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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Fashion

19:27 / 02.05.02

I was going through one of my sketchbooks the other day and found a bunch of sketches of people in Rudi Gernreich outfits. Im not a big fashion expert or anything but man, I love his stuff. Anyone else have any favorites? Id love to hear from fashion/design majors.

Some pics

I'm not too fond of the topless swimsuit but I posted it because its what hes most famous for.

20:35 / 02.05.02

I'm all about John Galliano. I love the medieval/renaissance look that he so often incorporates into his collections. I'm an avid watcher of Fashion File and Fashion Television, but he's the one designer that no matter what,I can't get enough of.

00:10 / 03.05.02

This may be sort of cliche, but I'm into Jean Paul Gaultier. He designed the costumes for The Fifth Element amongst other things.

00:13 / 03.05.02

04:05 / 03.05.02

So, for the most part, as long as some of the breast is showing then?

09:37 / 03.05.02

Erm, no. I didn't even notice that the bottom of the first models breasts were showing at all until you commented on all the bare breasts. Thats actually why I don't care for Gernreich's topless swimsuit; its just not practical. No one wears that kind of stuff. Its the same reason I don't care for most of the designs I see on the fashion/runway shows on TV and in magazines. I think clothing should first and foremost be functional. I don't know anyone that would wear a fucking birds nest for a hat. Anyway, the best part about that first outfit isn't the plastic sections or the exposed breast, its the socks.

13:38 / 03.05.02

I'm an obsessive fashion follower - people tend to be frightened when I go off on a clothing rant. Favorite designers tend towards the architectural: Yohji Yamamoto, Atsuro Tayama, Vivienne Westwood, Olivier Theyskens, Gaultier. My current fascination is the Gothic Lolita look, which is a Japanese subculture trend mixing deconstructed styling with Victorian elements (a high-necked blouse with unfinished edges, holes patched with ribbon lacing, short skirts with huge petticoats for volume).

wembley can change in 28 days

17:49 / 03.05.02

I absolutely love Yohji Yamamoto. Another favourite of mine is Issey Miyake, because his work with pleats is just impossible. And I'm really fond of the A-Poc stuff, where you basically buy a big tube of fabric that's gone through a special machine, and you cut out all the pieces yourself and end up with a complete, seamless outfit: shirt, pants, dress, handbag, gloves, hat, socks, everything. More on it here. Sorry about the animated gif, but it's the best pic really available that shows the process:

18:30 / 03.05.02

Oooh, yes. Issey Miyake is utterly brilliant. There's also Hussien Chalayan, who incorporates political and social commentary into his collections. For instance, one of his 2001 collections featured seat covers that doubled as dresses and a table that converted into a skirt - inspired by the experiences of families forced to flee their homes during war.

Not to mention, talk about functional fashion!

10:03 / 05.05.02

That last one reminds me just a little too much of 'derelicte' from Zoolander...

13:47 / 07.05.02

I like Chalayan a great deal - and Alexander McQueen as well - he's less confrontational on a political level perhaps, but I love the play with shape and volume which he does, especially with his tailoring. I also rather like designers like Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester - interesting and not too in-yer-face about it either.

I do not like Gucci, D&G etc (though sometimes I see the odd thing in magazines and like it) - they say things about a whole world which is really rather alien and disturbing to me.

Thing is though, even if I had pots of money I'm not sure that I'd buy much of the more out-of-the-ordinary stuff I like - too aged and timid to wear corsetry etc on the streets.

Tryphena Absent

15:53 / 07.05.02

I love Ann Demeulemeester especially the dresses from about 3 years ago, white and floaty and lovely. Shoes wise its Westwood all the way- beautifully structural. I don't like Alexander McQueen because I just don't find his clothes beautiful and I dislike Gucci for the very same reason. For simplicity in evening wear it's still Chanel all the way. Yamamoto makes me ache inside I love the clothes so much (nasty perfume though).
To be honest I hate them all because I can't afford them which is probably why I'm doing a dissertation on fashion and culture next year.

My pet hate is Louis Vuitton.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:48 / 08.05.02

I like flannels. Usually check. Doesn't really matter where they come from, as long as they're warm and hard-wearing. Charity shop's as good a place as any. Good flannel shirt's wasted on just one owner. Still got a bunch of my daddy's.

Blue jeans. When I was a young man and suchlike mattered to me, I used to go for the fancy labels - Wrangler, Lee, Levi's. Still buy Levi's, but that ain't vanity. That's 'cause they last three times longer'n jeans half the price.

Oh, OK....I'd like (if I may) to look at the less expensive, diffusion and non-couture end of the market, since I have never felt the urge to wear a skirt with a table included (actually, that's a big fat lie, but I have neither the cash nor the courage. And besides, how would you wash it?), and to skip anyone who has already been mentioned, many of whom rock very hard.

I can't believe Dexter Wong appears to have no online presence whatsoever - very fucking futuristic I don't think. The Kensington shop is still open, isn't it? Hey ho...

Anyway, DW just don't make clothes that fit me, but I did score what was I suspect intended to be a floor-length black rubberised coat which is impractical but glorious.

Issey Miyake protege Kosuke Tsumura's Final Home interests me philosophically, even if this season was a bit rank. Based around the idea that your clothes are your final home (both in the sense of being what you have to shelter in and what you die in, I suspect, although only the former is explicit), Final Home clothing is designed to be hardwearing and customisable for different environments. I have, for example, a jacket of theirs with sectioned spaces between the skin and lining accessible by zips, so the jacket can be stuffed with newspaper for warmth or be turned into essentially one big pocket. I like it essentially because it's the other direction of Blake's 7 clothing - unconventionally-designed utilitywear as opposed to flamboyant peacock clothes.

And, on a related subject, Helmut Lang. I know HL basically does the same thing over and over again (once in white, once in gray, once in black. Adjust measurements for gender. Lather. Rinse. Repeat), but when it works the clothes wear like Delia Derbyshire sounds.

I suspect that the outfits Chesku and Anna Grant wear will have been designed by Helmut Lang.

05:52 / 14.05.02

I just want to plug my friend Jared Gold ( http://www.jaredgold.com ) - He's very original, and affordable.

Goodness Gracious Meme

13:33 / 20.05.02

stuff from my blog from ages ago, basically me drooling over various designers...

*********************

Actually, think I treat fashion beyond the thrift store budget that I'm in rather like contemporary art. I like seeing new stuff come out, and though I don’t know much about it, there are names I keep an eye on. I guess that makes Selfridges the Tate Modernand the individual designers the equivalent of the Anthony D’Offay?

Although a slap on the wrist to Selfridges, for not having any Chloe. Like, huh?

I’ll wander around these places, unless I’m too intimidated, in which I’ll press my nose up against the glass. (god only knows how much time I’ve spent drooling outside Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please shop) but the notion that this stuff is actually buyable is as ludicrous as my wandering into the Tate and asking to try a couple of Rothkos for my lounge. And I have, at times, certainly able to afford to buy the odd piece.

Having said that, it’s entirely possible that if I won the lottery, this would all change. There are loads of designers that I’d love to own one really good, one-off piece by, and I could probably get way too obsessed by John Galliano. Don’t even get me started on the Belgians.

Oh g’wan then, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Martin Margiela

*drooling now*

Oh did any of the NY barbies see this show?
Bah.. Contemporary fashion exhibitions, are few and far between in the UK.

...

And if anyone wants me as a slave for life, (if you're actually that twisted, you probably deserve me) all it’ll cost ‘em is the price of the Stephen Jones hat worn by Helen Mirren in The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.