fashion house or a brand, so Moncler may just want to pursue closer collaboration with Waff whose variable geometries represented the added value of an otherwise monumentally commercial show.

Imagining Otherness: Gucci S/S 23

After the disruptions caused by Covid-19 in the last two years or so, fashion shows are returning to their pre-pandemic theatricality. Alessandro Michele at Gucci is among those designers who love a healthy dose of drama and, for the fashion house's show, that took place last week in Milan, he worked on the theme of twins.

Show notes read "Welcome to Twinsburg" and explained how the designer was inspired by his mother Eralda and her twin, Michele's late aunt Giuliana. As a child, he would call them both "mum" and get pampered by their double love. So a tribute was due, even though Michele has already explored the theme of the doppelgänger at the 2022 Met Gala where he and Jared Leto dressed identically (View this photo).

This time, though, Michele took things further deceiving the audience with a trick: divided in two separate rooms, the audience followed what looked like an ordinary runway show. It was only at the very end when a screen dividing the rooms was lifted and the sixty-eight pairs of real-life identical twins (cast at a twins convention in Twinsburg, Ohio) dressed in identical looks, were revealed.

The twins emerged from opposites sides, joined hands and walked again down the runway, while on the evocative soundtrack Marianne Faithfull's voice commented, "Two totally, totally utterly, utterly opposite, opposite totally, totally different...we look a lot alike but we are not alike".

Diversity was high on the agenda, and clothes were almost secondary. By now we all know that Alessandro Michele favours a high dose of eccentric maximalism, possibly filtered through the lens of the late '70s (see the paisley quilted jackets, floral dresses and wide-leg pants) and the early '80s (the bright coloured fez hats and the hints at Krizia's pleated metallic designs) and with some heavy twists of Hollywood glamour sprinkled on top.

As you may guess, there was a bit of everything, from sequined gowns and jackets, to men's garter pants that highlighted bare upper thighs matched with double-breasted blazers, and wrench, bolt and lipstick prints maybe hinting at the tools to transform yourself and create a new identity.

Somewhere among the evening dresses there was a new reinterpretation of Adrian's Tigress gown, plus plenty of Oriental inspirations with embroidered silk capes, qipao dresses and cheongsam apron tops.

Some of these looks were matched with gloves covered in heavy fringes of black pearls that guaranteed very theatrical effects when they hemorrhaged from the arm slits of a vast cape (well, actually two capes).

Accessories included shoulder-duster earrings, sunglasses with chains that covered the face and bags that incorporated a very cute Gizmo, from Joe Dante's 1984 "Gremlins" film.

In some cases Gizmo was seen hanging from a belt, in others peeking out from a pocket on a tote bag or carried inside a furry bag. Gizmo, who was also digitally printed on a royal blue dress, was again a reference to human nature: we as human beings can be cute and adorable, but we can also turn into violent monsters that, like Gremlins, can quickly multiply (by the way, while this runway collaboration with Warner Bros. was authorised, it remains to be seen whether there will be "Gucci Gremlins" come next season…).

Gizmo allowed Michele to speak about otherness, a theme embodied by a sequined orange jacket and denim overalls announcing "FUORI!!!".

Literally this word means "out", but in this case it was a reference to the F.U.O.R.I. the "Fronte Unitario Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano" (Italian Revolutionary Homosexual Unitary Front), the first Italian gay movement, based in Turin, and to its eponymous radical monthly magazine.

The movement and the magazine started as a reaction to an article published in 1971 on Italian newspaper La Stampa, written by psychologist, Andrea Romeo, head neurologist at a hospital in Turin. In the article, Romeo wrote about the unhappiness of homosexuals and the remedies to cure what many at the time considered an illness.

The first issue of the magazine (Issue 0) came out in 1971 and featured on its cover a picture of the American Gay Liberation Front by Peter Hujar.

Little by little, the magazine, first distributed only in the streets were gay people would meet, reached newsagents and independent libraries, becoming well known for its witty, sharp and ironic contents and features written by a variety of contributors that included poet and songwriter Alfredo Cohen (who honoured in his "Valery", transsexual Valérie Taccarelli), Fernanda Pivano, Corrado Levi, Mario Mieli, and Maria Silvia Spolato.

The magazine folded in 1982, but the golden ages of the united front went between 1971 and 1974. Peter Boom's first openly gay Italian track, the 7" single "Fuori!" (1972) was also a reference to the movement.

