It is common knowledge that history repeats itself in a cyclical fashion. In a substantially different yet theoretically similar way, fashion repeats itself referencing historical cycles, re-editing and producing once again successful designs from previous eras and collections. We more or less quietly approve this process since, after all, our society has made a virtue out of the art of sampling and remixing. Yet there are moments when you feel like stopping and wondering where this exercise of blending, collaging, reinterpreting and recreating will take us.
Take the latest art-fashion "collaboration" unveiled yesterday online - British artist Damien Hirst celebrating the 10th anniversary of Alexander McQueen's skull-print scarf. In the last few years Hirst has probably been one of the most prolific artists when it came to fashion collaborations: in 2008 he designed a line for denim brand Levi's; last year he collaborated on backpacks for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's The Row and he recently unveiled his collaboration with Prada.
Hirst's collaboration with McQueen consists in 30 limited edition scarves, revolving around the skull theme so dear to the late Alexander McQueen, but also to Hirst (remember his 2007 artwork "For the Love of God", a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with diamonds that sold for £50 million?).
In some scarves Hirst also reworked the main theme of his "Entomology" works with insects, butterflies and bugs laid in a kaleidoscopic formation to recreate McQueen's iconic skull.
In many ways you can't see the need for such a project or the innovation behind this "collaboration".
McQueen's scarf first appeared in his Spring/Summer 2003 collection and, since then, it has been reinvented and reproduced each season in different variations and colour combinations, becoming particularly popular after the death of the designer.
Unfortunately, it spawned too many knockoffs, so many that you can find skull scarves in your average High Street retailer or on any market stalls in any country of our vast world.
McQueen may have used the skull to symbolise his passion for the dark side and for exploring themes of decay and desolation throughout history, but the recent mania for skulls simply reminds of skull-wearing Nazis (historians and antiquarians can explain you a bit better the purpose of the skull rings that Nazi officers used to wear on their leather gloves).
The negative implications behind the collective trendy and trashy mania for skulls may be one weak point behind this project, but there are others: only a few weeks ago, Hirst repackaged his entomology story for Prada and he seems to have done more or less the same with McQueen (though in that case he did two bags and in this case we are talking about a line of scarves...).
The butterfly/insect theme goes back a long way in fashion history, so Hirst hasn't invented anything: a random example of butterfly/insect scarf can easily be spotted for example in the film My Favourite Brunette (1947) by Elliott Nugent with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, and costumes by Edith Head.
That's not all, though: the 30 limited edition designs are celebrated in a short film by photographer Sølve Sundsbø that was unveiled yesterday in which a model covered in the silk scarves is filmed in slow motion.
The film looks a bit like a crossover between Loïe Fuller moving swaths of silk around her body and McQueen's vision of Kate Moss in hologram format appearing at the very end of his Autumn/Winter 2006 "The Widows of Callouden" catwalk show.
The scarves, in chiffon, twill and cashmere and ranging between £315 and £715, will be available from www.alexandermcqueen.com from tomorrow.
It sounds somehow impossible not to wonder for how long the fashion industry and the art world will engage in such pointless collaborations that only display an unquenchable thirst for money and an unstoppable desire to take the piss out of the consumers.
Damien Hirst x Alexander McQueen by Sølve Sundsbø di style
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