FASHION SHOWS AS DRAMATIC NARRATIVES (Dior, Balenciaga, Margiela, Owens, Adrian)
Details
Please watch these before the meeting (66 mins. viewing time):
1: Adrian/Ready-to-wear/Spring-Summer 1940/10 mins.
From “The Women” (1939)
Stream for free here: www.bilibili.com/video/BV1of421q76e/?share_source=copy_web (43:00 to 53:00)
"The Women" can also be rented and streamed elsewhere. Check https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-women for details.
2: Christian Dior/Haute Couture/Spring-Summer 2001/18 mins.
Designer: John Galliano https://youtu.be/zTJq4S7NgMc?si=4HzxkMaDNfdsky67
3: Balenciaga/Ready-to-wear/Spring 2023/“NYC Show”/12 mins.
Designer: Demna Gvasalia www.youtube.com/live/KP1OvbFB3wo?si=1_5vqWsj68J9nglC
4: Maison Martin Margiela/Ready-to-wear/Spring-Summer 2006/14 mins.
youtu.be/D7PBcLHyeAE?si=cwOkiG41YAVc3P3B
5: Rick Owens/Ready-to-wear/Spring-Summer 2014/“Vicious”/12 mins.
youtu.be/TirA415R7o4?si=cDi4fHYnxnGVUV0Z
As fashion shows are now international, live-streamed, memed extravaganzas, they have become a powerful form of public performance. But are they drama? Choosing models is now called "casting," expensive sets are designed and built, theatrical lighting techniques and sound design are de rigeur, and designers are expected to explicate the fashion "story." Are we watching characters in specific places do things (beyond just walking) that are part of a bigger narrative?
Inspired by the Technicolor fashion show in the black-and-white 1939 film adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce’s 1936 play “The Women,” we will look at more modern examples, and the ways fashion dramatizes fantasies--or nightmares--of how we might reimagine ourselves.