To overcome the limits of traditional design. To explore the tensions and challenges of the contemporary world. These are the themes of the exhibit titled The Waves that took place at 10·Corso·Como from March 2nd to 30th. We have discussed it with the curator Alessio de’Navasques, who told us about the inspiration and technical system of The Waves
by Domenico Casoria
The Waves has gathered the works of five of the most innovative and radical brands and young designers of the new generation: ALL-IN. Duran Lantink, Hodakova, Vaquera, zomer and, with their creations, they seem to answer to the complex period that the fashion system is currently going through. They propose an overall photography that, at the same time, appears to be conflicting. The purpose of the exhibition, as underlined by de’Navasques, has been to gather up the most strong voices of the international scene, in order to try to give an answer to the challenges of contemporaneity.
The Waves
“Through expressionistic shapes, sartorial, coutures, but not minimalistic ones, all the protagonists seem to answer to this difficult period with collections that deal with some of the themes and issues of contemporaneity. Gender, relationship with the body, beauty standards, exploitation of material or forms of escaping”. Questions that involve fashion. Starting from the title of one of Virginia Woolf’s works, The Waves, that evokes the never-ending motion par excellence – the one that characterizes waves – as the representation of an uncontaminated time, an eternal present that cyclically repeats itself.
“The Waves is a game. It takes inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s novel in a way that revolves around metaliterature, based on the idea of structuring the exhibition as six different dialogues through five or six pieces for each designer. Each piece has been placed in the rarefied space of the Gallery as it was colliding towards another, just as in the motion of a wave. This is then highlighted by a central device made of paper and some displays with which we have recreated a true visualisation of the floating”.
A drastic vision
As we were saying, the creations are born from an extremely drastic vision. “They are all deeply sartorial creations, as they wink at high fashion techniques, but redefine the silhouettes with new strategies and techniques, re-use materials – zips, fur waste, components or other materials – that are even able to narrate the way in which the concept of sustainability is evolving, becoming a true possibility”, as stated by Alessio de’Navasques. A past world that meets the needs of the present.
The installations, part 1
ALL-IN, created by Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestø, for example, represents an experimentation laboratory of contemporaneity. Initially born as an independent journal, the brand has evolved into a collection characterized by the deconstruction and reinterpretation of preexisting shapes and objects. Daniel Aitouganov and Imruh Asha, founders of Zomer, play with different materials in order to create textile structures animated by an artificial and dramatic nature that evokes an imaginary garden.
Ellen Hodakova Larsson, Swedish designer and creative mind behind the brand Hodakova, has always been reflecting on production and consumption dynamics, by taking advantage of simple materials. Hodakova creates new stylistic languages through belts, zips, fur coats, boots and other unusual elements that essentially give life to a new aesthetic dimension.
The installations, part 2
Duran Lantink, on the other hand, redefines the idea of the body through volumes that wrap around and protect. For The Waves, the designer has exhibited pieces of the project titled Sistaaz of the Castle, realized in Cape Town in partnership with SistaazHood, a non-profit organization that supports the rights of transgender sex workers.
Then, the American collective Vaquera, founded by Patric DiCaprio (later in partnership with Bryn Taubensee) challenges the traditional standards in terms of beauty and body, by creating a bridge between avantgarde and subcultures within an incessant breaking with conventional boundaries. All themes which fashion is currently dealing with. Among the proposed outfits, there are even some made of leather: “Re-elaboration of preexisting products, a belt and an old bag. Since there is a focus on materiality and on consumption related issues, leather is a key element in this type of narrations”, concludes de’Navasques. So, it becomes really difficult to imagine something more contemporary than this.
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