The "Fuori!!!" garments in the collection were actually a bit lazy as, rather than featuring original artwork from the actual magazine, the bright orange of the jackets was lifted from the cover of a book - "FUORI!!! 1971-1974" (Nero Editions) - published last year, that featured selected issues of the magazine. Shame there wasn't space also for a "Fuori! Donna" design, that may have acted as a reference to the 13th issue of the magazine edited and written by the movements' lesbians. 

At the end of the show Michele came out with a T-shirt with a bomb (an image from page two of the December 1971 issue of the magazine, but also the cover of last year's book), but, like for the Gizmo bags, it remains to be seen if, come next season, there will be Gucci shirts celebrating the "Fronte Unitario Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano" (mind you, it would be slightly unethical to do luxury shirts celebrating an independent movement…).

Rather than to rediscover this partially forgotten Italian radical movement, the "Fuori!!!" reference was a way to remind people about freedom and human rights not just in Italy (where the far right won Sunday's elections), but all over the world.

"Fuori" often featured readers' letters and, in the December 1971 issue, they published a letter written by a 19-year-old student stating: "I attend my senior year of high school, I'm surrounded by young people who read left wing magazines and who are revolutionary. I was hoping to meet some understanding, but I'm not. Sometimes, I have to scream in the halls because this is unbearable. I'm disgusted with the society I have to live in. Why does it not recognize me for what I am, why does it not allow me to exist?" More than 50 years after that letter, there are still people wondering the same question of that young student and while clothes and accessories can't provide an answer, maybe we can still use them to open debates. 

Dreams of Alternative Political Realities: "I want a President" (1992) by Zoe Leonard

Italy went from fashion week to "fascio" (fascist emblem) week in an instant as the Milan shows closed and yesterday's election proclaimed the far-right coalition group as a winner. A sort of terrifying Cerberus, this multiple headed-beast that got the control of both houses of parliament with 44% of the vote, contains three entities, a screaming head, Giorgia Meloni, leader of neo-fascist Brothers of Italy; the zombie (and Putin supporter) Silvio Berlusconi, sadly undead leader of Forza Italia; and a cretin, Matteo Salvini, leader of The League party, who having stopped wearing random uniforms from the Italian police forces and directional psycho-geographical sweatshirts, is having an existential crisis.

The most dangerous of the three at the moment is Giorgia Meloni. About her we know that she's a Christian, a mother and a woman because she is programmed to scream it every time she opens her mouth. A supporter of Hungary's right wing prime minister Viktor Orbán and supported by Steve Bannon, the former White House strategist to Donald Trump, Meloni is a goblin (well, she loves "Lord of the Rings", a hit with the right-wing for some kind of reason…), so we won't feature any images of her in this post because goblins disturb and destabilise our inner beauty, especially on a Monday.

Like a bad comedy of the arts, Meloni doesn't have a political programme, but a set of canovacci (scenarios): she builds indeed her speeches around a selection of themes, such as God (but doesn't the "Exodus" state: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain"? Well, maybe she didn't read it…too busy reinventing Tolkien), the traditional idea of family (even though she's not married in a church, as you may expect, well, actually she is not married at all, but has a child with her partner), hate directed towards migrants and the LGBT+ community, and the slow yet persistent erosion of abortion rights (one step at the time, starting with the Marche region where it has become rather difficult to have an abortion thanks to the regional government led by Brothers of Italy). Now Meloni is set to become Italy's first female Prime Minister.

I'm Italian, I'm a woman and I’m toying with the idea of slashing my wrists: how did this happen? I mean, of all the intelligent, clever women Italy produced, a goblin bigot enters history as Italy's first female Prime Minister. My mind struggles to understand how this is even possible, so I'm taking refuge in art and I repeat in my mind the words of "I want a President", the 1992 poem by photographer, sculptor, feminist and queer activist Zoe Leonard.

Originally written in 1992 when her friend, the poet and activist Eileen Myles made a protest run at the presidency as an independent candidate alongside George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot, the poem wasn't supposed to become an artwork.

It was actually written to be featured in an independent LGBT magazine. When the latter shut down right before publication, the poem started circulating as a photocopy. In 2006, on invitation from the feminist genderqueer journal LTTR, the artist revived the text as a postcard and, in 2016, in the run-up to the presidential election that was later won by Donald Trump, it appeared on a billboard at the foot of the High Line in New York.

