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Sarah Aaronson

@sarahaaronson

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FEMMES ET SINGES • How Vivienne Westwood found inspiration in Henri Matisse’s 1952 gouache on paper ‘Femmes et Singes‘ or ‘Women and Monkeys’… The iconic cut-out originally hung in the dining room of his Hôtel Régina studio in Nice. Previous to this period, Matisse’s work caused a scandal as viewers and critics alike were shocked by his use of bright, non-naturalistic colors in his landscapes and portraits. Ever evolving, “during the last decade of his life Henri Matisse deployed two simple materials—white paper and gouache—to create works of wide-ranging color and complexity. An unorthodox implement, a pair of scissors, was the tool Matisse used to transform paint and paper into a world of plants, animals, figures, and shapes…” wrote MOMA. So perhaps it was no coincidence that Westwood referenced one of the preeminent ‘fauves’ (wild beasts), hence Fauvism, in her second formal Worlds End catwalk show entitled ‘Savage.’ Hardly a stranger to cutting scissors herself, the first variation of the Matisse inspired toga dress debuted on the runway for her Spring 1982 collection… Self described as ‘construction by means of color, Matisse’s masterpiece, constructed on long flat paper, was perfectly transformed onto the elongated draping train of Westwood’s own brilliant canvas of fabric…

“For this collection, alongside her interest in historical dress, Vivienne Westwood often examined the attire of other countries - flat cutting drawn from Japanese costume, and details appropriated from the clothing of African tribes and South American cultures. ‘In taking from other civilizations I’m just doing what Picasso did in his painting Demoiselles d’Avignon,’ Westwood said. ‘He decided that the tradition of the human figure had finally lost its power and that he had to look to emblems of savagery to give it a future…’ In ‘Savage’ - as the name suggested - shapes were intentionally rough, even crude… Patterns were drawn from Native American and African tribal imagery, alongside modern art by Matisse and Picasso, whose inspirational roots were found in those non - Western societies…” wrote Alexander Fury. #matisse #viviennewestwood #worldsend

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NOTHIN’ BUT NET • How Ancient Egypt’s long lasting aesthetic influence found its way onto Dries Van Noten’s Fall 2016 runway... Using pearls in lieu of faience beads, magnificent lozenge accoutrements covered the models’ slender forms, evoking a modern day Marchesa Luisa Casati, the early-20th-century femme fatale. While Van Noten sought to paint a picture of the morbid affair between the Marchesa Luisa Casati and the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, he also created his own macabrely glamorous renditions of the ancient Egyptian beadnet shrouds and dresses worn during the early dynasties of the Old Kingdom. The funerary shrouds were used to wrap mummies in preparation for burials while the sheath dresses were believed to be worn in life. A wonderfully detailed example of a Ptolemaic shroud of beadwork resides at the National Museum of Scotland. (fig. 4) The piece came from the chest of a mummy, consisting of a net of black barrel and green tubular beads, complete with designs depicting a bearded face, falcon collar, winged scarab pectoral and the four sons of Horus…

One of the earliest examples of the aforementioned beadnet dress, dating between 2551–2528 B.C., during the rein of Khufu, is located across the pond at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston… “Depictions of women in Egyptian art occasionally feature garments decorated with an overall lozenge pattern. This design is believed to represent beadwork, which was either sewn onto a linen dress or worked into a separate net worn over the linen. This beadnet dress (fig. 6) is the earliest surviving example of such a garment. It has been painstakingly reassembled from approximately seven thousand beads found in an undisturbed burial of a female contemporary of King Khufu. Although their string had disintegrated, a few beads still lay in their original pattern on and around the mummy, permitting an accurate reconstruction.…” And so, with every string of a bead, the curators gave new life to a relic of the ancient world, just as the spirit of the decadent Marchesa was resurrected through Dries Van Noten’s magical garments… (All Collages by Moi) #DriesVanNoten #ancientegypt #beadnetting #marchesaluisacasati #faience

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LE BALLON • How Junya Watanabe’s Spring 2003 catwalk, or rather landing strip in this case, debuted modernized 18th-century milkmaids wearing deconstructed parachute-like polonaise gowns resembling the hot air balloons depicted in Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf’s 1784 toile de Jouy… “The girls seemed to have floated down from the sky under huge, airy umbrella hats, wearing drifty, white, flower-dotted prints suspended on webbing tape…” wrote Sarah Mower. This collection “…expresses Japanese designer #JunyaWatanabe’s keen interest in sculpting new creations that are replete with historical references… (such as) #polonaise gowns, a poufed style popular in 1770s and 1780s Europe…” wrote #RISD.

