Fashion as a visual art

  As aesthetic phenomenon, fashion is a dynamic visual art that has a multifunctional character, encompassing both the pragmatic residential areas of the utilitarian style of living and the high artistic suggestions of original and influential artifacts born by the creators of high-quality clothing as a result of trends and transformations in human civilization and culture. Fashion design is one of the main but not the only driving force of fashion. Anti-fashion, in particular sub-culture, street style and amateur garments and additions should also be taken into account in the final constitution of fashion as a social, aesthetic and cultural phenomenon.

 

   Several serious arguments will help us to better reflect the nature of fashion as a true art: its creative character, the essence of the fashion designer, the relationship between fashion and other arts, and the aesthetic impact of fashion models. Here we have no opportunity to discuss in detail also other important evidence such as the essence and nature of the creative process in fashion design (inspiration, abstraction and synthesis), the meaning and meaning of fashion as a spectacle, the peculiarities of the experiment in fashion design, which in no way diminishes their value.

 

   The creative character of fashion can be justified in several directions. The first is the deep connection between fine and plastic arts and fashion, in which the illustration, drawing and sketch are among the main and leading projects in the creation of clothing, accessories and other components of the exterior of man (including hair, makeup, cosmetics, body arts, etc.). to the utmost extent, the way the costume is created, the garment is similar to the way the painting and the sculpture are created. Another direction is the artistic, spiritual and intangible aspects of fashion that suggest creative search and discovery of new forms, fabrics, colors, silhouettes, volumes, constructive solutions, etc. Irrational means and techniques for creation of works – intuition, fantasy, intuition, experience, provocation and manifestation of the subconscious – are of great importance here. A third, but not the last, way to justify the creative nature of fashion is that, like every work and art, it has the relevant audience – connoisseurs and consumers. We draw attention to the fact that we associate and treat especially those recipients who are looking for contact with fashion works, led by spiritual and aesthetic motives. They visit shows – shows, exhibitions and museums; communicate with catalogs and albums, or watch TV shows and films about the great in fashion design and fashion, in order to enrich themselves spiritually and not to satisfy some pragmatic need and to satisfy their own material or commercial interest.

 

   The fashion designer, as the creator of fashion items, is similar to the classical artists of artists – artists, composers, writers, singers, directors, artists and others. In his quest for his original philosophy and aesthetics, in defining his own style and style, he appears to be a complexly constructed creative personality with a rich emotional and spiritual world, infiltrated by the accumulations of life and different arts. It is appropriate to bring the opinion of Professor Valentin Angelov, who convincingly reveals the kinship and similarity between the fashion designer on the one hand and the artist from the sphere of painting and sculpture on the other: "Searching for his own style, self-expression as a creative vision of his own repertoire of expression and plastic! – just the models for the fashion show "spectacle" are the most gratifying for the purpose. In this case, the model works in the same way as the artist (painter or sculptor). Distanced from practical tasks, he expresses his Self – his views, aesthetic principles and creed; through clothing he shows the woman in the appropriate light according to his views … Thus, fashion design becomes art. It`s hardly anyone today to challenge high fashion as a kind of art. "

   Fashion designers are rightly cited as part of the spiritual elite and the core of the creative leaders of a decade or a century. The proximity – spiritual and human – between Paul Poiret and Sergey Dyagilev, Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali, Coco Chanel and Pablo Picasso and other examples testify to the 

 

 

   One of Sonia Delaunay`s great merits to the world`s theory and practice of fashion design is that she stands for the view of the integrity of textile design and clothing design. At the heart of its philosophy is the belief that color and / or composition influence the garment itself, and therefore needs to be simultaneous, designing at the same time. In her work "The Influence of Painting on Fashion," after examining the views and techniques of Delacroix, Cézanne, Sora, Matisse, and Impressionism in general, she writes: "The fashion that has only been influenced by painting so far has had to be inventive. The cut of the garment is conceived at the same time as the decoration. This new attitude logically leads to the generosity that R. Delone recently patented, and this was used by me in co-operation with Redefine Company. This is the factory-right tissue-patron. This right, along with the decorative elements appropriate to the design, were copied onto the garment. So this is the first step from a creative point of view in the collaboration between the cutter and the decorator "[6].

