To further develop the colour pallete for AW09 I thought it was best to further define the theme for the collection and my though processes behind it. Originally I had wanted to use New Wave, early 80s style as inspiration for the collection, I liked the sharp power dressing element and the quirkiness of androgynous women looking like boys because of the cut of the clothes they wore. Sharp dressers from the era such as Klaus Nomi inspired me, being drawn to quirky characters and by the combination of colours used here on an album cover. his eccentricity and quest to be alternative as a change from the norm were key factors here, which reminded me of the Dada movement I had prevously studied.
A definition of Dada by the Tate, London:
'The Dada movement began in Zurich, in neutral Switzerland, during the First World War. It can be seen as a reaction by artists to what they saw as the unprecedented horror and folly of the war. They felt it called into question every aspect, including its art, of the society capable of starting and then prolonging it. Their aim was to destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art to replace the old. As the artist Hans Arp later wrote: 'Revolted by the butchery of the 1914 World War we in Zurich devoted ourselves to the arts. While the guns rumbled in the distance, we sang, painted, made collages and wrote poems with all our might.' The founder of Dada was a writer, Hugo Ball. In 1916 he started a satirical night-club in Zurich, the Cabaret Voltaire, and a magazine which, wrote Ball, 'will bear the name 'Dada'. Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada.' This was the first of many Dada publications. Dada became an international movement and eventually formed the basis of Surrealism in Paris after the war. Leading artists associated with it include Arp, Duchamp, Picabia andSchwitters. Duchamp's questioning of the fundamentals of Western art had a profound subsequent influence.'
The points highlighted in bold are the main reasons for my choice, the fact that the Dada movement was created as a social reaction to a crisis - in this case WWI but the concept is readily applicable to today's society of wars in Iraq and the current economical climate - as a commentary on the events and a movement protesting for change. The Dada artists wanted to destroy traditional values and change the way people viewed their art and eventually the world by often including strange and impossibly real imagery. Dadaism was not only an artisitc movement but involved poetry, music and was a general way of life and method of viewing the world.
Both these factors coincide with the Miuciana Prada's philosophy of narrating issues and affairs interpreted through her collections, and one which challenges the viewer to rethink the traditional forms of fashion, designing for a woman who is constantly evolving and reinventing herself. Miu Miu collections are usually based on the fantastical and the Dada movement is a concise way of developing this brand philosophy into Auntum/Winter 09 for the label.
This video I found on YouTube is a short film explaining Dada in its simplest form - the colours used for the cartoon characters and the backgrounds really summarise the colour palette I had envisioned for Miu Miu. Slate combined with beiges, peach, burnt oranges and red, along with duck egg blues and especially the plums and violets towards the end of the clip:
Another example of Dada stylings and use of montage effects is this music video called 'A is for Action' by Ima Robot. A good reflection of the colour mood I wanted to convey:
Key characteristic of the Dada movement include:
- use of typography and different fonts and texts to convey meaning
- collage of printed works
- photomontage of imagery into fantasy forms
- assemblage as a three dimensional formation of collage, layering items to produce strange new structures
- altering the normal and accepted by featuring the most obscure of items in the most unnatural of places
- readymades displaying manufactured objects as art and displayed as such
The easiest was to incorporate elements from the Dada movement into a Miu Miu collection would be by wither means of accessories, or embellisment details. The image shown here is of Marc Jacobs SS08 accessories inspired by Dada and Surrealism, the shoe in the centre is a prime example of Dadaism, changing the train of thought to present the obscure.
Dadaism later went on to form the basis of Surrealism, an artistic movement already utilised by Miuciana Prada within her SS09 collection, incorporating Dali style faces and impossible forms in hysterical colours to complete the show. For Autumn/Winter 09 the Dada influences can be shown by including collage and photomontage printing techniqies onto fabrics, or by modelling 3-D structures known as assemblages into the designs, for example in the style of the black curly head-piece shown bottom left corner.
I have created a moodboard comprising of various Dada artists' work and images that evoke similar kinds of feelings in terms of colour and form:
Mushroom and beige colours were popular as blank canvasses discoloured with age, a nice theory I wanted to incorporate into the designs. Sludgy and burnt oranges, reds and golden browns appear in some artworks with violets for a feling of warmth, good shades to incorporate together for AW09 for a traditonal approach to autumn colours. Brighter blues and turquoises against plummy brown backgrounds were an extremely effective combination and one I will experiement with further, as were slates and flesh colours together.
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