Oberkampf was known for his toiles de Jouy, the typically monotone printed cottons manufactured in the town of Jouy-en-Josas, just south of Versailles. “…Themes and motifs for this style of printed cotton covered diverse subject matter, from florals and fables to Greek mythology and scientific advancements… #Oberkampf commissioned the best artists of the day to design scenes that reflected contemporary interests, such as the first hot air balloon flight…” says antique textiles dealer Katharine Pole. ‘Le Ballon de Gonesse’ was designed by Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet shortly after the factory received the title of ‘royal manufacturer’ from King Louis XVI of France, whose wife, Marie Antoinette, notably commissioned her gowns to be made from the celebrated #textiles. Antoinette and the royal family were also transfixed by the ‘Balloonomania’ sweeping across France and their own backyard at #Versailles, inspiring one of the balloons to be named in the Queen’s honor. “…The invention of the balloon struck the men and women of the late 18th century like a thunderbolt. Enormous crowds gathered in Paris to watch one balloon after another rise above the city rooftops, carrying the first human beings into the air in the closing months of 1783… In an age when men and women could fly, what other wonders might they achieve…” wrote the #Smithsonian… And centuries later, crowds gather again in Paris, now wondering instead, what the visionary Watanabe will create next… (Collages by Moi)

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CLOAK & DAGGER • How several of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s picturesque models from his Valentino Fall 2018 runway inadvertently resembled the muses captured in Tamara de Lempicka’s Art Deco paintings, most notably The Green Veil, The Blue Madonna and Teresa de Avila, her rendition of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s magnificent 17th Century marble sculpture, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa…. Piccioli’s cloaked cat-walkers emerged from their jewel-tone hoods, a common fixture in Lempicka’s au courant portraits, and very much reminiscent of the biblical heroines painted during the time of Bernini’s High Roman Baroque sculpture… Considered by many to be his pièce de résistance, the work paints a scene portraying Teresa of Ávila in a state of religious ecstasy as a result of an angel stabbing her with a divine golden arrow, filling her with the love of God…

After much success in Europe, Lempicka, a Polish Jewess and champion of the Art Deco movement, fled Europe with her husband from the rising power of Nazi Germany, motivating her to shift gears in terms of her painting’s subject matters. While continuing to masterfully fuse #Cubism and #Mannerism, Lempicka moved away from the fashionable protagonists of her early portraits, and began to paint peasants, refugees and religious figures inspired by early Christian art. Though her painterly point of view evolved with the grim state of the world, Lempicka continued to infuse her paintings with a sense of romance and sensuality, quite like Piccioli who referenced “Romanticism” when describing his collection…Though #romanticism might not be a common description of religion, one might characterize the 16th Century Spanish Saint, Teresa of Ávila, a Carmelite nun, prominent Spanish mystic, religious reformer, author, prominent Doctor of the Church, and of course, the muse for Bernini’s marble masterpiece, as religiously romantic. The bridal mysticism that inspired Teresa of Ávila, which in turn inspired Bernini’s sculpture, and later Lempicka’s paintings, also pervaded Piccioli’s garments, just as the angel’s golden arrow penetrated Saint Teresa’s heart. #VALENTINO #LEMPICKA #BERNINI #BAROQUE #ARTDECO (Collages by Moi)

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HAIL MARY • How the models sauntering to the beat of primitive tribalistic rhythms on Dries Van Noten’s Spring 2008 catwalk appeared to be emerging out of one of Paul Gauguin’s canvas masterpieces, particularly that of his 1891 pièce de résistance, ‘Ia Orana Maria,’ otherwise known simply as Hail Mary… According to The Met, who lists the painting in their permanent collection, “Before embarking on a series of pictures inspired by Polynesian religious beliefs, Gauguin devoted this, his first major Tahitian canvas, to a Christian theme, describing it in a letter of March 1892: "An angel with yellow wings reveals Mary and Jesus, both Tahitians, to two Tahitian women, nudes dressed in pareus, a sort of cotton cloth printed with flowers that can be draped from the waist. Very somber, mountainous background and flowering trees . . . a dark violet path and an emerald green foreground, with bananas on the left…” Gauguin was able to capture the vivid landscape and purity of the Tahitian people on canvas and within his pictorial journals, much like Lucien Gauthier was able to do in his silver-tone photographs taken shortly after many of the paintings were created.

