METAFORM

Trendreport Dimitra Gennaris, 2011

gennaris.d@hotmail.com

Contents

Introduction p.4

Trend driver: Technical upheavals and social

consequences p.5

Human being investigation p.6

The other me p.7

Trend innovators: Character Design by artists and

designers p.8

Trend impact: Monsters p.13

Changing aesthetics p.14

Social provocation for confusing times p.18

Excavating feelings p.22

Different expression p.23

Meaning machines p.24

Evidence p.25

Trend consequence: Meta-man p.34

Shifting shape & deviant body in fashion p.35

Chaos p.38

Body construction p.40

Trend future: Metaform: container rethought p.42

Obsolete body p.43

Capabilities optimization p.44

Second envelope p.47

Suggestions for taking profit from the future trend p.53

Conclusion p.62

Exhibition p.63

References p.68

Annex p.72

Meta is a Greek prefix meaning change, transformation, after. We will

see how recent numerous representations of monsters in art and fashion are

announcing the change of self-identity, character, aesthetics, and body of

the human. We will discuss the next form of human (meta-form) and the

resulting next shapes and textiles in fashion. The meta-shapes and meta-

textiles will be based on projected human anatomy (envelope and structure).

We will finally interpret those future scenarios to see what will be in

trend in fashion. Metaform is also an „example of a connective form that

results when abstract concepts are presented in terms of concrete ones‟. In

fact, we will see how abstract can become concrete in terms of human

transformation. For that, we will start by analyzing why the monster trend

started (trend driver), who are the innovators that started it (trend

innovators), how it transformed to a global phenomenon in art and fashion

and proofs of its existence (trend impact).Then we will discuss how this

current trend is announcing a future trend and by what this is showing

(trend consequence).Finally, we will discuss the future trend and scenarios

that will help us to forecast the way it is going to translate in fashion,

and the possible ways to take profit from this trend in such sector (trend

future).

So why did the monster trend start?

4

Trend driver Technical upheavals and social

consequences

5

Human being investigation

Many artists and fashion designers are currently researching the

clothed human form, the unsettling meanings it can communicate, instead of

beautifying it with identity and personality. These investigations on form

and nature of human beings happen because technical upheavals are creating

social consequences.

What makes us human beings is changing fundamentally. In our times people

are coming closer to each other virtually but are distancing themselves

physically and personally from each other.

Pablo Reinoso, „La parole‟, 1998: close & distant at the same time.

6

The other me

Internet liberates individuals from social constraints and internet

identities do not have to relate to real people- or groups- aesthetically,

formally, ethically or morally. As a result they find an idealized version

of themselves in a self created artificial double.

Maybe we can also explain this desire to reinvent themselves through

clothing- or to model themselves on a character- to become complete. In

fact, Aristophanes suggested that humans were once double-sided creatures,

as a result Zeus having cleaved us into two, leaving us incomplete.

Who are the artists and designers investigating on human form?

Piers Atkinson, S/S09 'All The World's a Stage'.

7

Trend innovators

Character Design by artists and designers

8

This self transformation into a new character is currently expressed

by many artists who think up fantastic disguises; it is called Character

Design. The artists create hybrid creatures with supernatural forms,

zoomorphic and mythical characteristic by, amongst other, wrapping the

body, masking the face and distorting the human shape; the artificial

creatures seem to come from other cultures. Central to this is to adopt a

different identity by mean of disguise.

Nick Knight, „Galliano‟s Warriors‟, Arena Homme Plus, April 2007.

9

We can say this is providing an element of animism defined as „the process

of attributing a soul to living and non living entities‟. This was

represented by photographer Madame Peripetie‟s “Paper Monsters” (2010).

These animistic hybrids, half-human, half-sculpture, are rising from glue,

cord and tape. Each creature is constructed manually by the multiplication

of the same depiction that is glued together to form a brand new

composition, “evolutionizing” the old one.

10

Artists are also seeking the odd, the eccentric, the unnatural, the

unexpected, and the unregistered. For example artist‟s Nick Cave‟s

Soundsuits (2010, 2008) are intended to take the wearer to a space free of

class, race, and gender.

11

Another example is when by means of make-up the skin is blacked-out,

the model is eliminated, and the face as the most important part of human

communication is erased. This has a dislocating effect. How are we supposed

to read a body without a face? Is it even human? And if it is not what is

it? Our imaginations are stimulated and doorways to imaginary worlds full

of fears and colorful fantasies are opened.

