This volume explores minimalist fashion design unto itself both as an "object" and from a fine art and cultural point view. Its text and images demonstrate how the fine arts have directly impacted important designers worldwide in combination with the cultural and political influences of each era.
The book has more than 150 gorgeous images, pairing the work of the world's most important designers and artists in fascinating juxtaposition (Yves St. Laurent's "Mondrian" dress being the most obvious example). It's an amazing ensemble of imagery and information that will captivate fine art, design, and fashion lovers, who will thrill to the unique point of view and astounding range of visuals. Despite its name, Minimalism is a rich read and a visual feast!
THE CONTENT
Foreword by Francisco Costa
Chapter One: Primary Structures
With the exhibitions "Primary Structures" and "Black, White and Gray" posted in the mid-1960s, and the pared-down shapes of futurist household commodities and fashions saturated the consumer market, the formal doctrines of Minimalism were born. This chapter will map the convergence of fine art, sculpture, and fashion in the early-mid 1960s on the basis of the "specific object," with reference to the geometric abstractions of the 1920s. Focal points will be the first "Minimal Look" editorial in Harper's Bazaar in 1966, as well as the Minimal mandates established by avant-garde American galleries. The creations of Piet Mondrian, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Donald Judd, and Robert Morris will be discussed within the context of the fashions of Liubov Popova, Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, Andre Courreges, Cristobal Balenciaga, Paul Poiret, and Madeleine Vionnet.
Chapter Two: The Ready-Made
Dadaism may well have been the prophecy of Minimalism, with its employ of objets trouves and its interest in the ordinary and the everyday. This chapter will discuss Edweard Muybride and Marcel Duchamp as pioneers of serialization and as champions of the 'prototype' as art object. Noting the development of fashion readymades like Coco Chanel's 'little black dress,' this discussion will also interleave the mandates of Pop Art and Minimalism through the works of Andy Warhol and Sol LeWitt and the photography of Guy Bourdin, William Klein and David Bailey, all of which helped to clarify the role of consumption in the vision of the mid-century avant-garde.
Chapter Three: The Minimal Body
Minimalism strictly rejects the figurative, striving towards pure abstraction. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Japanese fashion artists Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, and Issey Miyake explored the abstraction the of the human body, manipulating fabric as flesh to formulate a reconfigured whole. Proponents of asymmetry and monochromism, the Japanese minimalist designs here interact with the second-skin sculptures of Claes Oldenberg and Jana Sterbak to catalyze an objectification and, in many cases, a rejection of the female body.
Chapter Four: Decon-Structures
Juxtaposing the 1990s skeletal sartorial structures of Prada, Helmut Lang, and Hussein Chalayan with the fragmented and transparent installations of post-minimalists such as Mona Hatoum, 'Decon-Structures' demonstrates the relevance of 'work' and 'constructedness' in Minimalism by exposing the dress- and object-making processes.
Chapter Five: Building 'Basics'
The growth and expansion of the Italian prêt-a-porter and the democratization of luxury in the 1990s helped to revive the popularity of the Minimalist aesthetic, and ally its tropes with notions of longevity and the 'classic'. This discussion will reference the emergence of the uniform in high fashion, as well as the promotion of "Basics" dressing by American designers Donna Karan, Halston, Calvin Klein, Jil Sander, and mass-market retailers like The Gap. The the architectural works of Tadao Ando, John Pawson, and Toyo Itoh will demonstrate the totalitarian vision of the Minimalist lifestyle campaigns of Prada and Calvin Klein, amongst others.
Chapter Six: Real-ism
Utilizing the bleak palettes of early Minimalism and the anonymous basics of 1990s fashion, Real-ism dissects the photography of the past two decades, whether artistic, editorial, or commercial, which has attempted to convey "real" circumstances via the use of simple, pedestrian fashions, raw space, lack of retouch or makeup, and the 'white cube' backdrop of the minimalist gallery. This photographic niche strives towards the minimalist goals of exposure and straightforwardness, but ultimately represents a new artistic realm, where drug abuse, anorexia and alienation are implicit themes. The discussion will cite the ground-breaking work of Guy Bourdin, Nan Goldin, and Bob Richardson as precedents to 1990s photography by Terry Richardson, Corinne Day, Inez van Lambsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.
Chapter Seven: The New Minimalism
Following the momentum of post-modernism that defined the millennial period in fashion, there has emerged a new Minimalism, one devoted to the dictates of speed, planarity, linearity, and reduction set forth originally by the modern movement. The trend owes in part to innovations in digital photography and industry, but relies more directly on the convergence of high fashion and fine art, rejecting the anonymity and monotony that reigned supreme over 1990s minimalism. The contemporary designs exist as complements to the sculptural work of Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst - more architectural and aerodynamic feats than sartorial ones, more "specific objects" than glamorous vestments. Hussein Chalayan, Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga, Miuccia Prada, Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein, and Elber Albaz for Lanvin serve as the most celebrated proponents of the New Minimalism, reinvigorating the movement through their advertisements, artistic collaborations, use of new materials and, of course, their groundbreaking runway fashions.