Dries Van Noten’s use of color, as well as the bold prints of the textiles were reminiscent of pareus traditionally worn around the kaleidoscopic landscapes of Tahiti… Van Noten, perhaps unintentionally, evoked the essence of Gauguin’s dream-like paintings through his abstractly floral and leafy graphics, painterly hues, and overall romanticism on his runway. “…After the first girl walked out in a flowered halter and a pair of contrasting pants, the runway gradually came alive with color, pattern, and easy shapes… This was Van Noten back on home ground, taking summer's license to run wild with florals while also capturing everything his devotees adore about the arty/ethnic cast of his clothes...” wrote Sarah Mower for Vogue. Just as Gauguins painting was enriched with theological undertones, Dries Van Noten’s 2008 presentation was something of a religious experience in its own sartorial rite… #DriesVanNoten #Gauguin #LucienGauthier (Collages by Moi)

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ANIMAL ATTRACTION • How a leopard skin cloaked Egyptian princess named Princess Nefertiabet appeared to be resurrected from the dead for Azzedine Alaia’s Fall 1991 Collection… Nefertiabet, meaning ‘Beautiful One of the East,’ is most famously depicted on a painted limestone funerary stele dating back to the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Within the stele, she is shown seated on a bull-footed stool before an offering table displaying a funerary feast, as well as libations, livestock, incense, “the best” cosmetic ointments, green and black eye paint, medicinal Zizyphus, and fabric… plenty to keep her well equipped while traveling to the great beyond. Discovered in her tomb in Giza, and now residing in the Louvre’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities, the relief depicts her wearing a long wig and a panther-skin garment. Princess Nefertiabet was no doubt a fashionable clothes horse in her day, as the entire right rectangular section of the stele represents a detailed list of the thousands of yards of various types of linen fabric she was equipped with for her stylish afterlife… How fitting that Monsieur Alaia once said “…I am bad with the timeline. I am the age of the Pharaohs. I’ve erased all the dates...” Perhaps in this case, dates are indeed irrelevant as animal prints never seem to go out of style…

“What made the show so unforgettable was its appealing anthropomorphism—his leopard-print knits were not only transcendent, but transformative, adding a new and feral sense of “animal magnetism” to his body-con silhouettes.” wrote Vogue of the collection. Alaia’s animal prints helped further the idea that Nefertiabet’s leopard print one-shouldered gown was, and is, shockingly au courant… In her book, Fierce: The History of Leopard Print, author Jo Weldon suggests that while wild cats use their graphic markings as camouflage to blend in with their surroundings when hunting for prey, fashion utilizes the animal print as a means to stand out. “Those who choose to wear leopard print may not mean to say that they are predators, but they are definitely saying they are not.” #Alaia #90sfashion #AncientEgypt #vintagefashion

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BOOT CAMP • How the earliest known prosthesis, dating from between 950 to 710 BC, could have easily been an accessory in Alexander McQueen’s Spring 1999 Collection, widely known as No. 13. Referred to as the “Cairo Foot,” the early Iron Age prosthetic was discovered in a burial chamber on the mummified body of an ancient Egyptian noblewoman believed to be the daughter of a high status priest. The 3,000-year-old wooden toe shows the early artistry of biomimicry as it is both prosthetic as well as cosmetic. Crafted from leather and wood, and bound together with thread, the ancient prosthesis was adjusted to precisely fit its wearer’s foot, much like McQueen’s carved ash wood prosthetic legs / boots custom made for Aimee Mullins, the muse and world-class Paralympic athlete that opened his infamous 13th show...

