Surrealism and the Fashion Industry - Essay Example

Surrealism and the Fashion Industry The conjoining between the fashion industry and surrealist cultural movement was initially seemingly difficult.During these past periods those in the art movements regarded fashion as an unsubstantial and insignificant industry that would not be regarded as an art form or branch on its own. However, as time has gone by the association between the fashion industry and surrealism has led to the development of new frontiers in the design industry. This has developed out of the collaboration of designers and artists on different art fronts such as furnishings, fashion dresses and style photography. The collaboration has made the conjoined elements to form a distinct art form, which has gained recognition among popular art media such as magazines. This is exemplified by Vogue magazine, which has allowed industry players such as Cecil Beaton to explore and expand the limits of their standards. The developmental timeline of the bond between the surrealist cultural movement and the fashion industry began in the early 20th Century. This onset was witnessed when the surrealist movement disengaged from the written statement, which required it to embrace and focus on objects. The change of focus and the use of surrealism in the realm of the fashion industry is explicitly evident in common use of odd art pieces and objects, which are easily transformed to textile print work and jewellery among many other fashion forms. This offers designers freedom to develop “art forms” that find replication of form on either sides of the collaboration. The collaboration greatly contributed to the imagination of what lay beneath the art, which was easily transformed to wearable clothing pieces (Meinhold, 2008, p. 31). Initially, fashion was not regarded as an art form and therefore surrealism, which is an art, was thought to be poles apart when considered alongside the fashion industry. However, this transformed when the surrealist movement’s written form of art and canvassed art forms shifted focus towards common everyday objects. This gradual romance with objects and everyday life forms such as landscapes would later find relevance in the fashion industry in the early 1920s. This was because the landscapes and art forms in surrealism would be easily transformed into two dimensional elements on fabrics that would be used in the fashion industry as well as in shoe design and even three dimensional jewellery objects. The fascination of surrealism with the body, what covers it and what lies beneath creates great imagination on surrealists and thus creating even a stronger bond between the movement and fashion. This relation and association become even stronger as different fashion designers and artists collaborate to develop new forms of clothing, jewellery and accessories. The influence of surrealism on the fashion industry was explicitly evidenced by the bureau suit from Elsa Schiaparelli created in 1936. The bureau suit was a direct derivation from the Venus de Milo by Dali. This realization was as a result of Dali’s connection to the fashion industry, which made him desire to convert his surrealist work and ideas into fashion. However, not all of Dali’s designs are wearable because some lack great aesthetic and artistic value. Dali’s surrealistic ideas also led to the development of the idea of transferring the actual positions and places of objects as conventionally conceived in to new artistic uses. For example, his idea of wearing slippers on the head was converted by Elsa Schiaparelli in 1937 into a new reality, in which Elsa made shoe shaped hats. The idea gained great popularity and led to the actual use of hats as misplaced objects within the fashion industry. Another similar and popular example is Karl Lagerfeld’s 1985-1986 use of the Corset hat concept, which was influenced and inspired by surrealistic concepts (Cumming, 2004 p 78). As portrayed by the above-mentioned examples, surrealism promotes rich imagination that surpasses rational thinking and reality. As such, it does not rely on logical conceptions, and this brings an element of creativity in to the fashion industry that inspires very interesting fashions. This rich creativity introduced by surrealism into the fashion industry can be exemplified by Elsa Schiaparelli’s design of the Skeleton Dress in 1938. The Skeleton dress’ unconventional and bizarre look was an inspiration from the bones and human ribs at a great detail. Are surrealist designs wearable? The above question is common to all that have familiarity with fashion design and surrealism. This perhaps results from the fact that fashion design requires rational thinking and properly planned processing, whereas surrealism encourages limitless irrationality in its works. A fashionable piece of cloth created for commercial purposes has to be re-developed repeatedly within a rational and proper process that will guarantee its marketability. As such, the mode of operation of the fashion industry and the surrealistic culture are contrary to each other. Another fact that makes surrealism so contrary to fashion design is the fact that surrealism focuses on objects of the real world, which have never been dwelled on before or brought to real-life experience. Therefore, the transfer of surrealistic ideas and objects into fashion requires that they should be created as new features and not designed as would be in a fashion design. The influence of these novel ideas implies that surrealism brings creativity and innovation in the fashion industry (Meinhold, 2008 p 31). The challenge in the consideration of these two is therefore the differentiation of surrealist objects from objects of the real world. This is however simple because any object which is different and unique from the common world objects is considered a surrealist object. More often than not, these surrealist objects are not viable for commercial use in the fashion industry’s trends. However, this has once been challenged by Edward James-an English designer and collector that designed a sofa based on surrealist ideas inspired by Dali. The pink sofa was designed in the shape of a lady’s lips. Apart from the highlighted outright factors that differentiate the fashion industry and surrealism, there are various similarities that exist between the two. For example, both fashion and surrealism have a sexy appeal, and as such they are compatible. The two also have the tendency to shock and surprise the viewers because of their novel and imaginative innovations. The creation of surprise and shock in the conventional fashion industry is a little difficult. However, the incorporation of surrealist elements makes it possible to create the element of surprise and shock in fashion, but surreal fashion does not always have the shock effect. Surrealism often portrays objects or people out of context and thus adding to the element of surprise. For example, the featuring of jean clad models in an upside-down set up develops a surreal effect that is also surprising in fashion. In conclusion, the fashion industry and surrealism may be different and distinct, but able to conjoin and develop and interesting merges for both sides. Read More