Fashion Identity exhibition

The exhibition brings together a group of contemporary artists and innovative fashion designers to examine four themes.

It begins with story telling, recognising clothing in history and culture. Then building, using clothing as protection, next belonging and confronting and finally performance.

The first thing you see is a bizarre dress suspended in a bowl of water. This is from Helen Storey’s ‘Say Goodbye’ 2010 collection.

It’s made from clear PVC and experiments with dissolving and in fact the dress stops at the tip of the water. It’s made from a biodegradable material with enzymes dissolving the surface when in contact with water.

I love the way this is displayed. It’s so dramatic in a huge bowl of water that it immediately draws you in.

In the first room there’s a strange video of one of those toy paper dolly’s where you can clip on the paper clothes. The dolly is a real person rather than a cartoon and comes to life to try on the clothes. She’s then snatched away by a human hand. It’s a confusing video made in 1975 by Cindy Shereman demonstrating the diminishing of women’s opportunities and self transformation.

In the building hall there is a dress that caught my eye by Yahu yamomoto’s from his ‘Feme’ collection in the autumn/winter of 1991/92. It’s so constructive and illustrates protection perfectly. Being completely architectural its wooden demonstrating Yahu’s want for regaining respect for clothing and women’s independence. The brackets make the wood curve insulating the curves of fabric. 

My absolute favourite piece in the exhibition is a collection of beautiful children’s dresses. They use an African technique, batik with bright colours and patterns. It was actually produced in Holland but found no market in Europe. This suggests how the market consumes and African dresses aren’t appropriate here.

I did enjoy the exhibition, it had a lot of beautiful pieces as well as cleaver thought out designs but it didn’t excite me as much as other exhibitions before. I loved the witty designs of Meschac Gaba’s Wigs Architecture and the delicate lace from Alexander McQueens Red lace dress. But I just think the collection had more to offer.

The website for the exhibition is really good; it has so much information about individual pieces and their artists.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/gsk-contemporary-season-2010/exhibition/