Dasha said

Fashion is art. True or false? Ever since a notion about creating a new piece of clothes appeared, there are certain discussions about whether to put fashion on the same level with painting, music, architecture and dancing or not.

Undoubtedly, fashion has always been a reflection of modern-time level of cultural, social, scientific development. Quickly jumping over the main eras of costume in our fantasy, we may find enough arguments for the statement ‘fashion is art’. It is enough to recall Madeleine Vionnet (known as ”the architect among dressmakers“ for sophisticated cut) , Elsa Schiaparelli (who can forget surrealistic “Lobster” dress designed in collaboration with Salvador Dali or magnificent Cocteau Jackets?), Cristóbal Balenciaga (the king of volume and construction of garments), Gabrielle Chanel (and her revolutionary little-black-dress formula), Yves Saint Laurent (introduced female smoking - another culture-shock of the time). Being conceptualists, couturiers not only took a habit to bound whole collections to certain form of art, but even to involve artists themselves to cooperate, enriching the way we see and understand the language of fashion now.

Mentally coming back to contemporary fashion, which adopted much from consumerism and fast-food (buy much & often, wear seldom, never get sated) and certainly gathers more pace, it is especially pleasant to witness its true arty nature to unfold on the catwalk. The performance of Fedir Vozianov was based on legendary suprematist triad - Black Square, Black Circle, Black Cross - painted by Kazimir Malevich. 

(A short film “suprematism 2.0 by fedir vozianov”) https://youtu.be/__Fvrykz0rQ

Minimalistic but deep, seemingly simple but complicated. Malevich’s Square is known not to be a square at all: none of its angles is equal 90 degrees and its sides aren’t parallel. The “square” is not even originally black because this colour is the result of mixing various paints on the canvas, and none of paints used by artist was black.

On the show “Suprematism 2.0″ we saw a literal reflection of ‘fashion=art’. The garments were taken just off the canvas, flat and simple forms being transformed into dynamic and three-dimentional silhouettes already on models’ bodies.

Light. One of the most beautiful phenomena in the world, an inspiration (and reason) for countless works of art, an unflagging pabulum for scientific researches - these definitions are just drops in the sea of this word’s meanings. Anyway, the theme of light in its all kinds and tinges was taken by Vladimir Podolyan as main background for new collection alongside with glowing masterpieces of Gustav Klimt.

(above: image on invitation card of PODOLYAN s/s 2016 show; below: part of G. Klimt’s “Woman in Gold”)

Evidently, celebrating this year’s opening of monobrand boutique in Kyiv (PODOLYAN store is available for visitors since April), it was decided to set the decorations which resembled doors and windows of the shop. No jokes, there was a neon sign which also reflected designer’s ‘lighty’ idea: its cold glowing set a contrast with mild pastel shades on garments.

(first image from DOMANOFF lookbook)

The first event that I attended at this season’s Ukrainian Fashion Week happened to be an unusual fashion show by designer duo Dima and Alena Domanoff. Holding a smooth black-and-yellow invitation in my hand and slightly huddling up (it’s rather cool on the second floor, in this spacious dainty place for every artist to show his creations), I walked up the illuminated stairs in Mystetsky arsenal. Invitation card showed no sign of usual ‘row’ & ‘seat’, and public was already gathering around improvised catwalk with sound-check performing just behind their backs.

But was the catwalk improvised? Surely not. To begin with, show we all were about to witness promised to be a director debut of Dima Domanoff. Remembering the presentation of last year’s spring/summer collection, which was conducted in a form of film with Olimpia Whitemustache as a heroine, DOMANOFF continues to explore other types of art besides fashion itself. Moving from film to theatre this season, designers intrigued to show a theatrical performance and released a teaser not long before the event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrJOaN4oW9M

First that catches an eye even in this short 0:40 long video is movement - a constant non-stop flexibility of every garment, which is achieved by using a material new for DOMANOFF: rubber.

Well, this sneak-peek was only fated to stir more the attention of public. Now we were all there encircling the stage and as the lights went down, everyone appeared to be a participant of event happening.

One of the loudest triumphs of autumn-winter 2015 season on Ukrainian fashion scene took place in State Polytechnic Museum of Kiev, where Anton Belinskiy presented his latest collection.

‘Arty’ is the definition which suits best when one recalls the statement looks from the catwalk of this young designer, who featured as a semi-finalist in LVMH Prize this year. The first thing that drew attention was the scenery: authentic atmosphere of Museum itself (helicopters, old computers, tanks) was filled up with bright canvas of Taras Sereda, who created it not long before the show.

It was this background that seemed to set a vivid, expressive and truly suprematic fashion for whole catwalk. Anton stays true to flashy slogan “Poor But Cool”: it appears once again on furry sweatshirts and polos. He adds that this motto can represent a modern status of many fashionistas who are eager to stay on-the-go with fashion and to stand out of mainstream. Maybe this was the reason why sporty looks are so brightened with color blocks of light-blue, red, pink and yellow: a sure way to draw attention without spending too much is Color. The more the better.

She stepped on fashion highway being only 16 years old. Since that time (year 2012) the building of World of Anna K began: fashionistas over the globe put on t-shirts with ironic words like “I don’t give interviews” or “If you want to talk to me, talk to my agency” and walked outside, getting into photoflashes of famous street-style photographers.

Having already succeeded abroad (let me mark such spots like Luisa Via Roma in Italy, Colette in France, Revolve in USA, where her collections are available), Anna moves forward and shows her Pre-Spring 2016 in More Dash. It consists of 36 looks which represent “girly chic” in a totally renewed way: innocent ruches and bows go along with alluring transparency of silk and intriguing cutouts. Key combination of seductive and naïve as Anna’s recognizable handwriting can be noticed in every piece of new collection, be it one of those loose mini-dresses of red and light-pink or skittish outfits “blouse + shorts”. Such embellishment as pearls and stitchy embroildery of flowers especially draw attention on those red, white, grey minimalistic backgrounds.

Kazimir Malevich ‘Athletes’

A/W  2015 collection by DZHUS

(lookbook)