Bernhard Willhelm and Jutta Kraus at the Groninger Museum

Bernhard Willhelm and Jutta Kraus, Autumn/Winter 2009/2010, (Perhaps a witty comment on the housing crisis?), Photo: Shoji Fuji

A retrospective of Bernhard Willhelm and his business and creative partner Jutta Kraus just opened at the Groninger Museum. Curated by Sue-an van der Zijpp and Mark Wilson, known for having curated the first retrospective of Hussein Chalayan, the exhibition is an exhausting chronicle of the idiosyncratic fashion that Willhelm and Kraus produced over the last 10 years. The exhibition design, which Willhelm and Kraus developed in collaboration with the Groninger Museum, started with the use of mannequins based on classical statuary—an interesting choice for the decidedly non-classical silhouette embodied in their designs.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, published by NAi Publishers. It is abundantly illustrated with photos of every collections that Willhelm and Kraus have thus far produced. The catalogue also includes an essay by the German-based journalist Ingeborg Harms on their backgrounds, an interview with the designers by Sue-an Van der Zijpp, as well as an essay I wrote on their work’s relation to the grotesque and carnival themes.

The book is available through NAi Publishers, while the exhibition remains open through April 11, 2010.

Francesca Granata

Click below for installation shots of the exhibition Bernhard Willhelm & Jutta Kraus Womens Collection 2007/2008 Photo: Marten de Leeuw

Bernhard Willhelm & Jutta Kraus Mens Fall/Winter 2008/2009 Photo: Marten de Leeuw

Bernhard Willhelm & Jutta Kraus Womens Spring/Summer 2008 Photo: Marten de Leeuw

All Photos Courtesy of the Groninger Museum

Ethics + Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion

Zoë Sheehan Saldaña, Jordache Sheer Camp Shirt (Lucky Lime)

Opening this Friday November 20th at the Pratt Institute Manhattan Gallery is an exhibition I co-curated with Sarah Scaturro on the topic of sustainability and fashion. Titled "Ethics + Aesthetics," the exhibition had a rather long gestation, as Sarah and I began to discuss working on such a project together in 2005. Initially thinking of it as part of Fashion Projects, we eventually decided to develop the idea as a separate project. It was important to us to highlight American and in particular New York–based designers, as we both felt that US-based designers are often short-changed by simplistic understandings of what constitutes American fashion, which is often equated with commercial mass-market fashion. We also wanted to underline the importance of the local to discussions of sustainability.

Equally important to the project was to higlight new ways of conceptualizing fashion and its consumption and production models. The last section of the exhibition seeks to directly question the fashion cycle and its dependence on fast and constant change by suggesting a paradigm shift in how we think about fashion. Among the practioners included in this section are artists such as Andrea Zittel and Tiprin Follett of the smockshop, Kelly Cobb and Zoë Sheehan Saldaña, as well as the design company Slow and Steady Wins the Race, who promote a slower fashion tempo by suggesting novel ways to produce and consume fashion. Their practices foster the creation of meaningful networks and relations through clothing as well as challenging the seasonality of the fashion trade.

The smockshop offers a unique model for a clothing workshop that encourages the adaptation of a basic “uniform” to be worn for long stretches of time, while Slow and Steady Wins the Race makes non-seasonal quality designs that are available year-round. Kelly Cobb’s collaborative project underscores the labor-intensive nature of clothes-making by producing a suit with material and craftspeople located within 100 miles of her home. Zoë Sheehan Saldaña also emphasizes the labor involved in producing a garment by recreating Wal-Mart garments by hand. She later returns her handmade version to the store for resale in lieu of the ones she originally purchased.

We are obviously not in a position to review the exhibition, but below is a brief summery of the main concepts behind it. If you can visit the gallery, which is located on West 14th Street between 6th and 7th Avenue, we would love to hear your feedback, so please do leave us your comments.

Suno's Workshop near Nairobi

"Ethics + Aesthetics is the first American exhibition to investigate the work of artists and designers exploring practical and symbolic solutions to the question of integrating sustainable practices into the fashion system. Focusing primarily on New York-based practioners, the exhibition highlights the way designers address the interactions between the local and the global within an inherently interdependent system.

The exhibition deepens our understanding of what constitutes sustainability within the fashion system by building on the already established practices of using recycled, renewable and organic fibers and the employment of fair labor. Organized around three main themes, “Reduce, Revalue and Rethink,” it expands on the traditional ecological mantra «Reduce, Reuse, Recycle» by acknowledging the importance of aesthetics within fashion design.