I love the immediacy of this poem that, through its anaphoric structure, makes a list of the author's wishes and desires. "I want a dyke for president. I want a person with aids for president," the poem begins.

There is a lot of bitterness and sadness in this poem, but there is also a lot of energy and anger, the kind of positive rage that can push somebody into action. The more you read what Leonard wants, the more you can identify in her demand for empathy and in the people she would like to see rising to the presidency. Because some of us - most of us - can identify in one or in more than one of those people, from the dyke at the very beginning to the person with AIDS, from the person who tended a beloved one in the last moments of their life to the one who ate that terrible hospital food.

In a few witty and emotional lines, Leonard managed to summarise collective depression and despair, but also our immense desire for empathy, humanity and inclusion, things that too many politicians don't even mention, because they are too busy screaming, shouting, hating, quarrelling and dividing people.

When the poem was installed on New York's High Line, Leonard spoke at the launch, stating, "This is not a text I would write today. I don't think about identity politics in the same way. That is, I don't think that a specific set of identifiers or specific demographic markers necessarily leads to a particular political position."  Yet, we can still use the poem - that you find at the end of this post typed in English and Italian as well (in case our Italian-speaking readers want to send it to Giorgia Meloni...) - to open a debate about the future, make comparisons with other times, or as a question to ourselves about the political leaders we would like to have (and why isn't that possible? as Leonard wonders) and the society we would like to live in.

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"I want a President" (1992) by Zoe Leonard

"I want a dyke for president. I want a person with AIDS for president and I want a fag for vice president and I want someone with no health insurance and I want someone who grew up in a place where the earth is so saturated with toxic waste that they didn't have a choice about getting leukemia. I want a president that had an abortion at sixteen and I want a candidate who isn't the lesser of two evils and I want a president who lost their last lover to AIDS, who still sees that in their eyes every time they lay down to rest, who held their lover in their arms and knew they were dying. I want a president with no air-conditioning, a president who has stood on line at the clinic, at the DMV, at the welfare office, and has been unemployed and laid off and sexually harassed and gaybashed and deported. I want someone who has spent the night in the tombs and had a cross burned on their lawn and survived rape. I want someone who has been in love and been hurt, who respects sex, who has made mistakes and learned from them. I want a Black woman for president. I want someone with bad teeth and an attitude, someone who has eaten that nasty hospital food, someone who crossdresses and has done drugs and been in therapy. I want someone who has committed civil disobedience. And I want to know why this isn't possible. I want to know why we started learning somewhere down the line that a president is always a clown. Always a john and never a hooker. Always a boss and never a worker. Always a liar, always a thief, and never caught.”

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"Voglio un Presidente" (1992) di Zoe Leonard

"Voglio una lesbica come presidente. Voglio una persona con l'AIDS come presidente e voglio una checca come vice presidente e voglio una persona senza assicurazione sanitaria e voglio una persona che è cresciuta in un posto dove la terra è così satura di rifiuti tossici che non ha potuto scegliere di avere la leucemia. Voglio un presidente che abbia abortito a sedici anni e un/a candidato/a che non sia il minore dei due mali e voglio un presidente che abbia perso la persona amata a causa dell'AIDS, e la veda ancora nei suoi occhi ogni volta che va a riposare, che l'abbia tenuta tra le braccia sapendo che stava morendo. Voglio un presidente senza aria condizionata, un presidente che è stato in fila alla clinica, alla motorizzazione, all'ufficio del welfare, ed è stato disoccupato, licenziato, molestato sessualmente, picchiato e deportato. Voglio una persona che abbia passato la notte nelle tombe e alla quale abbiano dato fuoco a una croce nel suo giardino e che sia sopravvissuta a uno stupro. Voglio una persona che sia stata innamorata e ferita, che rispetti il sesso, che abbia commesso errori e abbia imparato da loro. Voglio una donna nera come presidente. Voglio una persona con denti brutti e carattere, una persona che abbia mangiato quel cibo orribile dell'ospedale, una persona che si travesta, abbia fatto uso di droghe e sia stata in terapia. Voglio una persona che abbia commesso disobbedienza civile. E voglio sapere perché non è possibile. Voglio sapere perché diamo per scontato che un presidente sia sempre un clown. Sempre un cliente e mai una prostituta. Sempre un capo e mai un lavoratore. Sempre un bugiardo, sempre un ladro, e mai catturato."

