Artwear: Fashion and Anti-Fashion
Product Description
A colorful survey of the often provocative and always highly creative relationship between art and fashion.
A crocheted wool coat of exuberant textures and glowing colors, a dyed and pleated silk vest of baroque sensuousness, a headdress of ribbon intricately ruched in the shape of a leaping fish, an evening gown made from shredded dollar bills, a kimono that carries art appliquéd on its sleeve—these are just a few of the beautiful, imaginative, even surreal works of wearable art included in this richly illustrated book, published to accompany an exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Melissa Leventon shows that wearable art is the latest in the long line of aesthetic dress reforms that began with the Arts and Crafts movement. She then traces the history of this art form as it developed out of the hippie styles and studio fiber art of the 1960s and 1970s until today, highlighting many of the leading practitioners and discussing its characteristic forms and processes. The works brought together range from pieces that are only technically wearable to one-of-a-kind works that are at home either on one’s back or on one’s wall to limited-edition luxury clothing.
Artwear will be invaluable to fashion designers and students, art and textiles professionals, craftspeople, and anyone with an interest in the fashion world.
Featuring work by Yves Saint Laurent, Issey Miyake, Erté, K. Lee Manuel, Kansai Yamamoto, Ben Compton & Marian Clayden, Genevieve Dion, Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Janet Lipkin, Kaisik Wong, Friends of the Rag, and many others. 200 color illustrations.
Artwear: Fashion and Anti-Fashion
Written by admin under Fashion Books.
kime Buzzelli
July 28, 2010 at 7:18 pm
I originally bought this book for the section on Kasik Wong- whose clothing art work is STUNNING! This book features other unique designers who have turned fabric into scultural show pieces. There are things in the book for everyone. I tended to like some more than others- but the sections that showed handcrafted exotic work -puffy and strange were inspirational to me. Others seemed more minimal and origami inspired. Most of the book has beautiful images.
Rating: 4 / 5
Sandy
July 28, 2010 at 10:03 pm
This book has a lot of color pictures, fantastic, imaginative artwear, much to make new ideas flow, worth keeping to revitalize the thought processes every now and again.
Rating: 4 / 5
carol irvin
July 29, 2010 at 12:17 am
There are two different camps in wearable art, the home sewer-crafter group and the artist group. This book DOES NOT COVER the home-sewer crafter group. IT DOES COVER those who want to become wearable artists, producing works fit for art galleries, art museums and major art to wear fashion shows.
This is NOT a project oriented book with pictures and instructions to take one through doing a particular project. There is no how-to aspect of this book.
What this book does do is show you the major art to wear work. Virtually all of this is imagined from the ground up, where the artist first tackles the making of the fabric and finally makes a design to showcase that fabric. The fabric comes first. These fabric treatments run the gamut too. Fabrics are dyed, painted, pleated, woven, refabricated, burned out, pieced, torn, etc.,
This is a formidable artistic undertaking in an of itself. After the fabric is created, an innovative design is used to best showcase the fabric on the model or on a wall.
The resulting clothing is not something that is worn day to day or in ordinary life. These are show stopping clothes which would only look right at a high end event.
In addition to clothing, accessories, such as headgear, are also covered.
The work is all beautiful.
I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 5 / 5
M. Brown
July 29, 2010 at 12:33 am
This is a beautiful book showing designs from many wonderful art-to-wear artists. I enjoyed it and find it to be an inspiration.
Rating: 4 / 5