March 06, 2012

VIDEO | Minimalism and Fashion, On My Bookshelf



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Meet the newest addition on my bookshelf; a very complete resource for references in the minimalist field of fashion. A book that briefly goes through the history of minimalism in art and fashion, and covers all its icons. But also talks about different approaches to minimalist design, it's connections with futurism, realism and functionality. If you´re into this stream in fashion, this book is a real must have. Get it HERE.

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What I found most interesting and want to share with you guys is the theory behind the opposite approaches that designers have towards function and aesthetics.
So here are two fragments of the book that discuss these oposites:

Function over aesthetics.

...the fashion theorist Rebecca Arnold suggested "Labels like Donna Karan and Calvin Klein provided the essential wardrobe for those who wished to be viewed as serious and career-minded." These minimal designs and the aesthetics of New York career clothing began to influence the work of avant-garde designers from other fashion industries. While Ladicorbic Zoran, a Yugoslavian immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1971, channeled Halston's work through rigorously basic garments in lavish, if restrained, textiles, Issey Miyake took an interest in the American employ of the working-classfabrics of cotton knit and denim. Miyake ultimately was inspired to look to his own heritage and adapted the quitled sashiko cloths and durable cottons of Japanese laborers' clothes into oversized tops, coats, and loose pants for his lower priced Plantation label. In a 1983 New York Times article, Miyake told June Weir, "I'm working hard on Plantation, my less expensive collection. I see many people wanting comfortable clothes that are easy to care for. So many woman say, 'I'm not interested in fashion. I want clothes that last for years.' I thought that after the T-shirt and the jeans, I could make clothes that are simple, interchangable.... I have only two sizes and half of the styles can be worn by men." When one such ensemble appeared in Vogue in July 1977, the magazine declared, "Issey has the Prototype."


Aesthetics over function.

Since the early 1990s the collections of Martin Margiela, Helmut Lang, Hussein Chalayan, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons have emphasized simplicity of shape and realistic form, focused of aesthetics over function and employed repetitive structures and serial systems or progressions. The principles materialize in the designers' interpretations of deconstruction fashion, defined by Barbara Vinken as the demonstration of constructedness. In 1993 the New York Times columnist Amy Spindler noted that the origins of the deconstructed entity in the literary critisism of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida and cited the Oxford English Dictionary definition; the act of undoing the construction of a thing. In "Deconstructing Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-Assembing Clothes"(1998), the historian Allison Gill associated the term "deconstruction" in fashion with garments that are unfinished and transparent. Approaching deconstruction through a minimal lens, the moniker encompasses the reduction and exposure of an object's fundamental design in order to highlight construction and rejects the intentional deconstruction or demolition of a garment through tearing or fraying the fabric or pattern or the restructuring of garments through misplaced or reassebled component parts. The garments are unfinished with care for the traditional sewing Techniques.
...Like the minimalists of the 1960s, the deconstructivist designers discussed here have created garments that concentrate on the specifics of form, pattern, and fabric rather than on the garment's essential purpose as body covering. These designs reveal the the various elements and processes of dressmaking and reduce the pattern to its fundamental parts; the subject of each of these designs is the garment itself.

34 comments:

Tinacious Me said...

wow, i'd love to get a copy! thanks for the recommendation!
WWW.TINACIOUS.ME ~ WWW.TINACIOUS.ME

Sam said...

Want!

http://uberfett.com

TheMinx said...

amazing! I wouldn't even call myself a minimalist, but it's fascinating to learn about its history and the artists that have shaped the technique.

maria said...

thx for sharing!will definetly get it, looks really inspiring.

KOKOKOI said...

wauw! thanks for making the vid. The book is really a little treasure ♥

KOKOKOI said...

+ the price is amazing. Expected it more expensive!

V. said...

Looks amazing - thanks for sharing!

http://stainsofpaint.blogspot.com/

Liza Chloë said...

Definetely getting myself this book. No kiddin.

http://www.lizachloe.com/

@lea said...

great! i love your blog, your blog title is really nice!

'xoxo

Eline said...

ziet eruit als een geweldig boek!
Leuk dat je er een filmpje over hebt gemaakt, dan krijg je er direct een duidelijker beeld van.

Sharon (Style-Chameleon) said...

I love the corset at 0:37!

And I love it that you made a video about the book.



http://style-chameleon.blogspot.com/

Marcela Machado Vanègue said...

I have this book a long time ago.

Michele said...

Heel mooi filmpje! En het lijkt me een super interessant en mooi boek!

ravenamaru said...

the photography matches the theory of simplicity.


www.ravenamaru.blogspot.com
new DIY!

Jessica de Anna said...

Yes, quite a remarkable book

Fashiable | Nanne said...

Wat een mooie foto's! Ook leuk bedacht je video!

www.fashiable.nl

TeuntjeVDW said...

Thanks for sharing! It's a beautiful book!
xx.

lescheveuxblondes.blogspot.com

JM said...

Mooi, ziet er erg inspirerend uit!

Sarah said...

I've never really dabbled in the pool of minimalism; but I really love sleek and clean it looks. My style is constantly evolving, so who knows? Maybe one day I'll try it. This book looks great! Thanks for the recommendation xxx

A. said...

another proof of your perfection. your simplicity in everything you do is just mesmerizing. coming to your blog is like entering another world and i love it.

WOLF359 said...

Seems like I need to make room in my bookshelf as well! Love that you made a video of it!

Marcela Machado Vanègue said...

And, btw, I love your senses.

Girls jumpers said...

Really great.I love it.

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing a little bit of this with us :)
http://www.desperatelyseekingpegase.com

IVOMITTRIANGLES said...

perfect

http://i-vomit-triangles.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I really love minimalism, so I enjoyed this post a lot! Really interesting and I loved the video too. You chose a great minimal song to accompany it. I adore Tycho!

Benjamin said...

hey ivania. don't know if you read this but i want to ask you sth

tomorrow i want to present a new magazine that comes out this month in germany on my blog. and i want to use your idea of showing some pages to my blog-readers through a video. same like you did here.
i hope its ok for you if i "steal" your idea and use it for my own advantage

LOVE AESTHETICS said...

Hey Benny, Sure go right ahead. It´s not my original idea either, these kinds of videos have been on the internet for years! Though I haven´t seen any of them on fashion blogs, so I guess that´s my only input in it :)

Jepa said...

Isn't that Suvi Koponen on the cover; Yay Finland if it is!

How we pose said...

Oh my god! What a beautiful book!
//Anna

COMPOSITION TWO said...

thanks for the great book recommendation! I'll buy it in any case, this is exactly my perceptive un darbeitsweise in design. look at my blog for a few blocks of this perceptive theoretical reische:

http://compositionzerotwo.blogspot.com/search/label/theory

Isabelle said...

These two extract of the book made me want to read so much more! The History and Sociology behind minimalism is really something I could be passionate by. The video is beautiful as always!

Janna said...

Lijkt me een mooi boek, hele mooie video ook!

Anonymous said...

Hello, thank you for your amazing video! I adored the book, because I am a lover of minimalism and it was like a little paradise. May I ask, what is the tittle of this beautiful song on the background? Thank you!