Because fashion has been lacking creativity lately and the fact that we are

confronted with our significantly more banal everyday life, we need the

excitement created by the uncanny.

How does this creation of uncanny creatures transformed into a global

phenomenon in art and fashion?

Madame Peripetie, „Pughatory‟, 2011.

12

Trend impact Monsters

13

Changing aesthetics

These experimental creations also provide renewed views of fashion

and redefining our perceptions of visual culture, the limits of our

perceptions of beauty and monstrosity, questioning the established

aesthetic norms.

This is, for example, represented by artist Berlinde de Bruyckere‟s.

Her sculpture Marthe (2008) shows a body that is sexless, headless, and

inert. Abject deformation is turned into beauty as if the artist is trying

to wrestle a shape from abstract form.

14

These aesthetics are the testament to the idea that life in the modern

world is not perfect and that this should be read off the imperfect surface

of its imagery. This kind of monstrosity is used to denounce atrocities of

our times. In fact, in everyday life we are surrounded by horrifying sights

(from the media mainly) we live in terror that tomorrow it can be our turn.

We all know perfectly well that such things are ugly, not only in the moral

but in the physical sense.

Richard Stipl, „Block Sabbath II‟, 2005.

15

In addition, « individualism, selfishness and the disappearing

collective rituals letting people see others as similar to them (and

understand each other) therefore results in making people see each other as

monsters. »

Estelle Hanania, „Parking lot Hydra‟, 2009

16

These are some of the reasons why (in this monstrous world) in

Character Design we see mostly monsters. They have been storming not only

the catwalks, but also exhibitions, advertisement campaigns, editorial

shoots and even songs.

Estelle Hanania for „Good Guys‟ shoe brand.

17

Social provocation for confusing times

Some are represented melting into the background. Being imperceptible

represents both personal escape and social provocation to this world, and

shows how this world affects people living in it. This dissolving into

background is also represented outside fashion by artists Levi van Veluw

and Liu Bolin.

Textiles that can make people seem invisible are created. In Greek

mythology, Hades (meaning the 'unseen') possessed a helmet capable of

making the wearer invisible. Invisible fibers were first referenced in the

middle Ages, when a belief in invisible fern seeds was widely held.

Levi van Veluw, „Origin Of The Beginning‟, 2011.

18

Objects are only visible because light reflects off their surfaces

and travels to the spectator‟s eye. When a surface neither reflects nor

absorbs light, because it cannot pass through it, invisibility occurs.

A research team fabricated objects from metamaterials with surface textures

smaller than the wavelength of light. The cloak they produced projects a

small shadow but was otherwise invisible.

Moreover, research into active camouflage technologies has led to panels

and coatings capable of changing color or luminosity to make an object or

individual blend into its surroundings.

Ina Jang, „Paper boy‟, 2010.

19

Cover of the album of the group „The Black Soft‟, 2011.

As for retro-reflective textiles, they are made in both woven and

nonwoven fabrics, and each type incorporates millions of microscopic glass

pellets that reflect light.

One of the best-known examples is the Transparent Cloak, which was designed

to look like an ordinary hooded grey overcoat. It is linked to a camera

recording the scenes behind it, which projects the images onto the front of

the garment. The effect renders the wearers virtually transparent, because

the people in front of them can see the scenery that their body would

normally block from view.

In fashion, designers could use the technology to make it possible

for designers to create the illusion of extreme silhouettes not normally

viable in clothing design. Enabling textiles to see other surfaces would

make it possible for them to style themselves and would make it possible

for linings and accessories to be better coordinated with garments.

20

Monsters in fashion are also often wearing masks. The word „monster‟

comes from Latin „mostrum‟ « that which is shown forth or revealed » and

contrary to what we think, masks have a revealing function. They are also a

mechanism for ordering the world, providing capacity to transform yet to

fix identity, which we need now more than ever before because of our

troubled times.

Nadine Byrne, „The Nun‟, 2009.

Paul Graves and Joe Fish, „Fashion monster Blahnik‟, 2006.

21

Excavating feelings

Another reason why monsters are depicted so much currently is because

people are getting focused on what they have inside. They make their own

excavation of themselves. They dig in the complexity and isolated feelings

enclosed within outer uniformity.

