Skin + Bones Exhibition, London
Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture, a new exhibition at London’s Somerset House, is one such attempt to demystify how these two creative disciplines no longer operate in a cultural vacuum. Coinciding with a book of the same name, the exhibition charts from 1980 to the present day the increasingly shared dialogue between fashion designers and architects through the work of over fifty contemporary pioneers.
The fashion on show is a mix of high concept and high drama: Chalayan, McQueen, Miyake, Comme, Viktor + Rolf and Westwood together with architects of a similar calibre: Gehry, Hadid, OMA and Herzog & de Meuron to name just a few. It might seem outlandish to try and draw parallels between the two – but this is precisely where the exhibition succeeds. Rather than forcing similarities with grand, academic texts, the visuals are left to speak for themselves.
Both architects and designers are preoccupied with space, volume and providing a cover for the body, a protection from the environment and a vehicle for social and cultural comment. And these are the kernels at the heart of the exhibition, presented thematically with garments or catwalk videos on one side and architectural parallels opposite.
Content courtesy of Wallpaper.
