The exhibition ART FASHION IDENTITY at the Royal Academy of Arts was one of my free time ideas. I headed over with a friend after finishing at the Tate Britain; we needed to kill a couple hours before we had to meet for class later anyway. By the time we got off at Picadilly Circus, it was pouring. Hello again, rain. I go everywhere with my umbrella now.
Still, the shops that we passed gleamed all the more brilliantly under the dreary sky, and though I could not afford the 'gold-foil-covered macaroons' or the wagashi (traditional Japanese confections eaten during the tea ceremony), they were nice to stare at.
On a side note, I find it very interesting that there are so many Japanese food stores in London, whereas I only find one or two supermarkets but many restaurants in New York City...
The exhibition dealt with personal expression through the clothes people wear. Themes included: storytelling (personal and cultural histories), building (protection), belonging and confronting (political conflict, questions of nationality). The first room we went into displayed what I thought were hats, but actually were braided wigs, done in traditional African hair braiding. The wigs were bright, fun colors, so surely my mistake can be forgiven? The mannequin heads and wigs sat in a grid system, so from afar the wigs imitated the skyline of western cityscapes. I'm not sure what was specifically the artist's intent, but the wigs looked durable enough to be forms of protection for the head. The next fashion piece I saw gave the opposite impression: Helen Storey's 'Say Goodbye' was a dress made of an enzyme-based textile. Thin and light, there was a second version of this dress nearby, half-dissolved by a tub of water; water triggers the enzymes to eat away the dress. Don't wear this in London. The concept was to create something functional and disposable, while being cautious of pollution. An interesting environmental take on clothing, but it would encourage a higher degree of consumerism since it doesn't last longer than a single use. Another dress that stood out was one made of sewing needles. It looked like tinsel, but clearly this dress was not meant to be worn. It symbolized the pain and isolation that people who are too devoted to craft and handiwork experience; as beautiful as the gown and its long train were, they could only be admired from afar.
I sketched a piece by Yohji Yamamoto: composed of a wooden framework its bodice was like a corset, but it didn't constrict the torso like traditional corsets. It was more like armor, an idea that was echoed in the pleated wooden skirt since it reminded me of skirts of samurai armor. According to the description plaque, this dress 'asserts the strength of the person wearing it.' Though the slats at first looked like they were haphazardly bolted together, upon closer inspection one can see the careful placement of certain diagonal edges so as to imitate folds of cloth. Hussein Chalayan's 'Son' of Sonzai Suru also left an impression. The Japanese word 'sonzai,' or rather 存在, means existence. The first kanji means 'to exist, to be aware.' Chalayan's work featured a model mannequin on the catwalk, but with other mannequins--dressed unobtrusively in black--holding up the hems of the model's clothes in a dramatic manner. The setup was inspired by the Bunraku theatre, a type of traditional Japanese performance in which large puppets are controlled by several puppeteers dressed in black robes. The designer wanted to convey how the fashion industry is very manipulative, and how the public's perception of the value of fashion is so dependent on its presentation. I thought it was very effective to connect that idea with the puppetry performance.
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