Individuals expose their feelings now more than ever, to free

themselves from inhibitions and conventions. They take more risks (in

personal style, opinions, etc.)

Modern time says for future times: “Look inside, have the guts or

hate somebody‟s guts, as long as you don‟t stay neutral.” In fact, we see a

rise in extreme opinions whether they are political or not. For example we

can think of this year‟s Jean-Paul Guerlain‟s (founder of Guerlain French

perfume brand), Galliano‟s and Lars von Trier‟s extreme discourses.

Monster characters are alarming personas that function defensively as an

armor to protect and offensively to shock and horrify.

Photographer: Ruggero Mengoni, Art Director: Wowo Kraus, Stylist & Concept: Yeong Win-Ni.

22

Different expression

Monsters are the characters that live amongst us or even within us,

and who are possibly our other selves that we have kept hidden. These

characters offer many opportunities of expression. They signify any number

of complex ideas from vulnerability and nostalgia, to fetishism and the

downright bizarre.

Nick Cave said “I want to evoke feelings that are unnamed, that

aren't realized except in dreams”. Similarly, the Parangolés, Oiticica‟ s

best-known works, were explorations of the individual‟s role in collective

experience as „a participant‟, transforming his own body into a prop, in a

playful experience that becomes an expressive art.

Andrea Ayala Closa, „Denominate a space‟, 2007.

23

Meaning machines

For ancient Greeks, the monsters were repulsive and terrifying

creatures, but also celestial and wonderful phenomenon of the world and

universe surrounding them. The word monster in Greek is still used to

describe everything that is strange and requires an explanation.

Looking at monsters just like curiosity cabinets “permits to the curious to

seep into most intimate secrets of nature by the fantastic things it offers

so that he can have the sensation to seize the world‟s creation process.”

Monsters are "meaning machines”. In 2011 we are trying to determine deeper

meanings of the body and clothing

Florencia Kozuch, 2010.

24

Performance

Alexis Themistocleous performance at Art Athina art fair in May

2011, to promote the third episode of his story entitled

"METALLAXIS" (Greek word meaning Mutation). He appeared in the

fair with one of his "freaks". To explores scary appearance /

monsters.

Vibskov & Emenius in January 2009

Evidence

The monster phenomenon started around the years 2004-2005, but truly

started peaking in 2009.

25

Editorial

Dazed and confused June 2011.

Digital art

Takeshi Murata - Monster Movie created in 2005 but became popular

in May 2011

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1f3St51S9I&feature=related)

Matt Pyke in 2010 for MTV

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PDcJeymhWM,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vxRk3dpYhg&feature=related)

26

Bl33n, created in 2011

Delfina Delettrez at Colette shop, October 2011, Paris

Mainstream brand

Topshop, London, March 2011

Merchandising

27

« ARRRGH! Monsters in Fashion » May 2011 at the Benaki Museum in Athens

Exhibitions

« Uncanny » exhibition at Barbican in October 2011

« On aura tout vu présente Madeleine Galléa » hybrid beings at NMNM

Monaco in June 2011

28

Fashion

Rozalb de mura « The Remains » S/S 010 inspired by a dark fairytale

Antwerp 2010 So Takayama

Bas Kosters “Monster Dress” 2009, the collection with the name 'The Fashion

Mutant' is inspired by mutation in nature and is a metaphor for changes in

society and the fashion industry.

29

Antwerp 2011 Manon Kündig

Isabel Mastache Martinez “Tin Soldiers” 2010

Shin Murayama‟s “The beast within” 2009

30

Comme des Garcons S/S 09

Walter Van Beirendonck S/S 012

Alithia Spuri-Zampetti S/S 09

31

Designer Takashi Nishiyama‟s collection “monster hunter” (October 2010)

features voluminous layers of dark fur, drowning the models in monster

silhouettes; it is simultaneously fantasy and nightmare. The story of the

collection is about salary-men fighting with monsters, and wearing the

details of these monsters on their own uniform.

Knitwear collection by British label Sibling called « Monster Knit »

(September 2010)

Jean-Paul Lespagnard “The believers” 2010

32

Music

NewVillager “Lighthouse” February 2011 music video

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moL0JgNek5A)

SKRILLEX - Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, October 2010

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSeNSzJ2-Jw)

Kanye West- Monster, October 2010

(http://www.lesinrocks.com/inrockstv/inrockstv-

article/t/66145/date/2011-06-05/article/kanye-west-devoile-le-

clip-de-monster/)

How is this current trend announcing a future trend and by what is this

showing?

Books

“Images of the Human Being”, R. Klanten, S. Ehmann, F. Schulze.;

Gestalten (January 2011) presents current trends in capturing the

visual identity of human beings. The book is a collection of

permutations of the outer human shell created with costumes and

masks as well as photo-technical and artistic manipulation.

“Not a Toy, fashioning radical characters”, Pictoplasma

Publishing, Berlin (July 2011).

NewVillager “Lighthouse”

33

Trend consequence

Meta-man

34

Shifting shape & deviant body in fashion

This trend of monster in fashion shows changing and deconstructed

human form. Human body does not have to be symmetrical in order to fulfill

its functions in the best possible way.

Dysfunctional fashion, artificial implants, accessorized, and

asymmetrical proportions are extensions to function-concept of fashion,

shifting the concept of personal identity beyond current fashion tastes. In

the late 70‟s artist Leigh Bowery‟s costumes were essentially the same kind

of thing that Lady Gaga has made into a mainstream act.

Paul McCarthy, „Basement bunker‟, 2003.

35

In 1997, Rei Kawakubo‟s S/S collection (“lumps and bumps”) demonstrated

that volume in unexpected places has an interesting sculptural effect and

also that deviant bodies speak directly to our fears and our most bizarre

fantasies. The padded designs from this collection, each of which was a

variation on a theme, could be seen as speculative prototypes, or an

experiment in rethinking the human creature.

36

In the same spirit, we can mention designer Leonneke Derksen‟s

collection “Formosa” (2011) that inverts the body sides and thus the

volumes.

In a society and a time like our own when the notion of the social

body is exploding, we should not be surprised that we are experiencing a

sudden eruption of new, alternative visions of the body in fashion, art,

and other domains.

37

Chaos

Body and mind adapt to calamitous ephemeral world, as nature of

fashion helps us familiarize ourselves with change, to be more flexible in

a culture that never stops repositioning itself.

“We are living in The Fifth Season, a time of disorderness. It is a season

of random occurrence of surprise, with a major impact. The disproportionate

role of high-impact, hard to predict and rare events are beyond the realm

of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology. As a

matter of fact, random events can never be calculated, predicted or

avoided. The only way to survive through The Fifth Season is to live the

chaos.”

In fact, the modern times are based on accelerated changes and

liquidity. There is not enough time for anything to solidify, no reference

points for human actions and long-term projects. We need to be flexible so

we cannot attach ourselves to something too much; whether it is family,

friends, commitments, locations.

Justine Khamara, „Untitled portrait 3‟, 2008.

38

Symbol of rupture & discontinuities – the meta-man is one of the key

to ponder over the posthumanity. Humanity is now able to play God, to

redesign Nature, to create new creatures, to enhance it as it will. God is

dead, and Man is dying – the meta-man, stemming from a mutation‟s process,

does not care about what the Evolution command. He invents his own rules,

builds his-self step by step, explores a virgin area, looking for his own

identity. The human being creates and recreates himself beginning from an

abstract and symbolic "other-self".

Estelle Hanania, „Atilla‟.

39

Body construction

The current corporeal experimentation and radical new reinventions of

the body tells us that we are at a turning point in history. In our

fragmented post-modern age it seems unlikely that there will be ever again

a coherent, uniform consensus about which form the ideal body, social body

should take.

In many artistic works the investigation moves forward by trying to

establish how much or how little is needed to define individuals and to

make them recognizable as such. Questions are now asked about the

proportions and purposes of the human body. Everything that is being

researched in order to restore a function that was previously available is

also being interrogated in terms of its aesthetics possibilities. In other

words restoring lost capabilities and optimizing existing ones in healthy

human beings in the required way are inevitably linked.

Emil Alzamora, 2004.

40

The body has always been a crossroads between aesthetic and

ideological power and is now even more radically crucial both culturally

and politically. It is under construction, going through processes of

identity redefinition and overturning sexual and social roles.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, a number of social and technological

developments have destabilized our conceptions of bodily integrity,

subjectivity, and sexuality. We are physically different from our

forefathers, partly because of what we take into our bodies and partly

because of things like glasses and surgery.

In her first critical essay „The Post-organic‟ Teresa Macrì advances an

analysis of the bio-technological body. Many performers are linked to this

contamination between flesh and technology: from Chris Burden, Vito

Acconci, COUM Transmissions, Stelarc, Marcel.lì Antunez Roca, and Matthew

Barney who focuses on mutating human and uses malleable materials such as

plastic and wax.

Danilo Venturi, teacher at Polimoda, also describes the transhuman as

meat and plastic; as human and machine.

In S/S 04 collection “good old days, industrial revolution”, Kei Kagami

also expressed the body as the ultimate machine. Fabric is controlled by

hardware and gets pulled taught depending on physical action of wearer.

What is astounding is the extent to which the body is completely

reinvented over and over again in all sorts of radically different ways

which possess that strange, unnatural outrageous « ceaselessly unforeseen

originality ». It is as if our species is determined to take the body as

far as possible away from its starting point.

What is the future of monster trend and its linked scenarios? How is it

going to translate in fashion, and which are the possible ways to take

profit from this trend in such sector?

Phillip Toledano, „Hope and fear‟, 2004.

41

Trend future Metaform: container rethought

42

Obsolete body

Artist Stelarc believes “that a body with this current form and

functions cannot operate effectively in the technological terrain that it

has created.” The body has problems coping with the sort of intense

information that is really alien to its own sensory apparatus; the artist

believes that we have to consider how we can rethink the design of the

body.

43

Capabilities optimization

As a result we see reframers, tools and mediators appearing to increase our

sensorial, communication, and environment‟s perception capabilities.

In terms of senses:

Sight : o Steve Mann‟s wearComp glasses permit to see in complete

darkness, see infrared which makes grass look brighter etc.

major corporations are developing consumer versions of their

own.

o Tiny plastic eye prosthetic will create display for everything

from email to video game immersion, allow the wearer

navigational assistance and various augmentation capabilities,

and even serve as a sensor for monitoring the body through the

biomarkers in the eye (Babak Parviz, 2008, active contact

lens.

o Wafaa Bilal had a camera implanted at the back of his head,

enabling him to see behind himself.

Dimitri Daniloff, Re-birth, 2003.

44

o Lawrence Malstaf compass wearable interfaces mark visible and

invisible conditions of surrounding space of the body by

transferring physical or electronic data into tactile form

through vibrations, pulses and compression.

If we interpret this metaphorically we are trying to make the

invisible visible, because the distinctive feature of postmodernity

is the dematerialization of reality; processes that rule the world

are mostly invisible. Also we are blind to some uncertainties such as

bacterial threats.

Touch: Tactile human machine interfaces expanding touch sense (Jawish

Hameed, Ian Harrison, Mark Gasson, Kevin Warwick, 2010, subdermal

magnetic implant).

Smell: The organ responsible for odor recognition is stimulated

through nose plugs (Susana Soares, 2007, new organs of perception-

organ stimulation).

Giuseppe Mastromatteo, Indepensense, 2011.

45

In terms of communication: telepathy: we will be able to think to each

other, and send each other emotions, graphics, colors, and complex concepts

far more concisely that we can currently do brain implants. In 1990, Man

After Man book by Dougal Dixon was already predicting a mutated form of

human that could communicate by telepathy (see annex).

And finally, in terms of perception of environment: whiskers grown in

eyebrows would increase our perception of the environment (Susana Soares,

2007, new organs of perception- genetic trace part 1).

Madame Peripetie, „Miss Communication‟, 2007.

46

Second envelope

In terms of textiles, capabilities are increased by, for example,

mechanical exoskeletons. When the wearer grasps an object, the fabric

automatically constricts across his fingers and palm and tightens his grip

considerably.

In addition, armor-like textiles mimicking the dense shells of crustaceans

and the hard membranes of insects provide humans with tough exoskeletons of

their own. In fact, contemporary designers use a range of materials to

evoke armor. Plastics and padded leather can be sculpted into hard surfaces

or combined with textiles to create a flexible fit. Alexander McQueen‟s

collections have included rigid corsets made from molded leather that

formed a tough casing around the body. Hussein Chalayan has designed

dresses made from a combination of glass fiber and resin, molded into two

front and back panels.

47

In fact, it seems that textiles are becoming the human‟s second

envelope of mutation, mimicking skin properties. As if their mutation

process was the opposite of the snake‟s mutation, growing a new skin

instead of losing an old skin. The new skin sometimes gains augmented

capabilities.

In the Fifth Season, textile will be survivalware. One of the body's

primary interfaces with the environment, skin plays a crucial role in

keeping the body intact.

Andreas Larsson, Dazed & Confused September 2007.

48

The development of biocompatible polymers has made it possible to

create inert fibers that the human body recognizes as its own. Skin

becomes a harvesting site.

We can here speak about “‟Survivalwhere‟ which indicates the

survivalism that is grown in the human physical, which will be self-

sufficiency to live through and survive in any circumstances » in the

Fifth Season. Again Man after Man book was depicting a meta-man

called “the tic” on who‟s skin organs were grown(see annex).

Artists LucyandBart have represented that by creating biological self

replicating clothing that grows from the body. Michael Burton‟s

„exposure breaking the species barrier‟ (2007) is also an experiment

about body growing organisms.

LucyandBart, „Germination Day one‟, day eight, 2008.

49

Researchers are replicating the skin's antibacterial properties in

antimicrobial fabrics, and endowing textiles with the capacity to

react to environmental toxins and alert the wearer to their presence.

Royal College of Art researcher Anne Toomey is pioneering the concept

of 'visible invisibility' to develop print textiles with patterns and

motifs that change color to indicate the presence of contamination.

The integration of antibacterial and fungal substances into fibers

imbues textiles with powerful antimicrobial properties enabling them

to repel germs or kill them completely.

Lucyand Bart, „Exploded view part two‟, 2008.

50

Ted Sabarese,‟The Visualization of sound 2‟, 2010.

High tech textiles are mimicking skin as their designers thread them

with vessels, capillaries and chemical-filed cavities. Like flesh,

they are riddled with sensory membranes and pierced with fluid-

emitting pores.

Human skin is mimicked by mesoporous textiles, whose unique structure

allows the moisture produced by the body to be released through the

fabric. This textile was used for the Absolute Zero jacket created by

Hugo Boss.

Liquids in textile consist of iron particles which when exposed to

magnetic fields, change dramatically, instantaneously shifting from

labile liquid to solid matter.

51

To conclude, textiles play a key role in molding the body's shape

into stylized second skin apparel or in crafting rigid garments that define

space around the body, they also lend themselves to the creation of

sculptural shapes that explore new representations of the human form.

Those meta-humans remind us of the monster trend because they can embody a

second character by wearing a second envelope whether it is skin or

exoskeleton.

Boris Hoppek, „Virginal membrane‟, 2010.

52

Photographer: Ruggero Mengoni, Art Director: Wowo Kraus, Stylist & Concept: Yeong Win-Ni

(Polimoda), Garments & Accessories by: Ilenia Durazzi, Model: Alessandro Ferrara

Rein Vollenga

Suggestions for taking profit from the future trend

Styling

masking the face

misplaced limbs

deformed body

Madame Peripetie, „sight of transgression‟, 2005

Bart Hess for Levis, 2010.

Richard Burbridge “War Hero » for Dazed & Confused July 2010

woven skin as if it was textile

Anders Krisar, „Cuirass‟, 2005

53

Book by Tomoko Nakamichi (see Annex)

Iris Van Herpen S/S 012 Mashallah Design and Linda Kostowski

ABK Maastricht in the Lichting show 2011: Anne-Kathrin Bannier

Design

Antwerp 1st Year student‟s show, 2011

Iris Van Herpen A/W 011-012

asymmetrical proportions/ distorting the human shape

Iris Van Herpen S/S 012

54

Crustaceans‟ shells and insects‟ membranes

Georgia Hardinge A/W 011-012

exoskeletons

Gareth Pugh S/S 012

Una Burke‟s body pieces

Iris Van Herpen S/S 011

55

second skin/ flesh like

Charlie Le Mindu S/S 010 “Girls of Paradise”, shiny and stretch

Maison Martin Margiela‟s skin like textiles: S/S 011 (rigid); S/S 012 (semi rigid/ stretch)

56

Marc Jacobs S/S 012

Alpana and Neeraj at WIFW S/S 012

Malou Verharen and Ferdinand Sebastiaan Hartgers A/W 010-011

Gareth Pugh A/W 07

Alexander McQueen S/S 96

“meat and plastic”: transparent thick plastic adding a „fake‟/‟prosthetic‟

feel.

regrowth of human tissue: lumps and bumps

57

Brands to apply trend to

„Conceptual‟ brands often mentioned above: Alexander Mc Queen: he expressed mutation in S/S 010 collection

“Plato's Atlantis”, inspired by Atlantis. He said “ice cap melts, the

level of the sea rises and humans evolve in order to live beneath the

sea like at the beginning. Methods such as stem cell technology and

cloning could help us survive to it.”