The Power of Extravagance Over Prejudices: "Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle" @ The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York

During fashion month we get used to see the most extraordinary things on the runways of the main fashion capitals. Quite often, though, even behind the craziest and most extravagant outfits there is no special meaning, as many designers tend to create things that catch people's eyes and that end up guaranteeing them social media posts and reposts. But there are artists out there who have been creating fashion designs and costumes that we may not see on the runway, but that hide behind their many layers radical and revolutionary messages. One of them is Matthew Flower.

Better known as Machine Dazzle, Flower moved to New York City in 1994 after attending The University of Colorado Boulder.

Flower did odd jobs by day, while his DIY transgressive nature and aesthetics erupted at night in art and dance clubs.

As the years passed, Flower moved between stagecraft, design, music, performance and dance. He has also designed projects for Opera Philadelphia and Spiegleworld, holding residencies at Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Moody Center for the Arts at University of Houston, Wesleyan University and Harvard University's Theater, Dance & Media Department).

A provocateur, self-taught designer and artist behind popular cabaret, drag, and performance stars such as Taylor Mac and transgender icon Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Flower is well-versed in queer maximalism's aesthetic language of gay liberation.

New York's Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is currently celebrating Flower with a unique event - "Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle" (on view through February 19, 2023), the first solo exhibition dedicated to the genre-defying artist.

The event comprises around 100 of his over-the-top creations for stage and street theater, but also a variety of material samples, photographs, and videos, alongside stage environments, ephemera, such as posters advertising past performances and tickets to shows, and images of his work in activism.

The multimedia exhibition covers two floors of the Museum and this gives you an idea of the richness of the materials on display.

Visitors are welcomed by a soundtrack claiming "we are homosexual, we are beautiful…" and a platform with a group of costumes in bright and vivid colours.

Machine Dazzle's collaborations with drag and performance luminaries - including the Dazzle Dancers (Flower got his name after joining this performance group in New York in 1996; while the moniker "Machine" comes from his energy in dancing and creating) and Mx Justin Vivian Bond - take center stage.

Some of these pieces can also be interpreted as studies on materials and textures that have a storytelling power about them: these designs aren't mere costumes, but sculptures that get activated when the performers wear them.

Sequins, glitter, feathers, beads, rhinestones, ribbons and found objects including ping pong balls, potato-chip bags, toy soldiers, Barbie dolls, a stuffed animal of Dory from "Finding Nemo" and soup cans, are used to create a "queer maximalism" aesthetic and narrative. Indeed, materials are important not for what they are, but because they allow the designer to tell a story through them.

As exhibition curator Elissa Auther, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator, states in a press release, "In his quest to queer design, Machine Dazzle demonstrates how costumes have world-making capacity, why unorthodox materials have become the preferred way for those outside of majority culture to describe themselves, and the ways in which excess can both transform and transfigure the queer body."

Among the highlights at the exhibition there are the costumes created by the artist for himself and his long-time collaborator Taylor Mac to wear in the queer performance art concert production, "A 24-Decade History of Popular Music" (2016-present).

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Taylor Mac's show is a mashup of music, history, and theater: lasting 24 hours, the monumental show decodes the social history of the United States - all 240 years - through 246 songs that were popular throughout the country, and in its disparate communities, from 1776 to the present day. Dazzle created costumes for the show (one per decade) plus costumes for himself to wear as Mac's dresser on-stage.

Just like the work of Taylor Mac, this exhibition is colourful, fun and glittery only on the surface: strip down the layers of fabric, tulle, glitter and random objects, and you will discover a political, radical and social experience that, rejecting cultural hierarchies, engages communities and invites visitors to consider the prejudices of high culture regarding extravagance and the overly decorated.

The purpose of these living sculptures is indeed to counter elitist notions and prejudices of high culture that consider spectacle and extravagance as vapid.

Humorous and irreverent, maximalism becomes the language of minoritized and marginalized communities and embracing it is a way of affirming one's hybridity with courage, while getting a message across - you didn't break us, we're still standing and we're beautiful.

For an added dose of Queer Maximalism, check out the catalogue for the exhibition, available at this link. During the exhibition, MAD will present a series of five films from the '70s and the '80s curated by Machine Dazzle (check the programme here). The films helped shape the artist’s aesthetic sensibility as a child. The series will include screenings of the Faye Dunaway classic "The Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978) for Halloween and "Xanadu" (1980) starring Olivia Newton-John to mark the artist's birthday. 

Image credits for this post

1. Machine Dazzle, 2019. Photo: Gregory Kramer

2. Machine Dazzle, Experimental Drag Look, 2002, New York, NY. Photo: Mikael Karlsson

3. Machine Dazzle, NYC Easter Parade, 2019. Photo: Dusty Rebel

4 and 5. Machine Dazzle at work on "A 24 Decade History of Popular Music", The Curran Theater, San Francisco, CA, 2017. Photo: Little Fang

6. Machine Dazzle for Heliotropisms performance still, 2019, Moody Center for the Arts, Houston, TX. Photo: Natasha Bowdoin

8. Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle. Costumes created by Machine Dazzle for Taylor Mac's performance art concert production, "A 24-Decade History of Popular Music" (2016–present). Photo: Jenna Bascom

11. Mother Muse costume created by Machine Dazzle for the film "Once Within a Time", commissioned by director Godfrey Reggio (2021). Photo: Jenna Bascom

7, 9, 10 and 12 - 15. Installation views of "Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle" at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York. Photo: Jenna Bascom. Courtesy the Museum of Arts and Design

16. Machine Dazzle dressing Taylor Mac in "A 24 Decade History of Popular Music", 2016. Photo: Joseph Beyer

Brief Notes for Designers Who Want to Use Licensed Characters (GCDS S/S 23 Vs SpongeBob SquarePants Case Study)

Launched in July 1999, "SpongeBob SquarePants", the mythical cartoon character created by marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, has undoubtedly been one of the most successful and loved series ever created in the last twenty years. This is a fact and not a personal statement, even though I must admit I do love SpongeBob's immense optimism, his passion for jellyfish and soap bubbles and his numerous attempts at trying to get his driving licence.

Business-wise SpongeBob is the most profitable property for Paramount Consumer Products: as of 2019 "SpongeBob SquarePants" generated over $13 billion in lifetime retail sales of consumer products. That's the reason why the series, the recipient of multiple Emmy Awards, also won the hearts of many fashion designers: in a previous post published a few years ago, we looked at SpongeBob mania, moving from Marc Jacobs who included a yellow, pink, and purple palette in his Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2008 collection, a show that he closed running onto the runway carrying a bag that incorporated screens broadcasting an episode of the series.

Jeremy Scott's first collection for Moschino (Autumn/Winter 2014-15), an ode to consumerism and junk food, featured coats, tops, bags and shoes with the infamous sponge. Seven years ago Forever 21 and Nickelodeon also came up with a men/women's collection designed by Korea-based artist Mina Kwon, celebrating the worldwide release of "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water", while London accessories designer Beatrix Ong collaborated with Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products on a collection of luxury SpongeBob SquarePants accessories, home wares and garments revolving around a red/blue toile featuring the legendary sponge (View this photo).

The latest to join the SpongeBob fad is Giuliano Calza: designer and co-founder (with his brother) of GCDS. The brand's show during Milan Fashion Week featured a classic SpongeBob/Patrick palette with yellow, pink and lilac prevailing. SpongeBob and friends were evoked in the colours of the shredded yellow or pink acid wash denim overalls and cargo pants, but their images also appeared throughout the collection.

There were moments of craft with mesh dresses and bodysuits with crocheted SpongeBob or Patrick pasties, and crocheted hands protruding from a beaded mini crossbody bag. Calza also attempted to turn the character into a symbol of glamour in his bias-cut gown featuring a rhinestone SpongeBob riding his beloved jellyfish and in a wysteria mini-dress with our yellow sponge being reborn from a shell like Botticelli's Venus.

Patrick in fishnet stockings and fetish boots, an image from the "Goofy Goober Rock" theme song, the climax of "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie", also appeared embroidered on a transparent mini-dress. As a whole, there was irony in the collection and maybe a moment of lightness in a country perilously leaning towards the right at tomorrow's elections, a terrifying thought.

It is hard not to love SpongeBob's positivity and sweetness, his lack of prejudices, undefined sexuality, and his carefree approach to adversities, but there are things that those designers who want to go down the licensed cartoon character path should firmly keep in mind.

