Reina de las Fabricas

Thursday, 2 June 2016

CREATIVE ASSEMBLAGE-GUO PEI

Remember the iconic cape dress elegantly debuted by Rihanna at the MET GALA 2015? It did get a lot of mixed feelings didn’t it? The most famous was its being likened to a well baked pizza (lol, some people have no chill) Well what most people do not know is that that iconic creation is a master piece of Chinese couturier Guo Pei; a creation intricately crafted with real gold thread in a space of 20 months. Uniqueness precedes her designs and I for one, am a profound lover of her close attention to detail and cultural interpretation in ever collection and creation. Guo Pei as an advocate for cultural preservation and artistic diversity, have her views unapologetically resonated in her designs as well as the details that elevate them.She explores fabric, shape and texture to resonate meaning, telling stories that paintings and embroideries have conveyed throughout the centuries. With Guo Pei’s attentive support, embroiderers perpetuate a tradition that will endure as the very fabric of time. Although her work is necessarily anchored in tradition, it also constantly sails towards contemporary innovation. In spite of the infinite discipline and rigor they require, Guo Pei’s creations always are a canvas to be used for artistic expression and freedom. http://www.guo-pei.fr/about-1/

Spring Summer 2016

Her spring summer 2016 collection at the Paris fashion week was nothing short of memorable as it expresses her foundational values in translated modern silhouettes and soft colours. The collections comprised of dresses that were easy to wear as she show cases playful skirts and dresses with intricate embroidery shorts and pants; a more subtle approach for this young, and wearable, contemporary take on Chinese traditions . Blended perfectly were Chinese icons which expresses the designer’s heritage like mandarin collars and long sleeves with a Western aesthetic of flirty mini-dresses, pencil trousers and even perky shorts.

The couturier sent a few show-stoppers down the catwalk, such as the opening gown, a gold confection of guipure lace that was so heavily embroidered with crystal it made a gentle click-clack sound on the runway as the model passed by, a regal coat embellished with fluffy feathers and no fewer than four bridal looks, one matched with an extravagant 500-carat diamond necklace by Chopard.

Spring Summer 2016

The Daijin (left)

In a T magazine profile on Pei, legendary model Carmen Dell'Orefice told fashion critic Cathy Horyn, "I was awestruck by the pure beauty. She brings some part of the Chinese history forward and jumps over Mao Zedong."

During the 2006 Beijing Fashion Week, she unveiled her “Daijin” piece; a dress that required no less than 50,000 hours of work and was embroidered with gold and pearls. With the mind blowing dedication of her team of embroiders and seamstresses, Guo pei has proven herself timeless in the folds of Art and cultural preservation and interpretation in more ways than one.

Anyone up for a dose of unusual? pour me a glass of Guo pei...lol

“Absurdity and anti—absurdity are the two poles of creative energy.”
― Karl Lagerfeld

SOURCES:http://fashionista.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

http://www.guo-pei.fr/about-1/

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/

Tuesday, 31 May 2016

STROKES AND COLOURS- ELI SAN JUAN

Fashion illustration is a sacred dimension in the interpretation of fashion, bringing in work and play in perfect matrimony. Free hand sketches, computer enhanced drawings,water colours, charcoal, crayons, whatever the medium of illustration used; fashion in its diversity is definitely going through a metamorphosis that shows no signs of slowing down. Well, Eli sketches [@elistjohn] presents yet another beautiful representation of fashion illustrations, interpreting not only the world famous Disney princesses but also the whole marvel crew (well some of them in very interesting ways i must add). Her strokes are surreal, sustaining the innocence of the typical Disney lady while translating her into a power figure. I dare to call her a feminist for her interpretation of power marvel men to women (just me being a feminist…lol, totally subjective)

Ever wondered how the beautiful art became so revered in the world of fashion? Well time for some history lesson…

During the 1500s and 1600s, two centuries of exploration and discovery, there was a strong desire to know about the costume of other nations. Costume books with engravings, but also painting became important sources of information. By the end of the 1600s it was even in fashion to collect fashion engravings! Around the same period, fashion for the first time became a topic in periodicals and in the 1700s pocket books with small and uncoloured fashion illustrations enjoyed a wide circulation. By the end of the 18th century, the first fashion plates appeared in periodicals dedicated to fashion only.

Jasmine

The 1800s were the heyday of the fashion plate and saw the emergence of a large number of fashion magazines. There were even lower priced black-and-white and more expensive hand-coloured versions of the same magazine. Another development in fashion illustration were plates that not just showed the clothes, but depictions of women wearing them in social contexts, illustrating the appropriate circumstances for the clothes to be worn. The late 1800s saw the beginnings of experimentation with fashion photography, but even then magazines copied photographs through engravings.

In the early 1900s, fashion photography became a more dominant medium. The large circulation of fashion magazines had led to a decline in the artistic quality of fashion plates. It was Paul Poiret who reinvented the fashion plate by commissioning artists to depict his designs. From the 1920s onward, fashion illustrations were often featured on magazine covers. They did not necessarily reflect the content of the magazine, but were seen as work of arts by themselves. Fashion had become art.

Aurora

Merinda

After WWII, the fashion plate still blossomed in fashion magazines, but from the 1960s onward it was replaced by photography as the main conveyer of fashion. Fashion illustration largely disappeared from magazines, although there was a revival in the late 1980s, reminiscent of the style of the 1920s.

Nevertheless, up until today fashion illustration is considered an art form and, thanks to the digital revolution, is experiencing a renaissance. The Internet is an excellent platform for fashion illustration that offers fresh and unique perspectives in a fashion world that is saturated with photography.