McQueen’s runway was colored with natural hues of raffia and lace. Leather was used to create corsets, moulded harnesses and belted collars, all adorned with primitive stitching, details no doubt inspired by the workshops of Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton, which pioneered prosthetics as a result of the grave casualties suffered during World War I. After previously collaborating with Mullins for an issue of Dazed & Confused, the designer sought to create a pair of legs for her to wear in his upcoming show. As described by the V&A… “McQueen entrusted the commission to Bob Watts of prosthetic and orthotic centre Dorset Orthopaedic. Watts was asked to create a pair of solid one-block wooden legs, inspired by a Louis XIV-style table and by woodcarvers of the period such as Grinling Gibbons… After finishing the design Watts sent the legs to wood carver and gilder Paul Ferguson who had been instructed by McQueen to carve ‘vines and leaves looking like they were growing up on the wooden prostheses’. The intricate carved decoration replaced the typical laces of a Victorian boot…” The tension between aesthetics and function may not be new to the world, but the designer’s view towards his industry’s often restrictive standards were absolutely modern. “I suppose the idea is to show that beauty comes from within.” said #McQueen #Egypt (Collages by Moi)

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THE SECRET GARDEN • For his Spring 2007 #Sarabande Collection, Alexander McQueen took the audience on a journey from bud to burial, using fresh flowers laced with cobwebs, as a beautifully macabre metaphor for the cycle of life. “Things rot” said McQueen… “I used flowers because they die. My mood was darkly romantic at the time...” A similar tale plucked from the garden and ending back in the soil can be seen in the evolution of The Woodlands, environmentalist William Hamilton’s 18th century Philadelphia botanical garden and state-of-the-art greenhouse. Hamilton, with the help of his friend and neighbor, seed dealer and published botanical artist William Bartram, created a garden of exotic plants from around the world, containing approximately 10,000 species of native, foreign, and rare flora at the height of its operations.

After helping usher in the Age of Enlightenment that eventually led to the discipline of botany, the wealthy collector’s land was saved from near extinction when it was transformed into a cemetery or “memory garden” nearly a century later. “We have a nineteenth-century cemetery superimposed on an eighteenth-century estate,” explains the Woodlands’ director… The land was metamorphosed to fit the needs of the popular rural cemetery movement, which emphasized romantic landscapes in contrast to the crowded churchyards of colonial America. Just as these garden graveyards were dedicated to creating peaceful sanctuaries outside the unsavory confines of the recently industrialized cities, perhaps the same could be said of #McQueen’s collection… a fantastical escape from the decay of modern civilization… “McQueen’s interest in nature was normally of the wild kind and he rarely turned to the tamer realm of the English #garden with its herbaceous borders and Edwardian glasshouses.” wrote Claire Wilcox… “However, here he secreted petals under chiffon, stuffed blossom into the gaping necks of ball gowns, formed headpieces of black roses and, for the finale, made a #bouquet of a dress from frozen blooms. Fragile and wilting under the heat, the flowers dropped to the catwalk as the model circled the stage, leaving a perfumed trail...” (Collages by moi)

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PHOEBE PHILO / THE TROJAN WOMEN PART II • How Phoebe Philo juxtaposed her Spring 2018 Trojan Women print (see yesterday’s post) with additional textiles featuring images of women working in factories printed on proletariat shapes, reminiscent of Russian Constructivist Art created during the early 20th Century. Perhaps Philo’s pairing of images featuring women battling to survive war, with images of women working in factories was a subversive message suggesting that not only are women often innocent victims of war, but that they are the backbones of society during turmoil as well... With this in mind, Philo’s collection reaffirms the Constructivist theory that “Fashion can be understood as a physical means through which to create and reflect cultural meaning. The consumption of fashion as a material good represents values of the consumer and is central to the construction of identity and selfhood. Fashion can be seen as a text in which one can observe the values associated with social identities through their visual expression; concurrently, fashion can be a vehicle for socialization and social control or, alternatively, for liberation from cultural constraints...”

