Fashion Book Friday: Goddess: the Classical Mode

     The last months and especially weeks have been soo caotical and strange...

So, what could be better than try and come back to what I enjoy, writing these reviews, and do so with one of my favourites: The Metropolitan Museum`s Goddess: the Classical Mode.

    Originally published in 2003, as part of an exposition of the same name, it is currently not available online, like many other titles, but it is absolutely worth owning and/or hunting for.

      While it does contain a short general introduction that outlines some principles of Antique

clothing and how they have been used in modern (well, post-1800, anyway) fashion, the bulk of the book is structured more like a gallery, an image with an accompanying text, as in the image on the left. It is, of course, Isadora Duncan in one of her groundbreaking, body-liberating, Grecian dancing outfits.

     Included are paintings, historical or fashion photographies like that of of Isadora Duncan and pictores of dresses in the exposition. The majority of designs are either from the 1930s or around 2000, but examples from the Antiquity to the early 21. century are included.

    Some of the designers features are: Fortuny, Vionnet, Madame Grès, Halston, Versace, Claire McCardell, Alexander McQueen, Armani, Balenciaga....

 

It´s a stunning array of beautiful, technically often immensely challenging pieces that all give different views of what "Classical Beauty" is or should be (some, as the dress by McQueen on the right, rather subvert the conventional idea of prettiness, but retain a strong sense of drama). 

    There are chapters, ordered around topics like draperies, the use of harnesses in clothing, motifs like laurels or Greek key, but otherwise it is an endless flow of beautiful images and astonishing craftsmanship.

It is, as a book, less methodical than, say Barbara Baines (already reviewed on the blog) and does not go terrible in-depth about clothing in Antiquity, but as a visual collection of antique revivals, it cannot be beaten for width, depth and sheer beauty of the included objects (so, yes, I´m a fan of all  things "Grecian").

 Fashion Book Friday: The Origins of Italian Fashion. 1900-1945  by Sofia Gnoli

This is my archive of fashion related books. Most of them are in English, but many are not. Some are new, but many are real finds. Depends on the topic, really...

                 Italian fashion really burst on the international scene after 1945 (and boy, do I have books about that!) but this particular little album is all about the decades that preceded it, 1900-1945.

   The first chapter looks at early, rather timid attempts to establish an Italian fashion, independent of Paris, often using motifs from Italian art and history. A lovely early example is the dress  on the left by Rosa Genoni, (Milan, 1906). While it keeps many elements of mainstream fashions of its time: the overall silhouette, the delicate colours, its main inspiration in mood, decoration and details is Boticelli's Primavera, one of the most famous Italian paintings of all time. Genoni tried to both capture a specific "Italian spirit" and establish an independence form Paris.  But for many decades, such designs remained a minority.
 

But much of the early Italian fashion was, in fact, anti-fashion, avangarde that sought to make the idea of fashion change itself superfluous (that´s not how Sofia Gnoli puts it, but hear me out). Both Spanish-born, Venice-working Mariano Fortuny and Roman Maria Monaci Gallenga were highly fashionable, especially among the elites, but their creations did not necessary follow or even take part in current fashion trends. Fortuny found inspiration in the elegant pleats and draperies of Antiquity, while Gallengo recalled Renaissance splendour in her work (opera coat on the right). Both were highly influencial, maybe precisely because they were not actually part of the of the fashion world - rather on the borders between art and fashion.
Similarly, many futurists collaborated whith theatres and fashion designers  - and this books dedicates a whole chapter to these collaborations, with designs by Hiacomo Balla or Thayaht´s illustrations of Vionnet´s dresses. However the most radically piece of futurist "fashion" was Thayaht´s TuTa, a kind of jumpsuit that was first and foremost practical, easy to make and easy to wear, appropriate for all sexes and types of work, and should, therefore , replace the superficial vanity fair of fashion. (The TuTa itself is not in the book, the image below is taken from the Museo del tessuto in Prato).

