Op-Ed | What 3D Printing Means for Fashion | Opinion, Op Ed | BoF Designer Iris van Herpen has pioneered the use of 3D printing in couture fashion | Photo: Molly SJ Lowe PARIS, France — 3D printing was born in the 1980s and has long been used for “rapid prototyping.” Now, the technology is accelerating exponentially and being employed to manufacture finished products, including fashion and luxury goods. Several reasons explain this acceleration, from the expiry of relevant patents to progress in materials science and software. Today, it is easy to scan an object, turning atoms into bits, and then print it out, turning those bits back into atoms. From the moment we, as children, proudly make sand castles, we are accustomed to subtractive manufacturing, whereby a mould is filled to create an object. 3D printing is the opposite: additive manufacturing, where very fine layers of material are superimposed according to a digital design to the point where they end up building a distinct object. Yuima Nakazato Autumn/Winter 2016 | Source: Yuima Nakazato
Art and Fashion: The Mutual Appreciation Society WE THINK OF ART appreciation as erudite, but an interest in fashion is considered airheaded. When an art-lover buys art, it's called "collecting." When a fashion enthusiast buys clothing, it's called "shopping." Art is supposed to be timeless and important, while fashion is understood to be ephemeral and frivolous. Despite this much-litigated list of ontological differences between art and fashion, the two are cross-pollinating more than ever. For her spring 2014 show in Milan, Miuccia Prada commissioned six contemporary artists to create murals to decorate her catwalk. This interbreeding of art and fashion is by no means a new phenomenon. As Middle Eastern oil money is funneled into abstract expressionism, and Russian oligarchs collect Warhols at the same rate they snap up West London real estate, postwar art is increasingly seen as pure commodity. The idea that an artist's creativity and authenticity could be jeopardized by a corporate collaboration now seems precious.
Elegantly Connecting Fashion and Art | Intelligence | BoF MIAMI, United States — The official start date of Art Basel Miami Beach might be Thursday, December 3rd, but major players from the fashion world have already descended on the city for a flurry of private dinners and parties. On Sunday night, Harry Winston hosted a dinner with Cultured magazine at its Design District store, highlighting the works of hot-shot lighting designer Lindsey Adelman. On Tuesday, Panerai chief executive Angelo Bonati interviewed Swiss designer and entrepreneur Yves Béhar at a media event. And that’s just the beginning. The slew of events — and the exhibitions accompanying them — reflect the value fashion puts on art and vice versa. The behind-the-scenes connectors knitting art and fashion together include Eva Chow, co-chair of LACMA’s annual Art + Film Gala, which took place in Los Angeles on November 7th. The commercial benefits of the partnership between LACMA and Gucci are clear. Yet Chow believes the increasing overlap between art and fashion goes deeper.
What Brexit Means for the Fashion Industry Today's news that Britain has voted to leave the European Union has sent stock markets plunging and hammered the British pound, which hit its lowest point in decades. Although it will likely take years for Britain to untangle itself from the EU, many in the fashion industry are left questioning what the change could mean for their livelihoods. Of course, London is a major fashion player, with the fashion industry contributing an estimated $38 billion to the UK economy in 2014, according to the Business of Fashion. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below A weak pound and uncertainty about new tariffs could mean major challenges for UK-based businesses, which often source fabrics and produce in other parts of Europe. Before last night's vote, the British Fashion Council surveyed its members and found that the vast majority—90% of members—wanted to remain in the EU. This turmoil is predicted to affect prices of items coming into and out of Britain, as well. Getty
Where Is the Line Between Fashion and Art? Schiaparelli's famous shoe hat. Image: Getty While the mingling of the art and fashion worlds is not a modern concept, the visibility of fashion and art crossover seems to be at an all high. The spectacle and sensation created by collaboration among creative forces inspires fashion houses to seek out contemporary artists for runway shows, capsule collections, or as commissioned filmmakers. The artist Richard Phillips has a long history of brand collaborations with MAC, Jimmy Choo, Mont Blanc, and Cartier. Phillips' collection for MAC. Phillips is currently finalizing several new collaborations. While the fashion world is hungry for new campaigns, the art world is gradually growing more accepting of contemporary artists venturing into the larger culture. Among her recent projects, Leitzes had a hand in orchestrating Marc Jacobs’s Fall 2015 limited-edition collection, which features the work of the artist duo Assume Vivid Astro Focus. The Murakami/Louis Vuitton collaboration.
Fashion companies have discovered their secret weapon: archives The Coach headquarters sit on the crest of a hill on West 34th Street amid the dust and construction noise of New York City’s massive Hudson Yards red redevelopment. The building is the same midtown address that housed the brand’s original workshop when it launched in 1941 – Coach will begin rolling out its 75th anniversary offerings during fashion week this September – although its offices now occupy the whole building. Around back, an unmarked door leads to a tidy, hushed space stocked with meticulously organized handbags and billfolds, which will be an invaluable resource for the label as it heads into its next quarter century. Like many fashion companies trying to stand out in a luxury market increasingly fixated on authenticity, Coach has recognized that its rich history – and this in-house archive – is its secret weapon. Greeting me at the mini-museum’s discreet entrance is Jed Winokur, Coach’s senior archives manager.
