Saturday, January 23, 2021

Life is too short to wear boring clothes

The above applicable quote and graphic illustration I found on the internet. I'm not sure who it is attributed it to. 

Anne Hollander in her book The Fabric of Visions - The Role of Drapery in Art has this to say about the creative potential of fabrics:

Representative art has always dwelt on the fascinating capacity of cloth to bunch, stretch, hang or flutter, to be smooth and unsmooth under different circumstances, to be wrought upon and then restored, and wrought upon differently another time.

If you add to the above texture and colour you may well ask: why, for the most part, is today's fashion so boring.  

My foray into fashion design has giving me the ultimate creative challenge. In all other visual art forms I have found role models, in the world of fashion I cannot find a single source that inspires me. Today’s designers appear to be more concerned about the style of their dresses rather than in revealing the beauty of what lies beneath. I am visualizing from square one and creating from scratch. 

My experiments explore the theme of Robert Herrick's poem which dates from the 16th century:

A sweet disorder in the dress

Kindles in clothes a wantonness;

A lawn about the shoulders thrown

Into a fine distraction;

An erring lace, which here and there

Enthrals the crimson stomacher;

A cuff neglectful, and thereby

Ribands to flow confusedly;

A winning wave, deserving note,

In the tempestuous petticoat;

A careless shoe-string, in whose tie

I see a wild civility:

Do more bewitch me, than when art

Is too precise in every part.

  A lawn about her shoulders thrown...

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