Creating billowing or well-structured volumes in fashion can give a design a solemn look and appearance. Great inspirations to create such designs may come from architecture.
One structure that is currently being rediscovered and that may prove interesting volume-wise is the breathing balloon pavilion, a competition design by Sverre Fehn for the Nordic Pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka. Organised in 1970 and entitled “Progress and Harmony for Mankind”, the event focused on futuristic visions and playful constructions.
This unusual and never realised building is currently the focus of the exhibition “Ode til Osaka” (Ode to Osaka; 5th June - 13th September 2015), curated by Jérémie McGowan, Berit Johanne Henjum and Manthey Kula Architects, at the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo, Norway.
The structure consisted in a mobile pavilion with a wave-like undulating shape that was to be constructed inside the existing pavilion designed by the Danish architect Bent Severin.
Fehn’s sinuous pavilion would have consisted of two air-filled, interdependently moving chambers containing an atmosphere cleansed of and protected from outside pollution.
Moving from the materials kept in the National Museum’s collections, Fehn’s project has now been recreated and transformed into a full-scale installation by Manthey Kula Architects within Fehn’s Ulltveit-Moe Pavilion (2008). This “Fehn in Fehn” architecture will give visitors the chance to finally see the architect's vision in real life.
Fehn's breathing balloon pavilion finds its echoes in fashion in voluminous garments with sensuous shapes. One perfect example is the billowing black parachute silk cape from Alexander McQueen's “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” Collection (Autumn/Winter 2002–3) currently part of McQueen's exhibition at London's V&A Museum (displayed with an air ventilation system that allows visitors to admire it in all its glory).
Volumes were a key element of the Bath Spa University display at London's Graduate Fashion Week (GFW), with quite a few examples of well-structured dresses with soft and round sensuous shapes around the collar area.
Further designs with voluminous elements were spotted at the Sheffield Hallam University's booth. Inspired by smoke, Sheffield Institute of Arts graduate Jessica Edgar came up with designs in which heavy and lightweight fabrics were juxtaposed in the same garment, while her colleague Amelia Beardshaw created well defined round shapes moving from the tradition of Polish paper cutting techniques and using modern technology and unusual materials.
The key pieces in her “No Beginning No End” collection were characterised by exaggerated round silhouettes and proportions, with cocooning etched cork structures hinting at decorative tree bark carvings from another time that pointed towards an architecturally folk avant-garde mood.
Image credits for this post
1. Sketch of Nordic Pavilion by Sverre Fehn, 1968.
Photographer/Source: Teigens Fotoatelier / Nasjonalmuseet
2. Sverre Fehn, Nordic Pavilion, Model, 1970
Photographer/Source: Sverre Fehn / Nasjonalmuseet
3.Sverre Fehn, Nordic Pavilion, Model, 1970
Photographer/Source: Sverre Fehn / Nasjonalmuseet
4.- 5. Model of Nordic Pavilion. Photographs: Urs Meier, Luft & Laune
6. Sverre Fehn, Nordic Pavilion, rendering, 1970
Photographer/Source: Teigens Fotoatelier / Nasjonalmuseet
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