Fantastic Voyage: Great Moments in Surrealist Fashion
Surrealism is not a poetic form. It is
a cry of the mind turning back on itself, and it is determined to break
apart its fetters, even if it must be by material hammers!
—Bureau de Recherches Surréalistes, 15 Rue de Grenelle
—Bureau de Recherches Surréalistes, 15 Rue de Grenelle
Could the signators of the above 1925
Surrealist manifesto—revolutionary thinkers that included Louis Aragon,
Antonin Artaud, André Breton, and Max Ernst—have guessed that their
movement, meant to obliterate conformity, to turn typical notions of
time and space on their heads, and to expand and distort the
conventional visual vocabulary, would have such an enduring effect on
fashion? When they were talking about material hammers, did they in fact
have fabric in mind?
But strange are the ways of life and art, and in the 80-odd years since the broadside was issued, many free-thinking designers have looked at clothing through a twisted, unexpected lens, including Elsa Schiaparelli, perhaps the most eminent doyenne of Surrealist fashion, subverting a lovely frock with a crustacean, and Miuccia Prada, sticking a cigarette in the red lips decorating a pair of pumps. Some artists make sport with the very contours of the body, distending shapes like a fun-house mirror (see Rei Kawakubo’s notorious spring 1997 lumps and bumps collection) or, sometimes, the work is relatively tame and almost pretty (like Moschino’s house bag) or spooky, like Martin Margiela’s iconic cloven-hoof shoes or Stephen Jones’s Hitchcockian bird-chapeau. The exploration can even be clothing-optional: Man Ray’s iconic 1924 Le violon d’Ingres features Kiki de Montparnasse’s stunning bare physique transformed into a musical instrument. Decades later, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac offers a loving homage to this creation in the form of a red-carpet dress for Katy Perry.
Perhaps our current enthusiasm for this sartorial theater of the absurd is rooted in the odd political and cultural milieu we’re surrounded by right now. After all, as Schiap once said, “In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.”
In advance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming Costume Institute exhibition, “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations,” Vogue.com offers this tour of great moments in outrageous Surrealist fashion.
CLICK to see slideshow!!
But strange are the ways of life and art, and in the 80-odd years since the broadside was issued, many free-thinking designers have looked at clothing through a twisted, unexpected lens, including Elsa Schiaparelli, perhaps the most eminent doyenne of Surrealist fashion, subverting a lovely frock with a crustacean, and Miuccia Prada, sticking a cigarette in the red lips decorating a pair of pumps. Some artists make sport with the very contours of the body, distending shapes like a fun-house mirror (see Rei Kawakubo’s notorious spring 1997 lumps and bumps collection) or, sometimes, the work is relatively tame and almost pretty (like Moschino’s house bag) or spooky, like Martin Margiela’s iconic cloven-hoof shoes or Stephen Jones’s Hitchcockian bird-chapeau. The exploration can even be clothing-optional: Man Ray’s iconic 1924 Le violon d’Ingres features Kiki de Montparnasse’s stunning bare physique transformed into a musical instrument. Decades later, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac offers a loving homage to this creation in the form of a red-carpet dress for Katy Perry.
Perhaps our current enthusiasm for this sartorial theater of the absurd is rooted in the odd political and cultural milieu we’re surrounded by right now. After all, as Schiap once said, “In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.”
In advance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming Costume Institute exhibition, “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations,” Vogue.com offers this tour of great moments in outrageous Surrealist fashion.
CLICK to see slideshow!!
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