How and Why Do Issey Miyake and Vivienne Westwood Display the Female Body Clothing - Essay Example

Hyo-Jin Yang Performance costume 23rd Jan 2006 Issey Miyake and Vivienne Westwood, The Female Body in Fashion Issey Miyake and Vivienne Westwood are reputed to be two of the most prominent female-clothing fashion designers in the modern world. Both of them have had largely successful careers in the world of fashion design and each works along a similar centralized theme - that of modernizing old world fashions into the new world demands. Despite both working along traditional lines, both designers entered the field with widely different ideas about how to best accentuate the female body. This essay will explore both how and why they accentuate the female body. In addition, both of the designers have had interesting personal histories that contribute in large part to the way in which they express themselves. Cultural backgrounds play an even further role in each designer’s art. Although they both celebrate the female form with a modern theme on an old world base, Issey Miyake and Vivienne Westwood each manage to blend their cultural and personal backgrounds to produce very different effects. From here------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With a strong role model in the form of his mother, who had been a surviving victim of the bomb that had been dropped on Hiroshima during World War II, Issey Miyake began his career in fashion design appropriately enough in Paris, France. As a child, he witnessed the devastation of the nuclear bomb and never forgot the impact it had both at the time and in the aftermath. Instead of dwelling on this, though, Miyake said he prefers to think of other things, such as the flowing lines of a specific bridge in Hiroshima that awoke him to the concept of how design could influence perception or the shop windows in the city that displayed beautiful clothing on the mannequins. “They changed every month, those windows. I saw myself in them. I was fascinated,” he said of his childhood days.1 With this childhood interest in fabrics and clothes, especially as to how they accented or detracted from the female form, young Miyake was a student when the World Design Conference was held in Tokyo, to which Miyaki had a strong reaction. According to Miyake, the term “fashion” should only be used to describe original works that have an intrinsic value while the popular styles on the streets, the “trends,” are the natural offspring of fashion. It was in 1968 specifically, when Miyake witnessed rioting in the streets of Paris. Watching the people freely expressing themselves, Miyake also freed himself from the “social constraints and conventions, but also from the traditions and rules of etiquette of haute couture itself.”2 Although he took part in the hippie movement in America, it wasn’t until Miyake returned to Japan that he began to blend together the new fabrics of the modern age with the traditional styles of his country’s past to create women’s clothing that both accentuated the body and provided a sense of classic, timeless beauty. Drastically different from Miyake, Vivienne Westwood had little notion of her passion for fashion until after she had entered adult life and began exploring her own female identity. Like Miyake, she had already begun experimenting some with clothes, but for Westwood, it was in choosing and wearing her clothes in a unique way rather than designing completely new patterns that sparked her interest in the industry. After her first marriage failed, Westwood found herself living with her young son and several men who attended art school together, including Malcolm McLaren, then known as Malcolm Edwards.3 It was through her relationship with McLaren that Westwood first discovered her ability and interest in fashion. Robin Scott, one of the other men who lived in the house with Westwood and McLaren at the time, provides a unique summary of how Westwood entered the world of fashion: “Before he committed himself to Vivienne, Malcolm was experimenting with a variety of costumes, situations and artistic styles. Within an art school context, his eccentricities were acceptable, even approved of, but none of this activity was focused. Vivienne provided a backbone built out of her insistence on hard work, and her extreme commitment to a variety of beliefs … She entered his fantasy world: her strength enabled them both to turn fantasy into reality.”4 By 1971, McClaren decided to open a shop that Westwood would fill with her designs.5 Westwood herself is considered the artist who created punk, with assistance from McClaren. She started by adding metal studs to the backs of jackets, and then moved on to experiment with various types of unusual accessories to suit a revolutionary minority culture. As one might expect from designers of such different backgrounds and viewpoints, they each have a unique way of portraying the female body. One characteristic of Miyake’s design for women is that he bases his clothing on the female shape, rather than attempting to fit women into differently shaped clothes. Miyake was once much more conservative in his designs, often using traditional Kimonos and Japanese style jackets in his creations. Yet, even in his early stages, he demonstrated a fascination with new materials and the modern movements. Throughout his career, Miyake has consistently challenged the nature of clothing, always striving to create something that allows the wearer to move while still creating a pleasing appearance. “In the process of creating his own textiles he has domesticated all kinds of materials and introduced a whole range of extraordinary effects and textures. … the materials shimmer with contemporaneity and audacity.”6 Far from the form-fitting, rigid structures of the Parisian runways, Miyake has focused his design on using intricate folds, free-flowing fabric, unstructured patterns and a variety of textures and materials. Rather than squeeze the human form into a semblance of beauty, he chooses to frame the form in garments that allow free movements while displaying attractive curves and lines. In the 70s, he worked on a concept based on a single piece of cloth that would entirely cover the body while the 80s saw him working to combine the eastern traditions with western modernism. By the late 80s and early 90s, Miyake was introducing one of his most popular collections based on pleats while the later 90s designs continue to illustrate his involvement in developing new production technology and recycled materials.7 According to Miyake, it was through his observance of the female forms during rehearsals of the Frankfurt Ballet that he first determined the many advantages his pleats concept could provide 8, but even in his non-pleated designs, Miyake continues to demonstrate a sensitivity to the female form. The example in figure one demonstrates two aspects of Miyake’s accentuation of the female form: his use of traditional elements as well as more masculine influences.9 In this example, the influences of both early Japanese styles as well as the modern flair can be observed in the lines and patterns of this skirt and top set. Starting with a simple traditional cut, Miyake adds a more independent look to this design by flaring out the shoulders and ensuring the skirt remains suspended around the legs. This gives the dress a more masculine line in the strength of the shoulders and power of the skirt while still highlighting the feminine curve of the upper arm and the attractive shape of the lower skirt. The angles at which the dress hangs remain very streamlined with an exotic Eastern curve to them. The colors are more traditional as well, with darker colors dominating the core and stylized bright medallions separated by fleur de lis added to bring in additional feminine curves. The flowing design on the fabric evokes a sense of the old world with its allusions to calligraphic styles while the upward tilting lines of the skirt are reminiscent of ancient Asian customs to keeping evil spirits at bay. However, solid areas of brighter, smaller circles serve to add a modern, masculine strength at the shoulders and hips, giving the piece an independent, confident aura. Even in this, though, the circular nature of the individual dots adds further curves that soften the masculine effect. The solid-seeming areas also serve to optically contract those areas of the outfit, giving the illusion at one and the same time that this is a strong woman with powerful shoulders and strength in her stride and also a woman with a delicate, feminine frame. Despite the masculine suggestions in both line and fabric, the overall design of this ensemble continues to complement the female body. The shirt is fitted to frame her curves, and the curve of the skirt provides a sense of the shape of her hips. The shoulders allow the arms to flow freely, further contributing a sense of female strength in this picture. The hold of the skirt keeps it from becoming entangled in the woman’s legs and limiting her movements while still maintaining a graceful, feminine line. Thus, Miyake has succeeded in seamlessly blending the modern strength of the masculine with the grace and beauty of the traditional feminine in a style that defines a new concept – that of feminine strength. In sharp contrast to the enigmatic, thoughtful Miyake, Westwood developed her talents in the thick of the 1960s and 1970s rock and roll movement in Britain and her female fashions exemplify the sexual freedom and aggressive stance of women coming into their own. Living amidst the repression and conservatism of Britain at the time, Westwood felt this was in direct opposition to the freedom and liberation being claimed by the hippie movement and rebelled against both with the aggressive, outspoken nature of the women’s clothing she designed. With McLaren, Westwood discovered that “there was a dramatic potential in the clothes themselves that could be heightened: laden with associations, biker gear links sexuality, violence and death, in a twentieth century archetype”10 and began a new line of clothes based on these ideas. By adding metal studs, chicken bones, chains, zippers, and other gear to clothing, Westwood was able to define the beginnings of the punk culture and introduce much more power and masculinity into women’s fashions.11 Following her introduction of punk, she further defined the new romantic “pirate” movement and the “savages” movement of asymmetrical skirts and ripped layers. Further impacting the fashion world, it was Westwood who reintroduced the use of petticoats, combining them with bowler hats and head scarves and the concept of wearing bras on the outside. “Madonna’s now legendary conical bra, created by Jean Paul Gaultier and worn throughout her Blonde Ambition tour nearly ten years later, would never have happened if it hadn’t been for Westwood playing with the concept of underwear as outerwear some time before him.”12 The aggressive nature of her designs leaves little room for a simpering feminine portrait or even a trace of innocence. In introducing the punk styles and biker gear, Westwood recognized a large portion of the attraction to this mode of clothing was the inherent empowerment afforded the wearer. There is always a sense of the menacing just under the surface or the ‘bad girl’ lurking right around the corner, as is somewhat apparent in the following example:13 In this piece, she is obviously going for a very sexually dominating look. The collar around the neck, for example, is almost a universal icon denoting dominance and self-mastery. The bodice is low-cut, under-wired and revealing, intended to amplify the wearer’s bosom and usually worn under other clothes. Clean vertical lines serve to focus more attention on the skin rather than the clothes, and provide sharp, eye-catching contrast to the curved lines under the cups. Dark colors, always closely associated with the erotic, have been used to accentuate the “window” effect of the bodice. The red boa hearkens to traditional images of brothels. The mental connection made further accents the sexual and powerful nature of the design. It is loosely hung around the arms indicating a freedom of movement and the red color intensifies the darkly romantic aspect of the entire image. Flaunting the traditional plain and unremarkable nature of skirts in England, this skirt is most definitely designed to be attention-catching with its high seam and form-fit. The black nylons further help to both conceal and reveal at the same time, providing a lengthy, curvy counterpoint to the solid black of the skirt and lending mystery to the ensemble. Looking at these examples, there are some very apparent techniques that each artist uses to portray their vision of female beauty and strength. Miyake’s work shows a preference for the more archaic look within his clothing that can be attributed to several influences. He reveres his culture and celebrates the cultures of other people within his art. The resulting designs remain functional in a modern sense, yet gain an increased sense of beauty from the obvious old-world ideals inherent in the core of the overall design. One need look no further for this influence than the strong, curved line of the lower skirt in the provided example. The ancient thought behind the upturned lines was a belief that evil spirits were washed down with the rain and upturned eaves would prevent them from bringing evil into the house. The shaped nature of the skirt functions to invoke this tradition as well as keeping the material from entangling the wearer’s legs. A certain sense of purity, then, is implied simply through his use of a line. While the whole outfit is obviously complementing the female figure, it works to demonstrate a true beauty only found in innocence. The warding against evil spirits in this instance could be said to be a symbol of a powerful protection of the wearer’s innocence, lending further strength to the piece. Westwood, on the other hand, has an almost opposite view in the way in which she portrays her clothing. Westwood functions on the knowledge that sex sells on the open marketplace, and that people will buy it if it caters to their fantasies. In her fashions, she caters to the masses by providing what she feels the public as a whole truly wants. Although dark and overtly erotic, this statement has a lot of truth value as consumers continue to flock to this type of market. However, Westwood also thinks of the female body as beautiful and sensual. Her clothes exemplify this in the most erotic manner possible by accenting those aspects of the female body others find attractive. This concept is quickly understood when looking at the above example, a characteristic piece for Westwood. By using the lines and circular patterns around the chest of the model, she exemplifies the rounded form of the breast area while providing slimming lines to the waist. The low cut of the bodice helps to accentuate any cleavage, which is further enhanced by the implementation of an underwire. The curves and bareness of the shoulders and neck are amplified by the loose hang of the feathery boa around the shoulders, both softening the edges and tantalizing observers with the appearance of the skin. The conservative-seeming skirt in relation to the aggressive display of the top is used as a tempering device even while demonstrating a strong sexuality utilizing the complex art of teasing and flirtation. The tight skirt works to highlight the rounded curves of the upper thigh while keeping it hidden just out of view. The touch of conservatism the skirt brings in to the group helps to soften some of the aggression as well, bringing back the image of the demure woman. Through this unique modern/traditional combination, Westwood defines feminine strength as being highly aggressive, yet still soft and inviting to the touch. The two designers are totally different in how they get things done, but there is no doubt in the minds of the fashion world about their talent and ability to portray the female body in unique and beautiful ways. They each grew up with different backgrounds, and both of them have developed a fresh modern wave of fashion in the art world. Although it is undeniable the two differ in style, you could say they share the same intent. They each are working to help expand the modern art styles in fashion and design by incorporating many new techniques, materials and breakthroughs in the fashion world, while still focusing on the idea of the feminine strength and old world values. Where Miyake has succeeded in introducing Asian art to the modern French movement by using traditional styles, Westwood has succeeded in gaining social acceptance for a rising group of the sexually active populace. Through the work of both designers, one can see how many cultures are beginning to mix. (2978) Works Cited Frankel, Susannah. Visionaries: Interviews with Fashion Designers. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. Issey Mikaye Making Things. Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. Paris, 1998. Savage, Jon. Englands Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. Images Miyake, Issey. Moda Paris. Retrieved on December 17, 2005 from . Nettle, Anthony. Vivienne Westwood show. Retrieved on December 17, 2005 from . Read More