   Madeleine Vionnet another significant example of the relationship between fashion and classical arts. She never hid and did not suppress her interest in painting, sculpting, and partly in architecture. The inspiration he draws from the superb forms of antique sculptures and Greek statues and provides the acclaim "Euclid in fashion". As a child she dreamed of becoming a coward. The plastic arts (especially the sculpture) have attracted a great deal. She painted perfectly and this helps her in artistic reproduction and memorization by rewriting various works of art seen in world museums and galleries. At the beginning of the First World War, when her fashion house did not work, she traveled to Rome and met the masterpieces of ancient Greek and ancient Roman art. The draperies of the antique statues hit her, the shapes and drawings of the gorgeous Greek vases that will later inspire her in a collection of hers are forever embedded in her memory and aesthetic soul. Its exposure to statues, paintings, objects and various exhibits in the Louvre also enriches it in a cultural, spiritual and aesthetic way. In 1922, she evoked ovations with her models inspired by the shapes and decorations of vases so widely spread in Ancient Greece, and a year earlier – in 1921 she made a real furor with her collection across the ocean – in the United States. Fashion historians explicitly draw attention to the fact that Vione not only replayed the art of the drapery from the ancient sculptures, "Tunics" and "peplos", enriching it and giving it a modern sound, complicating it and giving it more functionality with the help of the veet cut. Her clients were specially instructed and prepared to dress and wear these flat-stitched clothes. 

Salvador Dali. Le veston aphrodisiaque (1936).

Source: Salvador Dali

Yves Saint Laurent dress inspired by Pitt Mondrian and made of wool jersey – autumn-winter collection 1965-1966.

Illustration: Yves Saint Laurent. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983.

   It would also be interesting to track specific aesthetic and creative cases related to the penetration of Cubism in the works of Paul Poiret, Lucille, Coco Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet, André Courreigne, Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, Ray Kawakubo and other ingenious fashion designers. The creative experience of artists such as Giacomo Bala, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol adds to the theory of fashion as art. Their works, experiments and experiments give the profound and extremely serious attitude of avant-garde to fashion and, in particular, to the unusual cultural, symbolic and aesthetic qualities of the garment. Even more interesting is the vast array of examples of how their art has influenced fashion and contributed to its development as a polyvalent and responsive artistic system.

 

     The aesthetic impact of fashion models may be judged on the basis of the audience`s emotional feelings about masterpieces (and not just masterpieces) in fashion art. These sensations include adoration, piety, delight, and even ecstasy caused by the sublime effect of perceiving the work of the fashion design. Here – albeit with a certain conditionality – "work" the classical notions of exalted and beautiful, beautiful and high. These aesthetic categories can be integrated into one of the most versatile fashionable terms "elegant" and "elegance". However, at least one other aesthetic effect of the impact of fashion models on the recipients (connoisseurs, critics, journalists, consumers, etc.) must be brought to light. The effect is related to the recreational resource with which modern fashion is loaded. The hedonism, born to the present-day fashion design, especially in the show and fashion show, is similar to the enjoyment of more traditional forms of popular culture and show business (concerts, recitals, happenings, performances, tours, live performances, etc.). At the same time, his nature is different. It is more fascinating and total because the display of the new fashion is increasingly associated with postmodern multimedia technologies, video and photo installations, animations, as well as integrated stage and visual forms known by the arsenals of cinema, theater, circus, opera and ballet.

 

     Higher, and this means superlative, unique and incredibly expensive fashion, generally includes clothing and jewelery, accessories and accessories made mostly by hand from high quality, expensive materials with great perfection and attention. Also – as a rule – it is a symbol and synonym for the best achievements in fashion, perceived as art. It dates back to the second half of the 19th century.

 

    Charles Frederick Worth was the father of Haute Couture. He created it in 1868 at France the Syndicate Chamber of High Fashion, which allowed only those designers and fashion houses to achieve high quality workmanship with the use of mainly handmade work and the execution of individual orders. The House defended the high vocation of the creators of unique garments and cared for the protection of their copyrights and the protection of their original works from imitations and plagiarisms. Much of the rules and principles invented by the great curate are also valid in our time when – while collapsing – the high fashion is still alive. We can trust the brief but comprehensive explanation that fashion analyst Charlotte Seiling commented on the genius of the designer, namely his ability to "combine the English technology of making women`s clothes with the French skill to demonstrate the splendor" [7].

Evening dresses from Worth, 1887.

Photo: ©  Metropolitan Museum of Art`s collection of Costume Institute

 

   In many things, he is a pioneer Charles Frederick Worth, but it is undoubtedly his merit for the fashionable presentation, advertising and demonstration of the new models. It is precisely the practice that new fashion trends should be shown by living mannequins, the most honorable of which was his own wife, Marie Vern. A significant part of his mannequins, however, were "imported" from England. It is interesting to note that, with the help of the mannequins, he demonstrated the new fashion not only to private customers, but also to clothing dealers and dressmakers. Charles Frederick Worth is also the first creator of clothing to begin signing his works.

 

   Unique works are at fabulous prices and it makes sense to be in the pockets of a few super-rich people. So in the second half of the twentieth century haute couture increasingly rivaled by clothing and ready-wear (prêt-a-porter) to reach the point that today the largest senior stylists like Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, Valentino, Gianfranco Ferre, John Galliano and others, create the

 

 

 

 Drawings of Yves Saint Laurent to his Russian collection autumn-winter 1976-1977.

Source: McDowell, C. Fashion Today. “Phaidon”, London, 2000, p.299.