You can discuss getting a character licensed for a collection at various character licensing fairs: here you will be able to meet the owner of the cartoon character and discuss how to place images of the character on your products. The licensor (character owner) will receive a royalty off every product you sell. But remember to get a lawyer to read the lincensing agreement if you're not familiar with the legal language, so that you will avoid surprises and misunderstandings once your collection is finished and ready to be presented.

Some designers are well-versed at doing these deals: Jeremy Scott at Moschino often uses popular cartoon characters, so at the company they probably have one person dealing just with this aspect. But, if you're a smaller independent designer, watch out for the deal you may be getting: Calza may have got a good one because SpongeBob is a widely used character, so it is not an exclusive license. But a better option would be to look for a not so famous character or a character that you may want to rediscover, maybe created by an independent artist rather than owned by a powerful company.

This saves you money, allows you to launch/relaunch a character and guarantees you more exclusivity. Besides, it also avoids you to be compared to other designers who may have used the same character. In this case using SpongeBob wasn't the most innovative choice and, while the square sponge is immensely popular so people will obviously talk about this collection on social media, it will also undoubtedly prompt many comparisons. So, be ready to kill your favourite character and learn to be flexible in your choices of characters if you want to get noticed.

Once you get the deal always try to make the character yours, rather than the other way round: Calza used a kind of DIY aesthetics and craft techniques in some of his pieces, getting more inventive with other elements taken from SpongeBob, like the flowers, and that's important to avoid using banal prints.

Last but not least, age demography is very important, so don't forget to always wonder who is your consumer. Who are you trying to reach with such designs? Young people or ironic grown-ups who would be keen to invest in a T-shirt or a dress with a cartoon character even if they are very expensive? Find a balance, otherwise you may end up catering for Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards rather than for the red carpet (Calza included clubbing clothes, streetwear pieces, but also some glamour gowns in this collection, but he should have edited the collection and avoided more literal inspirations like the Patrick Star cape...). So, do your in-depth research before choosing a character to include in your collection: in this way you may be able to dodge the pitfalls of the licensing deal and produce your Best Collection Ever, to paraphrase SpongeBob and his "Best Day Ever" mantra.

Life & Humanity Crafts the Clothes: Prada S/S 23

Nothing is perfect. We all know it. And while we hate imperfections so much and make sure that our selfies get filtered to the point of turning us into another person, imperfections spice up our lives in a twisted, funny and sometimes uncanny way. Because yes, it would be incredible to always look impeccable and have a perfect existence, but then again, it would be extremely boring as we would never learn anything from our immense perfection.

If you are attracted by imperfections, please be aware that, come next season, many more fashionistas will share with you this passion, inspired by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons' new designs.

In Prada's S/S 23 collection - entitled "Touch of Crude" and showcased yesterday during Milan Fashion Week - the design duo tried indeed to explore what they defined as "gestures of error".

The theme materialized on the runway as pencil skirts and dresses with splits down the front that looked as if the fabric had ripped open in one of those catastrophic wardrobe malfunctions we've all been victim of at some point in our lives. 

The colour palette for these designs was lifted from the house archive, with random moments that also evoked colour combinations from Miu Miu's Pompeian S/S 09 collection.  

There were also pre-creased knit sweaters and skirts, and crumpled jackets and coats of the type that in the '80s would have prompted your granny/mother/aunt to instantly produce a hot iron to eliminate the offending fold (how the hell they had that iron perennially in their reach remains a mystery to this day… but I'm digressing here).

Also the accessories had that crumpled effect with large tote antique nappa bags in pink or gray with a pressed and wrinkled surface, as if they had been left a the bottom of a wardrobe, under a desk or a chair for a long time.

Further imperfections were explored in clothes designed to go out, but inspired by the intimacy of the home, including nightgown-like lingerie dresses with the triangle Prada logo and dressing-gown evoking coats.

These designs vaguely pointed at more famous bed dresses, while the mini-dresses that seemed made with a folded pillowcase evoked the pillow challenge of lockdown times.

The theme of the home was also mirrored by the set design, a rather minimalist but also disturbing installation by the film director Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive", "Neon Demon") with walls made of black craft paper in which raw windows were crudely ripped open, some of them opening up onto arty abstract short films exploring the lives of women.

