Art in Fashion – Celine
Dial back a bit to last season, during the s.s 2010 presentations in October 2009, it seems Dan Flavin’s influence was already taking root in the space that Phoebe Philo had chosen to present her debut collection at Celine. After her enormous return to the fashion front of a show last season ( see posting of 7 October 2009 ), the team at Celine had chosen to hold their showroom appointments outside of their corporate headquarters in Paris. They opted on a beautiful, immense apartment in the 16th arrondissement on Avenue Foch. This private domicile, which was larger than many houses, was on the market for sale. A small rent check later it soon became the terrific location scout’s find for the temporary showroom for Celine. This opulent residence has never seen a fluorescent light, I can assure you, as there were chandeliers everywhere. The person who worked along side Ms. Philo to execute the decor worked their magic to add an artistic, contemporary element to the very grandiose, bourgeois, traditional decor. The correlation to the spring collection could not be any clearer. Happen-stance or someone really thought this one up? My money is on the latter. These are real thinkers here. Phoebe Philo and her team are here to leave their mark.
Within the s.s 2010 collection that was crowned as the new modernist collection, the looks were predominantly all solid in shades of nudes, beiges, whites, blacks and a strong blue….. save one single look that was a pattern of mixed stripes… positive and negative… once again. The stripes and the light installations? GENIUS…as I see it.
all photographs – DChen
Art in Fashion – Daniela Gregis
Art and fashion, or rather art in fashion, is not such an out there concept.
There exist designers who are more artists.
Daniela Gregis is an Italian designer based in Bergamo, Italy. She is one designer who treats each of her creations as art. From fabric research and development to her presentations to her choice of space when she shows in Milan.
The light sculpture Daniela Gregis installed for her f.w 2010 presentation is definitely influenced by American modernist Dan Flavin. Born in New York in 1933, Flavin challenged himself with the artistic possibilities of commercially available fluorescent lighting. He first conceived of using light as an art form in 1961. Mr. Flavin played with the pattern of light, color and lines created as most sculptures were linear or geometric configurations. What was always of interest to me was how he could break down a wall, room or space by the placement of his light sculptures or even how a simple diagonally mounted fluorescent bulb on a wall in a room can redefine the space completely.
Dan Flavin’s works are included in the collections of the most important museums around the world. One of the most impressive is at the DIA Beacon in upstate New York along the shores of the Hudson Rover.
Daniela uses her light sculpture to define positive and negative space , interspersing pieces of her collection within the installation to create patterns and more positive/negative contrasts. It was tied into the contrasts and patterns she wove into her collection.
Always thoughtful, always beautifully realized.
for images of Dan Flavin’s works:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=dan+flavin&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=NgfUS4iJA5bC-Qazx-SXDA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBsQsAQwAA
