Dutch vogue designers Viktor & Rolf transformed broken picture frames filled with fabric into haute-couture gowns throughout their latest style demonstrate, by taking them off a wall and draping them more than versions.
The Wearable Artwork assortment was shown at the mezzanine area of Palais de Tokyo throughout Paris’ Haute Couture Autumn Winter 2015 fashion week yesterday.
Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, who founded the Amsterdam-based mostly style property, took to the catwalk to aid with completing the outfits in the assortment live.
1 by 1, “paintings” hung on a partition at the back of the stage were unhooked by the duo.
They reconfigured the sections of gilded frames and resources onto the designs, lifting the pieces more than their shoulders or up their legs in front of the audience.
The frames formed exaggerated silhouettes over straightforward paint-splattered denim dresses with rolled-up sleeves, created to look like artists’ shirts.
“Artwork comes to life in a gallery of surreal proportions,” explained Viktor & Rolf’s show notes. “A dress transforms into an artwork, back into a dress and into an artwork yet again. Poetry becomes actuality, morphing back into fantasy.”
The garments at the beginning of the present had been blank canvases, made from white fabric shaped with wooden batons about hems and collars.
Skirts, dresses and capes have been all created from the heavy material, held up with gold-coloured waistbands or resting above the shoulders.
Relevant story: Viktor & Rolf’s very first flagship boutique is covered with grey felt
The structures of the frames resulted in loose pleats and layers of materials.
During the presentation, the material of each outfit grew to become much more heavily patterned – decorated with photos based on Dutch Golden Age paintings of the 17th century.
“The painterly gesture is achieved through trompe l’oeil methods: each and every artwork is executed in a complex layering of laser-cut jacquards, embroideries and appliqués,” explained Viktor & Rolf.
Swans, portraits, nudes and still lifes – developed in the type of artists this kind of as Johannes Vermeer and Frans Hals – could be spotted as motifs.
“Intricate motifs parade the catwalk, transforming Golden Age paintings with the rawness and spontaneity of action painting,” the designers explained.
The shapes of the garments also became far more extravagant as the demonstrate progressed.
Making use of the frames as help, material was thrust out horizontally from the shoulders and the hips of diverse dresses.
In some areas the beige underside of the materials was uncovered, aiming to reinforce the thought of clothing-artwork hybrids.
A single of the final dresses featured a giant collar and a zig-zagging hem that stretched out and up to one side, displaying fabric decorated with a still-life image of fruit.
Following the present, Dutch artwork collector Han Nefkens acquired 1 of the pieces to donate to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
The collection builds on the artwork references of the duo’s Spring Summertime 2015 haute-couture assortment, in which floral gowns and straw head dresses were based mostly on paintings by Vincent van Gogh.
Transforming outfits on the catwalk is an idea also utilised by British designer Hussein Chalayan, who presented two-in-a single dresses that converted with a single tug in the course of his Autumn Winter 2013 display.
This season’s Haute Couture trend week in Paris took place from five to 9 July 2015.
