Designing something simple is easy, but adding elegance and substance
requires a subtle complexity that not everyone can access and achieve. Design of elgance product is easy, becasue they don't have to deal with the complexity just as some other products. When you want elegance, ability to handle complexity and substance, that's hard.
When it was first introduced in literary criticism, deconstructionism aimed
to question traditional assumptions about certainty, identity and truth,
asserting that words can only refer to other words. Novelist and
philosophy professor Rebecca Goldstein notes that, “in deconstruction, there is
no meaning to be found in the actual text, but only in the various, often mutually
irreconcilable ‘virtual texts’ constructed by readers in their search for
meaning.” In other words, language becomes far more than the sum of its
scattered, severed parts. In architecture, the finished visual appearance of
buildings that exhibit the many deconstructivist ‘styles’ is characterized by a
stimulating unpredictability and a controlled chaos.
As the deconstructive philosophy trickled down to other fields,
particularly art and design, it further demonstrated how destruction could be commoditized.
The fashion house of Comme des Garçon, as shepherded by Rei Kawakubo,
reinterprets this aesthetic by taking clothes to their undoing by strategically
dismantling them and then putting them back together. The show, White Drama, presented
in Paris provided an unforgettable sensory experience – Snow White meets
Victorian Lace. Rei Kawakubo is one of the most influential fashion designers
and master of what I like to call ‘simplexity.’
Her signature style of modern simplicity reflects how imperfect beauty captures the complexities of the relationships around us. Kawakubo begins by actually creating the fabrics for each specific collection. Many of her ‘broken bride’ dresses are made from bolts of silk that she printed with intricate trompe l'oeil effects, which enriched the texture and shape of her pleated skirts without adding extra bulky fabric or thread.
Her deconstructive approach in cutting and sewing fabrics is deliberately
compromised by design. Hems are left uneven; yarn is dropped mid-stitch in her
knitwork; and clashing color threads hold the seams together. Final pieces seem
to be the blueprint rather than the final product. Even the patents that
inspire her initial work are executed in unconventional steps in an effort to
fully divorce form from function. Her design philosophy further sets her apart
because she doesn't design for any specific body type, allowing those shorter
than 6 feet and larger than size zero to access her clothing. A truly
refreshing concept in the world of fashion. At the end of the show, Kawakubo
explained her inspiration for the collection by remarking that “all of life’s
drama in a white dress.” Each one embodies the complex and contradictory
relationships in our lives.
I hesitate to even describe her pieces as ‘fashion,’ because they are so
uninterrupted by time and trend. They are artworks that free us to consider,
create and embody our passions. That’s when you know that the work appeals to
more than just fashion followers, and it is not meant to épater le bourgeois, but
anyone who appreciates postmodernist simplicity and visual intrigue.
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