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FASHION2001
LANDED
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WALTER
VAN BEIRENDONCK We also see Punk in the CONFRONTATION section of MUTILATE?. Is it still possible for a group to develop a 'negative' clothing code? In other words, can a certain feeling that a group of young people experience translate itself into a clothing code, on the condition that this code has an impact and defines itself mainly as provocation? 'These groups no longer exist. It is significant that during the last ten years there has been none of this sort of upheaval, at least not through clothes.' Everything has become liberalized and individualized. 'This has happened despite there being very few models on which to base things. Idols too have completely disappeared. There is very little happening in the field of visual expression that surprises people or that they can do something with. Or maybe the marketing is so powerful that any new impulse immediately becomes a commodity.' It is the media that both accelerate and shatter everything. Fashion is directly linked to the media. No sooner has a collection been created than pictures of it are distributed and discussed and put in context. 'in the fashion world it is simply no longer possible to think small and within an intimate framework. Designer fashion is by definition public, and it has to take this into account more quickly than ever before. Which makes it difficult to build up a degree of suspense. There is too little time for tension.' Fashion's fascination for things is more and more transient. 'Because fashion is linked to the media, it can open its eyes only very quickly and briefly. A theme comes into being for a very short space of time and then something else is explored. Whenever a collection is finished, you always feel that you have to start something new.' |
Fashion
is a sort of materialized fascination? 'One phenomenon I cannot understand is the designer who puts his heart and soul into his work for a number of seasons, only to suddenly present himself as, say, a super-poet because there is a trend towards romanticism. This happens all the time in the fashion world and I have never been able to understand it. During their training, students are told over and over again how important it is to cultivate an identity. If you are really involved with fashion in a certain way, then you continue in that way, you build things up, add a little and go on; but you cannot suddenly drastically change your own identity. Are all the designers in RADICALS radical? They are all personalities rather than radicals. It is because they hold on to their identity so firmly, and make certain images that express individuality, that they become radical. This need not necessarily be in the form of a photograph of a whip or anything like that; indeed, some of the images are very serene. Holding on to an identity is radical, certainly in the fashion world.' |
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