What is Fashion Curation?

Let’s start with curation. Despite the red squiggly line your word processor draws under it curation is a word. It refers to the work done in museums and galleries all over the world from collecting objects to researching and displaying them. Curators can be very specialized or cover a broad area but fashion curation is one of these specializations.

Fashion curation deals specifically with dress but can also take in ‘fashion’ in its broadest sense- fashion photography, fashion prints and illustrations, accessories, textiles and all sorts of cultural material relating to fashion.

MA Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion is the only fashion specific curatorial course in the world. Course Director Shaun Cole, who was a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum for fifteen years, describes the course in the following way

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MA Fashion Curation is a unique course that offers an opportunity for individuals to investigate Fashion Curation as a professional practice informed from a number of perspectives including fashion design, fine art, photography, publishing, marketing, retail design, exhibition design and architecture. The course is structured to simultaneously integrate the academic study of fashion curation and enquiry into contemporary curating with practical approaches to the discipline, through the exploration of real, hypothetical and virtual contexts. Specialist units offer the fast pace of live industrial projects and the rigour of academic research that mark the tempo of contemporary practice.

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To find out more about the course and perhaps even start your own curatorial journey click here

Teaching on the course comes from a startling number of different practioners and theorists of museology and dress. For this project we are lucky enough to have the input of Judith Clark, a former Course Director of MA Fashion Curation alongside Amy de la Haye. Judith is a fashion curator and exhibition designer who has produced some of the most exciting work in the field.

To see some of Judith’s projects click here 

The advice of professional practicioners has been invaluable on this project. We would like to express our gratitude to all the lecturers that have come in to talk about their own practice and special thanks to Shaun Cole and Judith Clark.

To see what previous students of MA Fashion Curation have been up to click here

The fourth of our talented designers!

Ready for a surprise?! Hiroko Nakajima’s work can’t fail to both shock and delight. Here’s some more information on the startling work of this fashion graduate…

Hiroko is Japanese, and studied in Switzerland, New York and Tokyo, before joining the BA in Fashion Design with Knitwear course at Central Saint Martins. She graduated in 2010 and is now studying an MA in Fashion Design (Knitwear) there.

Hiroko cites her home in Japan as her inspiration. ‘I took my inspiration from my old room... I left home for a while but my mother kept my room untouched. When I came back and opened the door of my room, I felt as though my belongings, which had been abandoned for years, came back to life and welcomed me back. I wanted to express the intimate relationship between an object and its owner.’

This inspiration is clearly evident in Hiroko’s graduate collection, which featured fantastical garments that stretch the boundaries of reality.

In this example a curtain rail comes to life in the form of a dress.

Hayley Sherratt

Roll up, roll up- Designer File number 3

Born in Seoul, Eunmi Hwang came from a background in computer-aided design onto the MA Digital Fashion at London College of Fashion. The inspiration for her MA graduation collection was sustainability.

Inspired by the sustainability and symbosis of marine life in which even some of the largest fish consume only plankton and don't destroy the lives of the smallest, Eunmi applied this metaphor to human life and the fashion industry itself. Using digital technology she sought to create garments that would be sustainable within the ever-changing world of fashion.

Her collection is a combination of unembellished garments with a projected digital prints offering the wearer an endless choice of surface designs.

Eunmi's designs were inspired by a video image of whale shark which nods to the marine sustainability that she wanted to emulate in her sustainable approach.

Eunmi has taken inspiration from SHOWstudio's exhibitions to create a digital experience for customer participation demonstrating the dynamic relationship between curating fashion and creating fashion.

Eunmi is now researching further into developing creative and sustainable processes in fashion. Cutting edge design, beautifully ethereal effects, a different print for each day of the week and an ethical conscience- surely she can't go wrong!

Why Perception is not always Right- the science bit

The act of perception consists in gathering information about the nature of what is the world around us. The information consists in cues about whether the display is near or distant, large or small, if it is moving, in how many parts it is constituted, how many colours are present. However, there can be bias in the act of perception.

A typical situation in which a bias in the perceptive system is likely to happen is in a situation of visual ambiguity. Ambiguity is possible when there is more than one possible solution for the same display. In a situation of ambiguity the brain is actually unable to decide which meaning is preferable.

Most of the time the perception deceives us because it goes for scheme, premade hypothesis that people use for a quicker understanding of the world. The Gestalt school was the first to stress the fact that the brain forms figures by grouping aspects of the stimulus into meaningful patterns. The Gestaltpsychologie, or Psychology of the Form, is a psychological stream born in the first decades of the Nineteenth Century (Bartoli, Giannini, Bonaiuto, 1996). The human mind acts like a computer with preregistered programs which are set according to these laws even if they distort the phenomenal reality of the display. So, there are pre-existing mental models that program how the display would be perceived.  

The “Functions of perception in the Museum” (2005) written by three Italian psychologists Gabriella Bartoli, Anna Maria Giannini and Paolo Bonaiuto categorized visual processes into 11 phenomena: completion, contradiction, adaptation, ambiguity/alternations, assimilation, contrast, masking, emphasis, relief/depth, motion, colour.