Hussein Chalayan: one of the first fashion designers to engage with

technological systems, and many of his collections have pioneered

garments that feature wireless technology, electrical circuitry and

embedded connectors.

Martin Margiela: about S/S 012 show Danilo Venturi said “hair on the

eyes instead of the typical Margiela's mask, the plastic envelop of

the garment is the dress, artificial elements are now body-embedded,

is the artificial the new natural? »

58

Textile suggestions

Ferrofil fibres textile (malleable)

Plastic

Thin leather

Stretch fabric

Latex

Other interpretation of the concept

Designer Ilenia Durazzi based her collection on the fact that:

« Everything revolves around the idea of the future man, a man who will be

able to increase his cognitive and physical abilities thanks to the new

technologies, and to overcome some undesirable aspects of his nature, such

as disease and aging. I drew my inspiration from the contemporary artist

Stelarc, known for his radical theory concerning the obsolescence of the

human body. He proposes to replace the old inefficient natural organs with

new and more advanced artificial organs. But he doesn‟t conceive them just

as simple “prosthesis” substituting the natural ones: he doesn‟t want to

restore a presumed “original condition” but exceed it. But we can no longer

speak of “hearing” understood as a substitute for reinstatement of “piece”

as there is no natural desire to restore the original condition, but the

excess of this. Technology is therefore the only way to improve the human

condition, but only by studying the origin of the human kind it will be

possible to achieve the progress. In order to represent the relation

between progress and primitive tradition I worked on the British

colonialism in Africa, when the first explorers met the native population

of the Masai, still living as the men of the origins. This historical

episode can be taken as the symbolic encounter between progress and

primitiveness: the white technological man – strong, courageous, with

technical equipment, ready to face the danger and the unknown – finding

himself nose to nose with nomadic people, living in uncontaminated wide

spaces, deep in touch with the rhythm of nature. »

Photographer: Ruggero Mengoni, Art Director: Wowo Kraus, Stylist & Concept: Yeong Win-Ni,

Garments & Accessories by: Ilenia Durazzi, Model: Alessandro Ferrara

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Bart Hess, ‘Echo’, 2011.

Inspiring artists

Bart Hess: especially the works “STRP Leader” representing well

human‟s second envelope mentioned above

(http://barthess.nl/portfolio/strp-mutant/), “A Hunt for technology”

(http://barthess.nl/portfolio/hunt-for-high-tech/) seeking to harness

both nature and technology and create armored skin and fur for a new

human archetype incorporating animalistic and fetishistic instincts,

Echo (http://barthess.nl/portfolio/echo/): an animation for the

National Glassmuseum in Netherlands. Simple but complex, minimalist

expression of body and structural form created to encompass the human

landscape with fluid movement of object and humanoid shell.

Inspiring architecture

Transforming, environment adapting

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8POOqz2gOE)

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Chaos

Excavating feelings

Social provocation

Exoskeleton

Insect shell (metallic)

Second envelope

Ultimate machine (metallic)

Meat and plastic

(transparent uncolored plastic)

Harvesting site

Different expression

Mechatronic (metallic) Microchip implant (metallic)

Color card

Mostrum Meta-man Container rethought

To conclude, we saw that investigation on the form and nature of

human beings happens because technical upheavals are creating social

consequences. Internet liberates individuals from social constraints.

People can self create an idealized artificial double.

This is currently expressed by many artists who think up hybrid

creatures (Character Design), monsters. These experimental creations

question the established aesthetic norms. The kind of monstrosity is used

to denounce atrocities of our times and because we see each other as

monsters. Individuals expose now more than ever that inner monster.

This trend of monster in fashion shows changing and deconstructed

human form, which is happening because the notion of the social body is

exploding. Body with this current form and functions cannot operate

effectively in the technological terrain that it has created. So textiles

are becoming the human‟s second envelope of mutation, mimicking skin

properties with augmented capabilities;

Metaform as an „example of a connective form that results when

abstract concepts are presented in terms of concrete ones‟ permits the

reader to get inspiration from the conceptualization, styling, design, and

branding suggestions to represent the meta-man in fashion.

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Exhibition

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Project oneself in the future through technology, see how one‟s face can

change shape, consistency.

“These investigations on form and nature of human beings happen because technical upheavals are creating

social consequences.

What makes us human beings is changing fundamentally. In our times people are coming closer to each other

virtually but are distancing themselves physically and personally from each other.

Internet liberates individuals from social constraints and internet identities do not have to relate to

real people- or groups- aesthetically, formally, ethically or morally. As a result they find an idealized

version of themselves in a self created artificial double, an avatar.”

Special thanks to Yeong Win-ni, master in styling at Polimoda for

productive brainstorming and inspiration.

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“Body and mind adapt to calamitous ephemeral world, as nature of fashion helps us familiarize ourselves

with change, to be more flexible in a culture that never stops repositioning itself.

Symbol of rupture & discontinuities – the meta-man is one of the key to ponder over the posthumanity.”

The malleable head (plasticine).

The distorted shape, lumps and bumps (polystyrene).

“The word „monster‟ comes from Latin „mostrum‟ « that which is shown forth or revealed » and contrary to

what we think, masks have a revealing function. They are also a mechanism for ordering the world providing

capacity to transform yet to fix identity, which we need now more than ever before because of our troubled

times.”

The head in the clouds, see also p.31 (cotton).

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Evolution of human shape, second envelope/skin (wax).

References

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Books

Not a Toy: Radical Character Design in Fashion and Costume: Fashioning Radical Characters,

Judith Hoos Fox, Ted Polhemus, Ginger Gregg Duggen, Vassilis Zidiankis, Pictoplasma

Publishing, 2011, 350 p.

Doppelganger: Images of the Human Being , R. Klanten, S. Ehmann, F. Schulze, Die Gestalten

Verlag, 2011, 240 p.

See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception, Madeline Schwartzman, Black Dog

Publishing, 2011, 192 pages

On Ugliness, Umberto Eco, Alastair McEwen, Rizzoli; First Edition edition, 2007, 456 p.

Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity, and Deathliness, Caroline Evans, Yale

University Press, 2003, 334 p.

Textile Futures: Fashion, Design and Technology, Bradley Quinn, Berg Publishers, 2010,

320p.

Monsters :an investigator's guide to magical beings, John Michael Greer, Llewellyn

Publications; ZZZ edition, , 2001, 312 p.

Interviews, notes

Yeong Win-ni, master in styling at Polimoda, about « Fifth season », « survivalware »

and « survivalwhere ».

Chiara Cantisano, master in trendforecasting at Polimoda.

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Courses

Danilo Venturi, Fashion Archeology, Polimoda Masters. (+ Facebook page)

Consultancy of Alessandro Pierattini, Textile Technology, Polimoda Masters.

Essays Teresa Macrì. The Post-organic, 1996.

Poppi, C. 1994. The Other Within: masks and masquerades in Europe, in J. Mack (ed.),

Masks: the art of expression, London.

Websites http://www.atopos.gr/pdf/ARRRGH!%20Monsters%20in%20Fashion%20FR.pdf

http://www.britishcouncil.org/greece-arts-and-culture-monsters-in-fashion.htm

http://www.greekfestival.gr/en/event119-arrrgh--monsters-in-fashion.htm

http://agoras.typepad.fr/regard_eloigne/cabinets_de_curiosites/

http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/horror.html

http://www.fashionprojects.org/?p=2571

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/berlinde_debruyckere.htm

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Magazines

Zeitgeist magazine : http://www.zeitgeistmagazine.com/#/arrrgh-monsters-in-

fashion/4552155767S

Zoot magazine : http://www.zootmagazine.com/2011/06/01/arrrgh-monsters-in-fashion/

Dapper Dan magazine : http://www.dapperdanmagazine.com/1181/takashi-nishiyama-talks-

to-filep-motwary#more-1181

Vestoj magazine issue 2 „on fashion and magic‟.

Thesis Draw me a mutant… : The „becoming-superhuman‟ regarding to contemporary art, PK, June 2006,

95p.

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Annex

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