Material Translations: Japanese Fashion at the Art Institute of Chicago

Rei Kawakubo for Comme de Garcons, Dress, 1983. All images courtesy Art Institute of Chicago.

Rei Kawakubo for Comme de Garcons, Dress, 1983. All images courtesy Art Institute of Chicago.

Ever since Japan was first opened to trade with the West in the mid-19th century, Japanese arts and crafts have had an enduring influence on those of the West. Fashion is perhaps the most public face of this influence. Designers such as Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons led the wave that continues with younger designers such as Harajuku. Japan remains a nation whose rich textile and costume traditions have translated into cutting-edge innovation.

In Japan both courtly life and samurai culture were highly stylized. In the late 17th century the cultural focus shifted from military actions to bureaucratic ones. With this shift came the popularity of dark colors, especially black, which symbolized self-discipline. Even today the same phenomenon indicates urbane good taste. Continue reading →

Ottoman by Design: Branding an empire

What are the hallmarks of Ottoman style, how did this style originate, and why is it still important today?

This textile clearly reveals an ogival pattern. Fragment of green-ground kemha, Istanbul
, First half 17th century
. TM 1994.27.3. Gift of Neutrogena Corporation. All images courtesy the National Textile Museum.

This is an excellent example of a typically Ottoman stylistic interpretation of naturalistic flowers. Kemha with small-scale floral decoration (detail), Probably Istanbul, 
Last quarter of 16th century. 
TM 1.72, Acquired by George Hewitt Myers in 1952

The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. is currently featuring the exhibition “The Sultan’s Garden: The Blossoming of Ottoman Art”. This exhibition chronicles how one of the world’s most powerful empires developed a singular artistic style and how that style gained lasting influence, just as modern brands strive to do today. In the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire began representing itself at home and abroad through a single, instantly recognizable visual aesthetic. Their stylized tulips, roses, carnations, and other flowers came to embody the influence of the empire, and even today continue to epitomize the arts of Turkey.
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Green Patriot Posters

Image courtesy Edward Morris and The Canary Project

If you want people to save something you have to show it to them. People only save what they see.”  Sharon Motola, Director of the Belize Zoo, from the book “The Last Flight of the Macaw”

Posters are a form of media that can be compared to wildfire—they crop up like sparks landing on trees, lampposts, buildings; they spread ideas to the public, stir up excitement and anger and passion; they incite people to action.  Posters have been around since the 16th century, when the printing press was invented and it became possible to print pages quickly and cheaply and then distribute them to the masses.
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Space-Light-Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta at the Museum of Art and Design

Margaret de Patta, 1960-1964, Sterling silver, beach stones, pebbles; fabricated. Photo: John Bigelow Taylor

Margaret De Patta was a truly California designer. Originally a painter, she studied in San Diego at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and briefly at the Arts Students League in New York. Always self-directed, she taught herself to make jewelry when she couldn’t find a suitably “modernist” wedding band; she eventually gave up painting entirely, preferring design in three dimensions. Like modern architecture and sculpture, for De Patta jewelry design was about “space, form, tension, organic structure, scale, texture, interpenetration, superimposition, and economy of means.”
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Get your go-go boots it’s Youthquake!

Giorgio di Sant’Angelo, ensemble, cotton, suede, shell, feathers, 1968, USA, gift of Marina Schiano. Photograph ©The Museum at FIT.

Get your go-go boots it’s Youthquake! at The Museum at FIT fitnyc

When did street culture become high fashion? When did youth dictate what the older folks would wear? In the 1960s! The British Invasion was happening and they brought more than music with them. This was the birth of a new “mod” style which included fashion and culture. This was the decade defined by the ascendance of young people – who were warning each other not to trust anyone over 30 – as a political, social, and aesthetic force. The term Youthquake was coined in 1963 by Diana Vreeland who was the editor-in-chief of Vogue at that time. Continue reading →

California Design, 1930-1965: “Living in a Modern Way.” (part 2)

Gertrud Natzler (b, Austria 1908-1971, active Los Angeles), Otto Natzler (b. Austria 1908-2007, active Los Angeles), Bowl, 1943;Earthenware; Height: 3.5 in (8.8cm); diameter: 8.5in. (21.5cm), LACMA, Gift of Rose A Sperry 1972 Revocable Trust; © 2007 Gail Reynolds Natzler, Trustee of The Natzler Trust; Photo © 2011 Museum Associates/LACMA

Opening October 1st at the LA County Museum, this new exhibition examines the state’s key role in shaping the material culture of the country at mid-century. California Design features more than 350 objects as well as two period re-creations. Last week, we introduced the exhibit. Now here’s a closer look at the four sections: “Shaping,” “Making,” “Living,” and “Selling.” Continue reading →