There was actually some sharpness in all this imperfection represented by jackets and coats with a masculine flair matched with the offending garment of the day - bodysuits of poplin shirting in industrial colours.

Is this supposed to be a new Prada uniform? Possibly, but this is the sort of garment that only looks good on skinny and tall models, so some members of the Prada army may refrain from buying this piece (even though the white version of the design may come handy if you want to dress like a tailored droog from "A Clockwork Orange" at Halloween View this photo).

Imperfections worked therefore better in this collection also because they hid a metaphor: those twists, creases and folds were supposed to be traces of life left on the garments, memories embedded in cloth.

As Miuccia Prada explained in a statement: "Life and humanity crafts the clothes - not superficial embellishment, but traces of living, leaving marks. This idea of clothes shaped by humanity excites us." So next time there's a crease or a fold on your clothes turn this imperfection in a badge of honour, you know that Miuccia would approve.   

Nothing New Under the Sun

"What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun," states the "Book of Ecclesiastes", but, somehow, this sentence perfectly describes the fashion world.

We all know indeed that, once you live long enough, you can spot trends coming back even when you're not a fashion commentator, you just need to look at contemporary fashion and make quick comparisons with your personal history, remembering what you, your siblings or your friends used to wear when you were younger. This is why, the older you get, the more you feel a vague sensation of déjà vu at every runway show, a sensation that reappeared also during London Fashion Week.

Richard Quinn opened his runway with 22 total black looks to pay homage to Queen Elizabeth II. When it was announced that the Queen had died, the designer, his team, and a group of helpers immediately started working on a series of melancholic outfits.

Inspired by Queen Victoria, who wore black for half of her life after the death of her husband Prince Albert, and by the veils donned by the Queen and her sister Princess Margaret to their father's (King George VI) funeral in 1952, the designer came up with a wide range of black dresses and coats in all shapes and silhouettes. Some were more modern, others, with their formal styles, evoked the '50s, and were accessorized with floor-length veils or with black beaded tiaras calling to mind jet jewellery pieces.

It was no mean feat and the designer and his team worked night and day to create this dark processions of cape coats, ruffled dresses and velvet tunics with muted references to Cristóbal Balenciaga's black designs and to Dior's sculpted silhouettes. This section of the show was an apt tribute to the late Queen who sat front row at Richard Quinn's 2018 show and who presented him in that occasion with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.

It was a shame, though, that Quinn didn't have the courage to edit the rest of his collection. When from mourning he reversed to his S/S 23 looks, things went a bit dubious.

Quinn worked on the concept of public surveillance and CCTV camera for this section of the show, but, unfortunately, he didn't go further into it to create maybe textiles that confuse facial identification technologies, but focused on colourful bulbous-topped bodysuits.

The problem was that the more you looked at them, the more they sent déjà vu shivers down your spine, till you eventually realized this section seemed to echo Viktor & Rolf's A/W 1998 Haute Couture collection "Atomic Bomb" and Comme des Garçons' S/S 97 "Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body" collection (also known as the "lumps and bumps" collection).

In both cases those padded structures had a meaning, with V&R exploring the silhouette of the mushroom cloud produced by an atomic bomb and Rei Kawakubo analysing themes such as distorted human anatomies and beauty ideals through her exaggerated silhouettes, while it remaind a bit of a mystery why Quinn went for the body morphing bulbous structures.

The connection with V&R's "Atomic Bomb" brought back to mind the fact that V&R also did an entirely black collection inspired by black holes (A/W 2001-02), and therefore prompted you to wonder if Quinn had actually taken more than one inspiration from the design duo.

So what's the lesson for today? Well, have the courage to edit, cut and even kill some designs from your collection especially when they do not seem to fit in or if they end up creating too many connections with previous collections (and, for god’s sake, leave alone bulbous monstrous things, they don't work on anybody's runways but on Comme des Garcons').

And if you're ever wondering like the "Book of Ecclesiastes" does, "Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look! This is something new'?" well, yes, new designs can obviously be created. Just remember that it takes time and courage to create something new. Yet those ones who are brave enough to venture in those uncharted territories will genuinely discover amazingly innovative body landscapes. You ready for such a challenge? 

The Joys & Pains of Instagrammable Fashion

Let’s admit it: the screens of the devices we use on a daily basis - computers, tablets, smartphones - are simply magnetic. We have hundreds of things to do in our lives, but then, suddenly, during a break, we pick up the phone, go on Instagram and a whole world unravels in front of our eyes (while the day inevitably goes by).

