In yesterday's post we looked at the allure of the space travel trend, so let's continue the thread through some of the designs included in the exhibition "Expedition: Fashion From the Extreme", currently on at the Museum at FIT in New York (through January 6, 2018).
The event mainly focuses on different kinds of expeditions - to the North and South poles, to the highest mountain peaks and the depths of the ocean, and to "infinity and beyond" - and on the inspirations such events gave to fashion designers.
Did you know for example that Madame Grès began creating après ski wear that resembled garments designed for Western explorers and appropriated from clothing invented by the Inuit? Or do you remember iconic shoots on Vogue and Harper's Bazaar with models among Arctic icebergs?
The event nicely links history, technological discoveries and fashion: outerwear made with goose and duck down feathers was created for example around the 1930s, but the first patented, down-filled jacket was designed by Eddie Bauer in 1935. Two years later the garment was reinterpreted in its Haute Couture version in eider down and white silk satin by Charles James (the jacket was pilfered - pardon - reinvented by Rick Owens in his A/W 2011-12 collection) and the popularity of down-filled garments rose dramatically when, in 1953, mountaineers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first humans on record to successfully reach the summit of Mount Everest (the trend continues today with puffer jackets and hip versions of the down-filled coat by designers such as Junya Watanabe and Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga...).
Space fashion occupies one section of the event that includes pieces that go from a silvery dress and coat ensemble from the Waste Basket Boutique by Mars of Asheville (circa 1966) to a jumpsuit from Helmut Lang's A/W 1999 collection inspired by water-cooled insulation garments and spacesuits.
One of the most colourful space-inspired pieces remains a bright pink dress featuring the scene of a rocket launch: it was designed in 1968 by Harry Gordon at the height of the international space race and, though it is characterised by a very basic A-line silhouette, it uses the imagery of technological advancement in a very convincing and still mesmerising way.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.