These are recognisable phenomena in the visual arts and also in fashion photography. As mentioned before, The Gestalt School studies the aesthetic experience as a universal fact which submits to very specific rules of perception. Contradictory images exploit human tendency to schematize what they seen in order to reduce complexity and arrive at closure. In such images the viewer expectations are subverted to create a feeling of oddity, strangeness, ambiguity.

 

 This Guy Bourdin photograph plays with the illusion of scale.

 Here there is a surreal effect created by an ambiguity in composition.

 An illusion of scale and composition creates the sense of ambiguity in this fashion photograph.

Guilia Piccioni

Our second featured designer

Want a sneaky peek at the designers that will be on show in Looking twice: fashion and illusion? Your wish is our command! Here is the second of our designer files…

Dinu Tudor came to the world of fashion in a slightly roundabout way. His first degree was in pharmacy, and after graduating in this he then took a second degree in graphic design. However, fashion beckoned and in 2009 Tudor launched a handbag collection in his native Romania entitled 3RROR (Error). Following this he applied for the MA in Fashion Design & Technology at London College of Fashion.

Tudor’s previous work experience in the theatre, where he designed props and costumes, remains a large influence on his work. His designs focus on the human body, and the unspoken language formed through its shape and posture. Tudor’s MA graduate collection was entitled Illusion of Reality / Reality of Illusion and took the ‘mirror stage’ concept in psychoanalysis as its starting point, examining how we perceive our own image in a mirror. Garments were therefore flattened and the bodily nature of fabrics explored, becoming intrinsically linked to human anatomy. The colours of the collection, nude and red, were chosen as representative of varying body temperatures.

We love the structures and shapes Dinu creates through his designs. The flattened and accentuated shoulders in this jacket really make a statement. 

Since graduating from LCF, Tudor has attracted attention from magazines both here in the UK and abroad. He is currently designed his SS2012 collection, which will be made public this September. Keep an eye out for him!

Find out more about Dinu’s work here…

http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/dinu
http://www.notjustalabel.com/dinu_bodiciu

Hayley Sherratt

Unveiling the first of our featured designers

Mandy Sharabani is part of our international contingent. She trained at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy where her final collection focussed on optical illusions, particularly relating to the absence and presence of glass in modernist architecture.

Entitled ‘A Fools Paradise’ which draws attention to self-delusion, the collection took optical illusion as a main theme; a dress that looks a dress, but actually is a reversed coat. Colour fields of flocked velvet and color graphics combined with hard graphical lines, all enhances the effect of optical illusions even more. Mandy says "I like to confuse people at first and then make them look closer at the piece to understand it more." She approached the theme of optical illusion with a sense of playfulness- reinterpreting classics like the classic coat and the suit jacket.  

Mandy collaborated with Eva van Aalst who produced the beautifully contradictory shoes pictured here with Mandy's garments.

A special 'flock technique' to creates color gradations on top of the fabrics.

This application creates even more confusion and reinforces the illusions.

We were struck by the way that Mandy used layers of optical illusions in her collection and built confusion and ambiguity into the very silhouettes of her garments.

This silhouette turned out to be a top with skirt, the suggestion would be a dress, while its a dress with a jacket that looks like a skirt.

The full collection.

Mandy is currently managing Henrik Vibskov pop-up shop in Amsterdam and working on a new collection, which we can’t wait to see!

Find out more about Mandy here


Watch a video of 'A Fool's Paradise' here

An Illusory Exhibition

The exhibits that will be on display in Looking twice: fashion and illusion, play with visual illusion, but this trend is not only noticeable within fashion. Through our research it became evident that illusion is currently something of a cultural zeitgeist, and was also present in the recent John Stezaker exhibition, that was on show at the Whitechapel Gallery from 29 January to 18 March 2011.

British artist John Stezaker, describes himself as fascinated by images, and his collages often add or takeaway visual elements in order to create images with new meanings. He plays with distortion and the unsettling effect that this can have visually. Stezaker’s subject is the act of looking itself, and in a similar vein Looking twice aims to encourage the audience to question what they see, to literally look twice at the objects on show and discover new meanings within what is in front of them.

John Stezaker cuts and slices photos together to create a ‘disquieting allure’. In this image he uses this technique to create a mirrored effect.

The theme of illusion is a popular one at present, and so it seems fitting that an exhibition examining its relationship with emerging British fashion talent takes place. Only 13 days to the opening of the exhibition now so make a note of the date, the objects on show won’t disappoint!


Hayley Sherratt

Don't forget you can sponsor our exhibition at INDIEGOGO

Come Curate With Us!

How to become an official sponsor of Looking Twice !

Today’s article focuses on something that makes everyone talk: MONEY.

So take a pen, we are about to tell you how to get rich !

Well … actually, we have not discovered the magic formula yet … but we have figured out a very effective way to fund an exhibition. And trust us, it is still a great breakthrough !!

