Fistful of Flowers

This Friday at the Creative Alliance:

The Annex Theater presents Fistful of Flowers.

Welcome to Multi Media Event!

To introduce this course, we will consider 'experimental fashion' and 'multi media event', and the myriad cultural phenomena that could be captured by these terms. In our first day together, we explore this vast terrain, beginning with an activity that asks you to create your own micro-media event.

The choices you make, as you engage in this activity, will be manifold, and include:

Collaborative Decision Making and Brainstorming
Materials
Surface/Treatment of the materials
Structure of the Garment(s)
Relationship of the Audience to the Performer/Model
Movement of the Performer/Model in Space
Music/Sound
...

I have added a new album to the Picasa page with images and video from a show at the Museum of Fashion in Antwerp last summer that addresses a number of these categories and relates specifically to the activity tonight. Part of this show included a video of Brazilian designer Jum Nakao's show of paper fashions.

We viewed a selection from William Klein's 1966 French art house film, Who are you, Polly McGoo? (Qui-etes-vous, Polly McGoo?). While ostensibly a spoof of the fashion world, the film addresses the fascinating space that strains of contemporary fashion increasingly occupy.

You will read Peter Wollen's Art and Fashion: Friends of Enemies over the next two weeks, which explores the long relationship between fashion design and art. You will start to generate images, sketches and research for the body of work you will undertake in this class, and post your sources of inspiration on this blog.

To start us off, check out this slideshow of innovative designs from the last few years of runway.

following are excerpts of the Jum Nakao runway show mentioned above:

a new team

assembles

and sets off

on this

experimental

fashion

expedition