Game On: The World Fashion Conquest

Wessie Ling "Game On"

A new art installation by Wessie Ling (a London-based artist) is opening at Exhibit in East London. Titled “Game On: The World Fashion Conquest,” it is meant as an exploration of the way cities use fashion to achieve a range of goals beyond simply promoting the local fashion industries.

"The focal point for the exhibit is a catwalk, which has been transformed into a giant game board with a world map on the runway. This interactive exhibit encourages viewers to play a role in the global fashion system, more specifically the fashion weeks held in 85 cities around the globe. Ling's game, inspired by the world domination game 'Risk', considers the many conflicting roles a fashion week may play in a city–from endeavouring to brand a city as a fashion capital to merely using the event to generate tourism.

Wessie Ling is a London-based visual artist whose work concerns the relation among fashion, identities, and cities. Interactive-ness is key to her work. She uses interactive installation to consider how fashion represents and connects our cultural selves. Ling is currently a Senior Lecturer at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London." (From Release)

Nicola Liberatore's Exhibit

Nicola Liberatore, Passi Pellegrini, 2006

This is probably off the beaten path, but Fashion Projects’ printer and art historian Fiorenzo Ferreri has organized an exhibit of the Italian artist Nicola Liberatore, whose work recalls Arte Povera. He explores the themes of memory, mortality and the passage of time through the use of quotidian materials such as old cloth, gauze, veil, and lace. (For more info, see http://www.artinfabrica.it/)

Francesca

Electronic Etherealism and Digital Perfume

This Friday there will be lectures and discussions at the Pratt Institute on the topic of fashion and technology. Specifically, issues such as "perfumes, essential etherealism and fashion mythology, technology, memory and process" will be explored. Don't know what any of that means? Go here to read more on the themes and the presenters. The lectures will be followed the next day by a closed brainstorming session at Eyebeam, in which Fashion Projects will also be taking part. We will definitely write more about this sure-to-be intriguing experience.Details:Friday, October 27th4:00 - 8:00 pmPratt Institute, 200 Willoughby Avenue, BrooklynSponsored by the Digital Arts Laboratory, Department of Digital Arts and School of Architecture at Pratt Institute, hosted by the Department of Digital Arts at Pratt InstituteList of Speakers:-Mouna Andraos, interaction designer-Otto von Busch, fashion theorist & designer, organizer-Giana González, designer-Despina Papadopoulos, interaction designer, adjunct professor, NYU, ITP, organizer-Eddie Roschi, co-founder, Le Labo fragrances-Clemens Thornquist, Head of Fashion, School of Textiles University College of Borås, guest researcher, FITPanel discussion moderated by Timothy Mohn, Founding Director of the Digital Arts Research Laboratory at Pratt Institute in New York City

Black Style Today, Our Style Tomorrow

Last weekend the Museum of the City of New York opened a new exhibition titled "Black Style Now." An encyclopedic view of black fashion in NYC from the beginning of the 1900s to today, the exhibition focuses most heavily on the role of hip-hop in the last 15 years. I had visited the exhibition with the purpose of writing a review, but then I stumbled across Robin Givhan's article about it in the Washington Post. Honestly, I know that her article does the topic more justice than mere paragraphs here would. Instead, I would like to talk a little about a designer who had a piece exhibited in the show, Natalia Allen. Her dress was a classic halter-style wrap dress in the most pleasing color of sea-foam green. It turns out this color refers to the actual composition of the fabric itself - a mix of algae and cellulose. The hi-tech jersey releases nutrients such as calcium, magnesium and vitamin E onto the wearer's skin.

Natalia Allen's focus on fashion is definitely innovative. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, she won their Designer of the Year in 2004. She now has her own company, and also works as a consultant to many big-name designers about the emerging field of technological fashion. I had the pleasure of meeting Natalia earlier this month at (appropriately enough) a wearable technology fashion show. In my opinion, she is one of the most exciting designers out there today. Her enthusiasm for forward-thinking fashion is evident when talking to her. She is constantly seeking ways to expand the capabilities of fashion's most basic element, fabric. Even more, her work with large fashion companies promises to help unite the realms of fashion and technology in new and viable ways.

Information:
“Black Style Now”
Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue (at 103rd St)
NY, NY 10029
212.534.1672
http://www.mcny.org

Natalia Allen
http://www.nataliaallen.com

Sarah Scaturro

Eye of the Beholder

The Countesse de Castiglione, 1863-66

September 16, 2006 is the last day New Yorkers can view highlights from the late Richard Avedon's amazing photograph collection.

The oldest and most significant photos on display are those by Pierre-Louis Pierson of the Countess de Castiglione. Avedon had what was considered by many to be the most important collection of her portraits in private hands. Indeed, the small photographs on display were once owned by Christian Bérard, who mounted the photographs into a black album and then surrounded them by his own drawings and writings. Beyond their beauty, these portraits provide the fashion historian with a clear example of how the skirts in the early 1860s were beginning to form a teardrop imprint, foreshadowing the bustle periods of later decades.

As if these photos aren't reason enough to go see the show, there are also photographs by Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus and Brassaï. It took my breath away to be able to inspect Baron Adolphe de Meyer's stylized signature penciled below his portrait of the Marchesa Luisa Casati. Many times I have seen his name reprinted in early Vogues, but to see it in real life....

Info:
“Eye of the Beholder: Photographs from the Richard Avedon Collection”
Pace/MacGill Gallery
32 East 57th St., 2nd floor
212.759.7999
Ends September 16th!!! Go!

Sarah Scaturro