We decide we can enter the other side of the mirror like Alice did (because our chores can wait...), and suddenly we visit extraordinary holiday locations, discover the most perfect dishes and get jealous about other people's cats that seem capable of fantastic feats while our own pet has been plotting our death since it moved in with us. And then there's fashion. Ah, fashion! There are the most extravagant, bizarre and amazing creations. Gigantic and monumental, in bright colours or in the darkest shades, covered in millions of sequins and multi-coloured crystals, they usually assault our senses, surprising us and leaving us at a loss for words.

That moment when we are at a loss for words is exactly when we should peel off our eyes from the smartphone screen, switch our device off and start thinking.

Yes, fashion can be a mere act of extravagance: you don't need a purpose behind a dress, you don't need to explain to anybody why you used millions of crystals or a particularly bright colour in your collection. Besides, not all fashion designs hide metaphors, symbols and obscure concepts behind them.

That said it looks like nowadays many young designers tend to favour extreme designs with grand shapes not because they believe in what they are doing, but because they know that, posted on social media and especially on Instagram, these showpieces will guarantee immediate media revenue, and may translate into jobs and collaborations.

We have seen such monumentally extravagant designs at the beginning of September, during New York Fashion Week. On Area's runway there were plenty of bedazzling pieces, gowns made with folded pyramid-shaped origamis (that at times looked unfinished, as if the effort of completing them was too much) and two complex cage dresses made with bands of Japanese selvedge denim covered in huge spikes. In the history of fashion there are other spiked dresses with very different meanings and with some architectural connections, but in this case the spikes called to mind the weapons of robot anime from the '80s.

Area's Piotrek Panszczyk actually showed more wearable denim dresses inspired by these ones in the rest of the collection. Yet it was the brand's presence on social media that won it a collaboration with Sergio Rossi that materialised on this runway with sandals decorated with one massive spike (not to be recommended to those readers who, like me, are prone to accidents as getting stabbed to death by the decorative element of your high heeled strappy sandal during a terrible fall would be rather unfortunate and, let's face it, very annoying...).

Elsewhere, on the eve of London Fashion Week, Harris Reed, known for his gender-fluid demi-couture, showcased his collection off-schedule.

His Debutante Ball-themed show inspired by Victorian crinolines and drag clubs in New York, featured Adam Lambert singing "Nessun Dorma", and several designs matched with 3 metre wide cartwheel head pieces or incorporating in the gown 3 metre wide structures.

Suspended between the epic and the perilously unwearable yet immediately Instagrammable, some of the designs also looked as if they were made with metres and metres of fabric knotted and wrapped up around the body, while the bride closing the show carrying a bouquet of Lily of the Valley (a reference to the favourite flowers of the late Queen Elizabeth II) walked with an uncertain and rather graceless step (was it the fault of the shoes or of the large headdress? We will never know).

Reed, 26, emerged like you do these times - online, debuting his gender-fluid Graduation Collection on Instagram (where Harry Styles' stylist Harry Lambert also discovered Reed in 2017), while in lockdown in May 2020. The designer, who has also modelled for Gucci, may have more talent for costumes (something he may have naturally taken from his father's links with Hollywood, he is indeed the son of the Oscar-winning movie producer Nick Reed) than for Haute Couture, but he has just been chosen as the new creative director of Nina Ricci.

The decision makes you think: Alexander McQueen was able to come up with extraordinary designs because he had a solid foundation built during the years he worked with Savile Row tailoring houses. Nowadays, if you know your way around social media and look good, they may give you a historical house to run even if you're more versed in the art of the glue gun than in the art of Savile Row.

There's an epic task ahead of Reed: founded in 1932 and controlled at the moment by Spanish group Puig, Nina Ricci is one of those establishments that seems to have metaphorical revolving doors. In the last few years, many tried to revamp the brand as creative directors and failed miserably, among them Guillaume Henry, Peter Copping, Nathalie Gervais, Massimo Giussani, James Aguiar, Lars Nilsson and Olivier Theyskens.

In this case both Reed and Nina Ricci will have to prove something: Reed that he deserves the job and the French house that their decision was based on the talent and potential they spotted in Reed and not on Launchmetrics' Media Impact Value™ (MIV®) algorithmic suggestions.