Almost Girl

I spent more time thinking about the themes and emotions we can look forward to in the coming fall and winter seasons and I thought I would air them here even though I published them on Coutorture already. I am particularly intrigued by the interplay between ambivalence and anticipation.

*Ambivalence*

If I had not been told ambivalence was a theme I never could have come up with the emotion ourselves and yet the moment the idea solidified I knew it reflected the moment we are entering perfectly. The idea of duality is shockingly appropriate in a climate of political turmoil turned turgid. Opposites seem to do constant battle whether it be red vs. blue, Sunni vs. Shite, East vs. West, public vs. private and so on. The constant contrasting duality has led us to feel a certain emotional fatigue that manifests itself well in ambivalence. And yet it is this ambivalence that lends itself most excitingly to artistic expression. Premiere Vision suggested that this feeling could present itself between the interior and the exterior, details that are in the inner life of a fabric or garment. Layering will take on new meaning with bulkiness contrasting with fluidity. And of course irony and perfection playing into the new twistings of fantasy and reality in a digital age. I am strangely excited to see how ambivalence will showcase creative design

*Alchimie*

As urbanism takes on an increasingly prominent position in the inspiration and even external manifestation of design we can understand how alchimie, which Premier Vision sees in the inspiration of natural or artificially stimulated metamorphoses of daily life will show us the beauty of the regular. It is the alchimie of our own lives. The harmony in chaos, deconstruction and reconstruction of habitat, and the modifying principle of our existence that lends strength to this season. We will see it play out in rawness versus softness, oily versus dry and of course in textile the most obvious implication is the adaptation of industrial processes to create unique and irreproducible products. Of the seasonal stories I admit to finding that alchimie is something of a subset of ambivalence or even perhaps the interplay of ambivalence and the final story anticipation.

*Anticipation*

As we come to the end of an 8 year political cycle that has left most of the nation and the world confused and hardened it is unsurprising to find that even amidst our current cultural ambivalence that we feel a certain anticipation on top of our confusion. Premier Vision suggests that this means going beyond the known, adopting futuristic and poetic approaches. Conversely this can mean opting for anachronism, defying logic, and in doing so opening the door to unknown shifts and derivations. Aesthetics and science, organic and industrial, and the space between the ideals figures prominently without one space ever taking the lead. We like this lack of linearity or focus and indeed one key phrase that Sabine Le Chatelier used that was not in any of the materials was Fictitious Reality. To us that unreality of reality is both incredibly modern and yet somewhat mythic. A sort of Proust encountering Plato if you will. The shadows on the cave become real and yet it is their very fiction that provides artistic inspiration. The space between fiction and reality dovetails nicely with ambivalence. I feel it almost evokes a sort of quantum state of creativity, the hovering between states is exactly what gives us the anticipation and yet we cannot help but feel ambivalent as the interest is in the choices. Perhaps that middle space is indeed the alchimie.

I admit I wonder what happens when these creative states collide and we see the quantum classical reality of what the next season will truly bring.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 8:29 pm and is filed under Academics, And Now For Something Positive, The Business of Fashion, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.