The Impact of Pop Art on the World of Fashion – From Art to Industry and Back Ever since pop art emerged in the fifties, it has been going hand in hand with the fashion industry. Rebelling against elitist values and self-reflexive expressionist movement, pop art embraced mundane living experiences, introducing aspects of mass culture and bringing art closer to the new generation of Americans who were starting to experience all benefits of the consumer paradise in the welfare state of post-war America. Pop art employed familiar mass culture imagery from advertisements to other banal objects, wrapping it into sensational and bold color combinations. Richard Hamilton, one of the pop art pioneers used to describe pop art as “popular, transient, expandable, low cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, big business”. Philip Colbert – Venus In Sequins dress collection inspired by various iconic works of art Andy Warhol and the Paper Dress Craze The Souper Dress Campbell’s Souper Dress Marriage between Pop Art and Fashion Design Editors’ Tip: Pop!
5 Famous Artists Who Influenced Fashion Designers As an Art History major who loves fashion, I spend a lot of my time oohing and aahing over the clothes depicted in the paintings we study. From long Victorian crinoline skirts to the intricately decorated brocade sleeves popular in the Renaissance, I love them all. Throughout history, artists have spent a lot of time painting clothes - but it's a two-way street. 1. By Roger Higgins [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Elsa Schiaparelli, who along with Coco Chanel, was one of the most famous fashion designers between the two world wars, was an innovative, sometimes zany designer. While Chanel made simple dresses in a neutral palette, Schiaparelli's designs were bright, loud and whimsical: Think necklaces covered in bugs and shoes as hats. So, who better to collaborate with Schiaparelli than the equally kooky Surrealist artist, Salvador Dalí? 2. The "Mondrian" Dress via ELLE 3. By Andy Warhol [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons 4. A Murakami Design via ELLE 5. Rodarte SS 2012 via ELLE
Victoria's Secret Photoshop 'Fail'? Or Just Plain Body-Shaming Could reinvention solve our shopping addiction? Image copyright EpicStockMedia, Thinkstock Swedish retail giant H&M seems an unlikely poster child for ecological living. The High Street group, which owns brands including Monki and Cos and has more than 4,000 shops across the world, is one of the best known proponents of fast fashion. It's a cheap and reliable source of trendy clothes which can be discarded as soon as another trend comes in. Yet it has pledged to become "100% circular", ultimately using only recycled or other sustainable materials to make its clothes. It's a journey that more fashion firms are beginning to take, with the so-called "circular economy" - which eliminates waste by turning it into something valuable - being seen as a possible solution to the vast amount of clothes that end up in landfill. Image copyright Thomas Concordia, H&M Last year, a fifth of the material H&M used was sustainably sourced, and it has gathered 32,000 tonnes worth of old clothing in the collection bins it has had in all its stores since 2013.
The Graffiti Artist Who Paints Over Fashion Ads Known as “the Flower Guy,” graffiti artist Michael De Feo has defaced fashion ads worldwide for more than two decades, painting whimsical flowers over celebrities like Rihanna, Beyoncé, Kendall Jenner, and Justin Bieber. The graffiti is illegal, and the fashion industry loves it. Last year, a guerrilla art collective gave De Feo a key to New York City bus-shelter ads, inviting the artist to challenge corporate messaging. Now De Feo’s reinterpretations are on display in a more purely artistic context, in an exhibit at the Danziger Gallery on the Lower East Side that closes August 12.
how does social media shape our perception of beauty? A male friend of mine who considers himself "big on Tinder" claims the winning five photo formula is this: front-on photo, side profile photo, photo showing teeth, body photo and height photo, involving a casual scale prop such as Kylie Minogue. If you're not better looking on Tinder than in real life, you have failed. It's the most gratifying, terrifying, humanity-destroying platform ever created. But then again it's responsible for actually quite a lot of nice loving relationships… While Tinder must be the worst offender, the impact of social media on perceptions of beauty is inevitably positive and negative, depending on which way you look. You might meet the love of your life through tactful photo-editing, you might feel terrible forever, or you might be one of the mental few to enter hyperreality, transcending your human form into… well this… Of course, it's all a matter of perspective. Nick Knight also photographed paralympian Aimee Mullins for SHOWstudio some years ago.
West Africans are ditching Dutch wax prints for Chinese made copies of material like Vlisco's — Quartz Since the early 20th century, Vlisco has produced African print cloth—otherwise known as Dutch wax prints. This vibrantly colored and intricately patterned fabric dominates West African markets and is globally recognized as quintessentially “African.” Ironically, this iconic bold cloth was originally forged by Dutch colonial companies attempting to mechanically reproduce handmade Javanese batik cloth. When this failed to take off in Southeast Asia, Dutch traders began to sell the cloth in West African markets. The patterns were modified to fit local tastes and quickly became popular. The rise of mass-produced, Dutch wax prints partially displaced domestic textiles, which lacked the colorfastness and material lightness that ultimately made wax prints an essential everyday consumer good. Today, the majority of Dutch designs available on African markets are low-cost reproductions made in China. New market players undercut originals Hitarget is the market leader among Chinese upstart brands.
What Technology Will Look Like In Five Years Diomedes KastanisCrunch Network Contributor Diomedes Kastanis head of technology for business unit support systems, leading Ericsson’s long-term technology vision and innovation across media, OSS, BSS and m-commerce. How to join the network As a driver of technical innovation for a software company, a huge part of my job depends on forecasting how current tech trends will play out, merge, dissipate or expand. Here are some of my predictions of what the world will look like in 2020. Revised Notions Of Ownership Think of the things you use every day: your smart phone, your computer, your desk and so on. However, in the future, you’ll probably share most of them. We’ve recently seen a huge rise in the sharing economy; not only can you stay in someone else’s house via Airbnb, but you can sail in someone else’s boat through Sailo, fly in someone else’s private plane via OpenAirplane and go snowboarding with someone’s else’s board via Spinlister. This is only the first wave. Oh, and that office?