Mae West lip Sofa, photo credit: hitomimatarese
Mary Katratrantzou Fall 2008 Graduate Collection, photo credit: ozenweb
Prada Fall 2011 Mary-Jane shoe boots, photo credit: MTV
One could only wish, at the Christmas time, that it has been a surreal year - that one has spun in a dress with giant pendant prints by Mary Katrantzou without breaking the neck, has strode on the Mary Jane shoe boots by Prada like a school girl, and has sat on a shocking pink sofa shaped like the lips of actress Mae West. Surrealism in fashion was debuted by Schiaparelli in 1927 and has been taking on new forms (or deformations) ever since then.
Schiaparelli’s bowtie sweater does not seem avant-garde after 80 years, but its acceptance then could be imagined in the way that the shoe boots by Prada are tolerated today. Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada both had truthful eyes for trompe l’oeil, and both experimented playing with beauty and ugliness, earning a side-by-side comparison at the Costume Institute of MET next year.
A fresh form of trompe l’oeil is the play with print and texture in the Fall 2011 collections by Christopher Kane and House of Holland. Crochet is, all of a sudden, more gratifying and less granny when printed on leather. André Breton said: it is true that we would not dare venture so far. But if even crochet could be charming again, perhaps fashion will, with years to come, dare venture further and further.
Schiaparelli sweaters in 1927, photo credit: chrissystyles
Schiaparelli skeleton dress, photo credit: twentythirtyforty
Comme des Garçons by Rei Kawakubo, AW 2009, photo credit: wallpaper
Chirstopher Kane AW2011, photo credit: myfashionlife
House of Holland Fall2011, photo credit: Instyle UK
Markus Lupfers, a dream trompe l'oeil dress for 2011 Christmas, photo credit: asos
