Recently I have been researching the fascinating and widely covered fashion show, Dress meets body, body meets dress, by Rei Kawakubo for Comme De Garcons in 1997. It is a show that needs no introduction, it was ground-breaking at the time and is still one of the most influential fashion shows of the past few decades, and yet it was also one of Comme de Garcons worst selling collections ever as well as one of the most mocked by the press when it was released. Thus we get to the theme of this post, the fashion paradox.
For years people have debated if fashion is an artform. To some it might be a no-brainer, fashion is a means of expression through a physical form, however the debate still continues for one reason and one reason only, profit.
When fashion designers create a radical new collection that challenges the status quo of clothing as well as changing the perception of the world around us, convention needs to be thrown out the window. The result of these endeavours are some incredible pieces of clothing that transcend boundaries of what was thought to be possible with textiles. However, the only problem with these collections is the pressure of profit. How is a fashion house going to continue if they can’t sell any of their clothes?
This problem could potentially be one of the sole reasons why radical shows are a rarity in the fashion world and why a lot of shows often try to play it safe and design with their clients in mind in order to ensure that they will make a profit.
By focusing on profit, the garments change into products that can be mass produced. This makes it very difficult for people to define fashion as an artform. However this point simply doesn’t apply to every fashion designer, such as Rei Kawakubo as previously mentioned.
To me fashion can be split into two entities, product and art. This doesn’t mean the two can’t coexist, however it is rare.
It does seem that the product side is far more dominant in the fashion landscape in recent times, however there will always be one designer brave enough to go into the deep end and make history.
References
The Most Controversial Fashion Show of All Time. (n.d.). http://Www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 6, 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9RZoxj5HNA&t=420s
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