Fashion Installation: Body, Space, and Performance

Description

Gone are the days when fashion relied on a runway launch with coinciding press promotions to show a couturier's new range. Today, design houses are thinking beyond traditional methods of display to stimulate interest in their collections, such as to the internet, fashion film and, more recently, fashion installations. This book offers a critical evaluation of the changing ways in which fashion has been exhibited, focusing specifically on the recent turn toward installation, whether in the form of static presentations, interactive performances or the more conventional curated designer exhibition. Connecting viewers – and consumers – on an immersive level, the fashion world has begun to appropriate installation methods traditionally associated with displays of experimental art, transcending the runway system and its constraints. This book turns to the designers who have pioneered fashion installations, such as Aitor Throup, Muccia Prada, Walter Van Beirendonck and Hussein Chalayan among others, and also looks back to the early influential fashion displays by designers such as Worth and Poiret to provide historical context. Divided into three parts, and covering a variety of installations from Vivienne Westwood's fashioned 'concept' stores to Gareth Pugh's immersive films, this ground-breaking book positions the designer as the curator and exhibition-maker and offers the first focused study of the pertinent concept of fashion installation. Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS INTRODUCTION INSTALLING FASHION Art and installation Fashion and installation The architecture of this book 1 BODY MISE EN SCÈNE Exhibitions, arcades, and department stores Fashion display versus art display The first modern catwalks and shows The domesticated theatrics of Lucile From Poiret to Rubenstein Elsa Sciaparelli and the performative body 2 FASHION (ALMOST)WITHOUT BODIES McLaren and Westwood From bodiless to clothes to fake bodies: Viktor & Rolfe Concept boutiques and pop-up shops Honor Thy Heritage: installing nostalgia and authenticity The Come Back Kids: British heritage labels and all-American style Art installations in boutiques Gastro-fashion from haute couture to haute cuisine 3 BODY-IN-SPACE AND THE GESAMTKUNSTWERK The Gesamtkunstwerk Open-ended installations Sealed, or closed installation Alternative realities and new technologies Fashion film Still installation CONCLUSION FASHION IS A (DIS)EMBODIED PRACTICE, OR, THE PERSISTENCE OF PERFUME NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX