Pattern and Ornament: Orientalism in Dress - Essay Example

Pattern and Ornament: Orientalism in Dress One of the major systems of fashion has been its intrinsic link with theater and the arts. Beginning with Modern Art and extending in the Postmodern period, fashion has been seen to reflect and feed the artistic movements of the day as ideas passed from framed canvasses to worn textiles and back again. An understanding of the major artistic movements helps to illustrate how art helped to inform fashion. The reciprocal reaction that occurred as designers and artists attempted to stay in vogue can then be traced throughout the modern period into more contemporary fashions as the Postmodernists reacted. From its early days, Modern Art had an effect upon fashion and vice versa. In the 1930s, a great deal of the art being produced throughout Western Europe was typically classified as Modern art, although it was then further divided into several different subcategories such as Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Surrealism and Abstract art. The characteristic feature of most of these art forms was that they sought to pursue the ideas behind the art rather than seeking to portray a life-like rendition of the subject matter. They also broke the rules of art, which had, until this time period, conformed to specific rules of creation and was always created within a studio where all elements could be controlled. The movement began with Impressionism, which focused on the effect of light on objects and typically portrayed scenes such as landscapes and daily life (Whitcombe, 1995). Fauvism represented a wilder side of Impressionism in its use of strong, vivid colors and simplified designs in expressive, meaningful ways. The Expressionist movement, existing as the step-sister to Fauvism, was primarily comprised of two separate groups of German painters that followed closely in the Fauvism tradition of color usage and imagery. Shortly after World War I, artists in a small town in Germany called Dessau began developing the Bauhaus ideas regarding the inter-relationship of the arts, which in a very short time period received international recognition. While Art Nouveau was characterized by a highly decorative, not easily reproduced style that did not survive the first World War, Art Deco worked to simplify this artistic flair into a more easily mass produced world and was successful in making the transition from fine art to textiles and other art forms. Cubism, characterized by a focus on the geometric shapes that comprised images, similarly led the way for Abstract Art, which focuses on the emotion of the subject while surrealism focused on the unconscious expression of the spirit, focusing primarily on the language of dreams. The period ends with Pop Art and Op Art. Pop Art sought to bring fine art back into the daily lives of the modern man with attention given to the items and images that people saw regularly. Op Art was an extension of Pop Art that reduced the realistic images of Pop Art into more simplified geometric shapes, but not to such a reduction as that used in Cubism or other forms. Leon Bakst was perhaps one of the most influential early designers in the Orientalist style. He worked primarily designing costumes intended for use in Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the Russian ballet most responsible for spreading the idea of the Orient around the globe. His education was strong in fine arts and graphics and he actually started his career as an illustrator rather than a costume designer. However, it wasn’t long before he’d entered the world of the theatre, eventually gaining the opportunity to help found the Ballets Russe that had such a strong impact on future designers such as Paul Poiret. His designs reflected his ideas of costumes seen in Arabia, Turkey and Central Asia and were usually characterized by a free use of bold colors and textures as well as a free-flowing, expressive cut that allowed a great deal of movement (Issima, 2005). Leon Bakst (Issima, 2005) In many of these designs, the influences of Cubism, Abstract Art and other Modern Art forms can be easily discerned in the printed patterns and bright colors used in combination with each other for highly dramatic effect. These types of designs, being placed before the world audience as the famous theatre company toured the world, influenced several fine artists as well as clothing designers, one of the most notable being Paul Poiret. “The famed French couturier Paul Poiret moved in artistic circles, employed Parisian artists, and collected their work. He went to art galleries and showed his artistic sensibilities by preferring Impressionist paintings at a time when they were new and unappreciated by the public at large. Poiret became very interested in modern art and said, ‘I have always liked painters. It seems to me that we are in the same trade and that they are my colleagues.’” (Tirocchi, 2001). Poiret worked with many painters in the development of his textiles include close friend Fauvist painter Francis Picabia, Maurice Vlaminck, Andre Derain, Picasso, Matisse, Dufy, Rouault, and Utrillo. Through the designs he created for use in the theatre, especially for the Ballet Russes, Poiret helped bring many forms of Modern Art into mainstream culture at the same time that these art forms were influencing his own creations to become more free and expressive in its spontaneity and use of bright colors. Designs such as his characteristic lampshade dress reflected the geometric forms of Cubism. In the design pictured below, this geometric emphasis can be seen not only in the strict cut of the dress as it forms a triangular pyramid shape of the woman’s upper body, but in the emphasis of this shape in the V-line neck and the circular medallion-type designs used to embellish the fabric. The strict use of black and white in this outfit further draws from the Op Art movement as a form of expression as well (Thomas, 2005). Paul Poiret (Dick, 2003) In the various forms, colors, textures, and patterns used in fabric and fashion design, the changing concepts of the Modern art movements could be traced just as these forms of fashion had their own influence upon the work being created by those artists. “Through the first half of the twentieth century, fashion design tracked and echoed trends in modern art. The developing aesthetic of modernism can be followed in the progression of fashion design from the heavily corseted S-curved silhouettes that reflected Art Nouveau interpretation of the female form early in the century to the first uncorseted, tubular, simplified silhouette that arrived before the First World War and continued into the 1920s, to the streamlined, body-hugging dresses of the 1930s” (Tirocchi, 2001). (Tirocchi, 2001) In addition, new developments both in how fabric was printed as well as art made for greater ability to mass produce led to an abundance of design choices that ranged from add-on embellishments such as beads and ribbons to silk-screened art prints placed directly on the fabric. This relationship between fashion and art exists in a somewhat contentious backdrop as the artists, both fashion designer and fine artist, strive to produce something uniquely original that can be distinguished from everything else available, yet that can also be mass produced, thereby reducing its originality. Even as the artist produces something new and original and the fashion designer brings that new and original idea into the public eye through his use of it in his fashion designs, this same idea becomes old hat and overdone in the mass produced culture of the modern world. Arising out of this conflict, both fashion designer and artist worked to find new textiles, new forms of expression and new ways of combining these things in such a way as to make the entire collection, art and fashion, speak of its originality in an entirely new way, thus giving birth to the postmodern concept of ‘everything has already been done.’ Postmodern art is characterized by a combining of several of the art forms that have come before as artists began looking around and concluding that everything that could be done had already been done. “Postmodernists lashed out against Modernism with an explosion of art of numerous different mediums” (Clark, 2006).  Rather than trying to come up with something completely new, artists of the postmodern generation worked to combine art forms of the past in new and unique ways that more closely expressed the views and understandings of the world even as it reintroduced excitement and vitality to the field. “The goal of postmodern art is to separate the works as far away as possible from the monotony and blandness of modernist art, so all forms of art come together to create visually stimulating, unique, and original pieces of appropriated art.  The overall impression of postmodern art is one of pastiche and appropriation, often promoting parody or irony.  It also aims to blur the boundaries between high art and low art” (Clark, 2006). Rather than focusing on the deeper meanings behind the art as so much of Modern Art had done, Postmodern Art fought against this intellectual approach to art and instead worked to focus on just what was presented in the collage-style piece itself. Like the works themselves, “Postmodernists focused on fragmentation; the belief that one’s work is not his or her own, but an appropriated collection of the completed works of others.  Because with this appropriation and eschewing of the avant-garde, postmodern artists often take an idea from another work of art; a play, a story, or a painting, and rework it into something different” (Clark, 2006). This fragmentation also applied to fashion designers working to find a new mode of dress in the postmodern age. Examples of fine artists that rose to fame during this period include Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, although several pieces by Andy Warhol could also be considered postmodernist. Barbara Kruger (Clark, 2006) Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood is a great example of the postmodern movement as it was expressed in the fashion world. Growing up, she had little notion of her passion for fashion until after she had entered adult life. By this time, 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. As a teenager and young adult, she made it a habit to frequent the nightclubs while attending art school during the day. However, art school didn’t capture her attention long, while the nightclubs continued to draw her attention. It was through her relationship with Malcolm McLaren, then known as Malcolm Edwards, that Westwood first discovered her ability and interest in fashion (Savage, 2001). Robin Scott, a friend of the couple, 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” (Savage, 2001). Pulling from a variety of sources and influenced by the postmodern eclecticism, Westwood began adding metal studs to the backs of jackets and to experiment with the addition of various types of unusual accessories such as safety pins, clips, chains and other items to her clothing in unique ways that eventually became recognized as the punk movement. In keeping with the concept of making old things take on new uses, it was Westwood who first began using intimate wear in innovative outer wear styles and introduced new materials into the fashion scene even as fine artists continued to experiment with new combinations of old things. Vivienne Westwood (Nettle, n.d.) Throughout the Modern and Postmodern periods, changes in industry and artistic approaches had effects upon the fashion industry as profound as those brought about by the social and cultural change brought on by such effects as urbanization and mechanization. As each individual movement came into and went out of vogue, the fashion industry both kept pace with new styles, designs and uses for textiles as well as introduced these new ideas to the general public through the necessary mass production required to meet public demand for these new approaches to clothing styles. Throughout this history, a close relationship can be seen between the fashion designers and the artists themselves, further contributing to this tendency for the two to walk hand in hand. Although the relationship has seemed strained or perhaps even severed at times, a closer look reveals that these times reflect a movement in the fine arts field that concentrates more upon blurring the lines between fine art and low art, a movement that is again echoed in the fashion world. References Clark, Lauren. (2006). Postmodernism: A Greater Understanding. Washington: Washington State University. Retrieved April 15, 2008 from Dick, Karen. (29 May 2003). “The Lampshade Tunic by Poiret: 1914.” Costume Connections. Retrieved April 15, 2008 from Issime, Neon. (2005). “The Leon Bakst Orientalist Costumes of the Ballets Russes.” The Hip Circle. Retrieved April 15, 2008 from Nettle, Anthony. Vivienne Westwood show. Retrieved on April 15, 2008 from . Savage, Jon. England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. Thomas, Pauline Weston. (2006). “Orientalism in Dress: Edwardian Fashion/Titanic Era.” Fashion Era. Retrieved April 15, 2008 from < http://www.fashion-era.com/orientalism_in_dress.htm> Tirocchi, A. & L. (2001). “Fashion and Art.” A & L Tirocchi Dressmakers Project. The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, & the Brown University Scholarly Technology Group. Retrieved April 15, 2008 from < http://tirocchi.stg.brown.edu/514/story/fashion_art.html> Whitcombe, Christopher. (1995). 20th Century Art. Art History. Retrieved April 15, 2008 from , (Virginia: Department of Art History, Sweet Briar College, 1995). Read More