Money has always been one of the biggest issues for artists. Ideas and talent enjoy unlimited freedom before the question of funding curbs the imagination. Until recently, producing artistic creations was an activity reserved to professionals in the field. However, in the last few years, the cultural industry has undergone a huge revolution. Nowadays, thanks to the internet and social networks, everyone can become an inspired talent hunter, a successful producer and a generous benefactor.

The principle is simple: seeking the contribution of many people as possible. Called “crowd funding”, this innovative funding method has been originally developed in the last ten years to support musicians and films directors. In 2004, the movie Demain la Veille (Waiting for Yesterday) directed by Guillaume Colboc and Benjamin Pommeraud, was the first one funding by a public internet donation campaign. In the music field, since its creation in 2007, the website MyMajorCompagny has launched many artists thanks to the generosity of virtual fans.

The crowd funding is the new vision of patronage. Bit by bit, it has spread throughout all art-forms. Following the development of online platforms dedicated to music and cinema, any kind of project can now be sponsored on the internet.

And among them, there is Looking Twice, our fashion exhibition !

Full of ideas but without a penny, our team of twelve curators has harnessed the power of crowd funding to raise money in order to curate an outstanding show. Via the exhibition campaign profile, opened on the website indiegogo.com, everyone can sponsor Looking Twice and take part in the project by making a donation. Setting up an exhibition does cost a lot of money and from materials to insurance, raising a budget is part of the work.

The funding campaign is also a fantastic way to advertise and communicate about the exhibition through all the networks. And let’s be honest, for the money as well as the number of visitors, it is of course the more the merrier !

In this time of crisis, banks and trusts are not eager to sponsor artistic projects, and as we all know, donation from the heart has always been the most valuable. Counting on the generosity of our friends, families, exhibition goers and Arts enthusiasts we are asking for few pounds and hoping for great support…

SO SUPPORT US ON INDIEGOGO AND COME TO VISIT LOOKING TWICE !!!

Aurélie Costes

PR & Marketing Team

A little bit about our venue...

For curators the venue, the space the show will be seen in, is of equal as importance as the exhibits. It is the lens through which the objects will be seen. We've been lucky enough to get our hands on an converted Victorian warehouse just a short walk away from the bustling markets of Camden Town and have been scribbling away on our exhibition plans ever since!

The Camden district is rife with creative potential and the Collective Gallery encourages artists and curators to push the boundaries of their imagination by giving them a free reign to pursue their exhibition concept. We would like to thank them for their support in helping us to realise our exhibition!



To find out more about the Collective click here 

Everyone's invited!

Come down and see the show at the Collective on Camden High Street. It's absolutely free and a chance to spy some of the best new design talent out there.

We'll be open from Sunday 3rd - Wednesday 6th April 12-7pm apart from Tuesday (12-6pm).

The Collective 

15 Camden High Street

NW1 7JE

The venue is about 200m walk up Camden High Street from Mornington Crescent Tube Station. If you are travelling by bus the 24, 27, 29, 46, 88, 134, 168, 214, 253 all stop near the gallery.

MA Fashion Curation 2010/11 presents: An Exhibition on Fashion and Illusion.

Dresses that pretend to be other garments, other objects.

Fabrics that lie. Prints that look three dimensional but are flat.

Bodies that are skewed and warped by their enclosing garments.

Garment shapes that defy their own laws.

Clothing that does not seem real.

Fashion fits between reality and illusion: reassuringly tangible one moment and evading our expectations the next. Fantastical garments can be created through the use of shape, trompe l’oeil and optical prints, allowing the discovery of an alternative version of reality. The opportunity to question perceptions of fashion and the fashioned body has led a new generation of designers to experiment with illusion and visual manipulation.

R.L. Gregory, a distinguished scholar of visual perception and illusion, has broken optical illusions into four types: ambiguity, distortion, paradox and fiction. The exhibition will explore these categories, both through the objects on show and through the displays themselves, which will use optical illusions to navigate the deceptions, tricks and manipulations that clothing plays out with our bodies as conspirators.

The exhibition will be a platform for emerging British talents and their explorations into the illusory nature of dress. By presenting work from fashion graduates from Central St Martins College of Arts and Design, London College of Fashion and Edinburgh College of Art who explore visual distortions and contradictions in their work, this exhibition will not only look at how we view fashion, but how we can be tricked by it. Inspired by the dialogue between fashion and optical illusion, the objects on show will be displayed in ways that support the audience in interrogating what they see, discovering our curatorial deceptions and the gaps in their own perception. This contradiction, created by contrasting what the viewer expects to see with what they actually see, will encourage curiosity, increasing the enjoyment of the visitor and satisfying the need for unusual experiences, inherent within us all.

As curators of dress it is important that we recognise the multiple and contradictory messages that can be encoded within garments, in their very seams and surfaces. MA Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion is the only fashion specific curatorial course in the world. The course offers a unique opportunity to investigate and develop the specialist practice-based, critical and interpretative skills involved within the discipline of fashion curation.