•In a society faced with dynamic vicissitudes throughout most of the 20th century, Constructivism endeavored in the early 1900s to modify and radically restructure the value of material goods through the transfiguration of aesthetics, as well as through attempts at mass production. Constructivists understood that to fully exemplify the Socialist Revolution, Constructivist aesthetics and values must extend to the sphere of fashion, which was characterized by the functionality of its shapes and the simplicity of its geometric patterns. Of paramount importance to Constructivist designers was the reconstruction of gender relations and roles. As female artists and designers in male-dominated structures, their radical involvement in socialist creative fields situate their desire to alter hegemonic norms. A woman has to cease to be a thing, a commodity, the object of a picture, and with women as creators, such transformation occurred... • Constructivism: Fashioning Socialist Modernity by Joseph Weinger

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HERE COMES THE BRIDE • Yves Saint Laurent’s folkloric knit bridal gown that famously closed his 1965 Haute Couture collection and was later revived in his final 2002 Couture show, was known to be inspired by traditional Russian Matryoshka dolls. The visionary designer’s iconic reinterpretation of the traditional wedding dress however, shared a surprisingly appropriate resemblance to ancient statues depicting The Great Artemis of Ephesus, dating as far back as the Bronze Age…

Presented in the couturier’s legendary Homage to Mondrian Collection, this wondrous hand-knit cocoon wedding gown adorned with ivory silk satin ribbons, derived its shape from Russian nesting dolls which date back to the 1890s… Curiously, these wooden nesting dolls are imbued with the symbolism of fertility and motherhood, similar to The Ephesian Artemis who was known as the “great mother goddess” and protector of pregnant women. Furthermore, the original statue of the Ephesian Artemis displayed in her temple, considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was venerated in an archaic, pre-Hellenic cult image that was carved of wood (a #xoanon), similar to the Russian figurines. Artemis' role as an ardent patron of female reproduction may be symbolized by the spherical objects that cover the lower part of her chest, but the common assumption that they are female breasts has been debunked. In actuality, they most likely represented the scrotal sacs of sacrificed bulls, or possibly decorative amber gourds rediscovered in archaeological excavations, which were known in Asia as fertility symbols for centuries. Also noteworthy, the body and legs of Artemis were enclosed within a tapering pillar-like figure, from which the goddess' feet protrude, just as in Monsieur Saint Laurent’s knit creation… The idea that a wedding gown is a historical symbol of future procreation only furthers the correlation between Saint Laurent’s modestly iconic wedding gown, Russia’s womb filled Matryoshkas and the relics depicting a maternal Artemis excavated throughout the former Roman Empire.

#yvessaintlaurent #ysl #matryoshka #couture #vintagefashion #artemis #ancientrome #antiquites #vintage

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How Fortuny’s Venetian textile mill found inspiration on the other side of the world in Cusco, a city in the Peruvian Andes.🔹Once the capital of the Inca Empire, the city is now known for its archaeological remains and Spanish colonial architecture. The baroque Santo Domingo Convent was built on top of the Incan Temple of the Sun (Qoricancha), and has archaeological remains of Inca stonework.

🔹Many of the ancient textiles came from prehistoric graves, many still around the mummies, and the fact that the cemeteries were on the edge of the desert, where rain is practically unknown, accounts for their marvelous preservation.

•Discontinued Fortuny fabric called Cuzco in blue & warm white / Early Peruvian design, named for an ancient town in Peru / Printed at the Fortuny factory in Venice

•Chimú Textile Fragment with Monkeys / 1400-1532 / Cotton / Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum

•The once bedroom of my Grandparents featuring a Fortuny Cuzco covered chaise lounge in the corner and the reverse side of the fabric covering the ottoman in the foreground / Circa 1986

•Chimú Textile Fragment with Monkeys / 1400-1532 / Cotton / Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum

•Past antics at my old atelier on Rossmore with my chair & ottoman featuring the original Fortuny Cuzco fabric that I inherited from my late Grandmother / Photo by @intelligencempls

•Detail of Chimú Textile Fragment with Monkeys / 1400-1532 / Cotton / Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum

🔹”Like most historic peoples the Peruvians made use of the objects which were familiar to them in their daily life. First we have the realistic forms. Then little by little through repetition and elimination we get a conventionalized or geometric figure which is far removed from its original source of inspiration.” Examples of such geometric figures courtesy of Ethel Ellis Benners "Ancient Peruvian Textiles" The Museum Journal • Penn Museum

#fortuny #peruviantextiles #inca #cusco #fashion #archaeology #vintage #interiordecor #pennmuseum #brooklynmuseum #textiles #design
#incanempire #italiantextiles #templeofthesun #billybaldwindesign

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