Reduce focuses on minimalist clothing design, as well as innovative materials and pattern-making that promote versatility and longevity. This section includes work by Bodkin, Loomstate, SANS and Uluru. Revalue underlines the importance of creating an emotional engagement with the wearer by focusing on the materiality of clothes and their ability to retain memory and history. Included in this section are pieces by Susan Cianciolo, Alabama Chanin and Suno. Rethink advocates a paradigm shift in the way we think about fashion by directly questioning the fashion cycle’s dependence on fast and constant change. It features work by Kelly Cobb, Zoë Sheehan Saldaña, Andrea Zittel and Tiprin Follett and Slow and Steady Wins the Race.

Rather than one single solution to the issue of sustainability in fashion, the designers and artists included in the exhibition provide a variety of approaches to the paradox of aligning fashion—a discipline based on constant change—with the precepts of sustainability. In line with “slow fashion”—a concept modeled after the Slow Food Movement—they advocate for a slower fashion tempo, which fosters richer interaction through design."

A Catalogue of the exhibition is forthcoming--thanks to a generous grant from the Coby Foundation.

Francesca Granata

Summer Readings: Fashion Practice et al.

Cover of Fashion Practice, Volume 1, Issue 1

A sister publication to Fashion Theory was recently launched by Berg Publishers. Titled Fashion Practice, it focuses on the interaction between theory and practice alongside practice-based research and is mainly concerned with contemporary design. Among its recurrent areas of interest are the interaction of fashion and technology, as well as sustainable fashion, as it is geared to be of interest to practicing designers alongside academics. The journal is edited by Sandy Black of the London College of Fashion, and Marilyn DeLong of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, and it is published biannually. (Disclosure: I recently contributed to the journal.)

Also of interest is the proliferation of academic blogs devoted to fashion and based in the USA---a relatively new phenomenon. Among the ones that I have recently discovered is the historically driven Thread for Thought, as well as the more contemporary-minded Threadbared and Worn Through.

Francesca

Lowbrow Reader Variety Hour at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe

Illustration for Gilbert Rogin's Lowbrow Reader story by Doreen Kirchner

Fashion Projects contributor Jay Ruttenberg is organizing a launch event for the new issue of the Lowbrow Reader, his Manhattan-based comedy journal. The Lowbrow Reader is a small, lushly illustrated comedy magazine edited by Jay Ruttenberg. Its new issue, #7, includes work by Shelley Berman (Curb Your Enthusiasm), David Berman (Silver Jews; no relation) and Sam Henderson (Magic Whistle). Much of the issue is devoted to the novelist Gilbert Rogin, including an assessment of his work by Jay Jennings and the first piece of fiction by Rogin to be published since 1980. It is available online, and in smart stores everywhere.

The event will take place at the Housing Works Bookstore (126 Crosby Street in Soho) on Wednesday July 22nd from 7 to 9 and promises to be an exciting and diverse night. The show will feature short acoustic performances from three great musical acts: The Fiery Furnaces, Peter Stampfel and the Ether Frolic Mob, and Larkin Grimm. There will also be an incredibly funny comedian, John Mulaney, and a reading by Gilbert Rogin, a retired New Yorker writer whose work appears in the new Lowbrow Reader. There is a cover charge of $10 to $5 on a sliding scale, and all of the money raised will go to Housing Works—one of our favourite charities that did pioneering work on AIDS.

For more information on the bands and the event please visit the Housing Works event site.

Update! Below are some photos from the event:

The Fiery Furnace playing at Housing Works as part of the Lowbrow Reader Variety Show. Photo by Jesse Chan-Norris

Larkin Grimm playing at the Lowbrow Reader Variety Hour. Photo by Jesse Chan-Norris

Peter Stampfel and Ether Frolic Mob at Housing Works. Photo by Jesse Chan-Norris

Author Gilbert Rogin reading at Housing Works. Photo by Jesse Chan-Norris

Mono Kultur on Dries Van Noten

Mono Kultur no. 20. Cover Image by Kai von Rabenau.

I recently found an interesting and imaginative publication while visiting the X Initiative "No Soul for Sale: A Festival of Independents", that took place at what used to be Chelsea's Dia Art Foundation. Appropriately titled Mono Kultur, it consists of a single interview with an art or design practioner. The publication is based in Berlin and its most recent issue features a long and engaging interview with the Belgian designer Dries Van Noten accompanied by images of his work by Kai von Rabenau. Past issues have featured interviews with Miranda July, David LaChapelle, Maurizio Cattelan, Massimilano Gioni and a number of others.

Francesca