    Other major influences are the incomparable Elsa Schiaparelli (left) and Salvatore Ferragamo. While both spend large and most important part of their carreers outside of Italy (Schiaparelli worked in Paris and Ferragamo - inventor of the wedge heel - started out as a "shoemaker to the stars" in Hollywood), their fame and creativity helped to create a positive image of Italian fashion long before the local industry was capable of fully backing up that claim. The book looks at their work in quite some detail.


      A very important part of the book is dedicated to fashion within the political context of that time. Some aspects include the fascist regime´s attitude towards not just fashion, but feminity in general - an attitude not free from contradictions, as it propagated both a conservative, catholic worldview and the fascist ideal of a strong, physically active, sporty woman at the same time. 
     Quite another topic was self-sufficiency in terms of textile production (many of the countries involved in WWII had similar problems). This problem was in part solved by a strong rise in the artificial fibres production, but still, rationing had to be introduced by 1941. The image below shows a detail of a wartime dress: made with artificial "silk" fibres and with dressmaker´s skill in elegant details compensating for the limited fabric availability. Many companies that later achived worldwide fame started out in this atmosphere of limited means and a hightened need for creativity- Gucci, Fendi...

 

                                           Leonor Fini (1918-1996)

Little Hermit Sphinx 1948

       Yet another missed birthday (August 30) and one of my favorite painters. She is often counted among the Surrealists, but she  never actually formed part of the group.Whitney Chadwick writes that

Cariatide délivrée

she was far too independent to accept unquestioningly the rigid structure of the group and their attitudes towards women. She was, however personally friends with many of them and shared several of their artistic interests and topics.
      Born in Argentina and educated in Italy, she had a deep knowledge of Renaissance art which often forms an elegant fusion with surrealists elements, which gives her work an unique character, easily distinguishable from other, maybe more orthodox group members. Personally and artistically independent, but with a wide circle of friends (it was a very pleasant surprise to read about her friendship with the Rochas couple ), she painted countless paintings, aquarells, etchings dealing with topics such as feminity, mythology, eroticism. The Sphinx, as in Little Hermit Sphinx  above, becomes one of her favorite "characters", although the Guardian of the Black Egg (below) shows her interest in alchemy , something Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo were also interested in (I plan to post about them later). Others, such as Ideal Life, seem to spoof 19th century images of mythic (and menacing) feminity. I guess the Self-Portrait with Scorpion (last image) sums it up: a beautiful, sensual woman with a scorpion up her sleeve...

Guardian of the Black Egg

   Otro cumpleaños perdido (30 de agosto) y una de mis pintoras favoritas. A menudo se la considera surrealista, pero nunca formó parte del grupo. Whitney Chadwick escribe que era demasiado independiente para aceptar sin reservas la estructura rígida del grupo y sus actitudes hacia las mujeres. Sin embargo, era amiga personal de muchos de ellos y compartía varios de sus intereses y temas artísticos.      
      Nacida en Argentina y educada en Italia, tenía un conocimiento profundo del arte renacentista que en su obra se fusiona elegantemente con elementos surrealistas, haciendo que sus trabajos tengan una apariencia única, distinta de otros miembros del grupo, quizás más ortodoxos. Personal- y artísticamente independiente, pero con un amplio círculo de amigos (fue una sorpresa muy agradable leer sobre su amistad con la pareja Rochas), pintó innumerables pinturas, acuarelas, aguafuertes que tratan temas como la feminidad, la mitología, el erotismo. La Esfinge, como en Little Hermit Sphinx (la primera imagen), se convierte en uno de sus "personajes" favoritos, aunque en Guardiana del huevo negro (derecha) también muestra su interés por la alquimia, algo qur también era interesante para Leonora Carrington y Remedios Varo (planeo escribir sobre ellas más tarde). Otras, como La vida ideal, parecen burlarse de las imágenes decimonónicas de la feminidad mítica (y amenazante). Creo que el Autorretrato con escorpión (última imagen) lo resume: una mujer hermosa y sensual con un escorpión bajo la manga ...

Mémoire de fragments passés

Ideal life

La toilette inutile

Self-portrait with Skorpion