Fashion Pop Art/Op Art Photographic Styling

Joanne Elliott.

The impact of op art and 60’s colour in contemporary design.

Pop art, op art and 60’s style references are currently being reintroduced to contemporary design at all levels. Ranging from subtly striking black and white patterned imagery to the garish tones heralded by Vogue as ‘Ibiza colour’, this movement represents a bold contrast of linear detail and eye-popping prints.

Rather than a vintage ‘flash in the pan’ throwback, this ideology takes aspects of pattern and colour to create modern statements through imagery and designs. Within the next few months this development will have profound implications within the design industry as a whole; from couture fashion, to book cover and album design, interior design and photographic styling in advertising.

The impact of op art and 60’s colour in contemporary design.

Pop art, op art and 60’s style references are currently being reintroduced to contemporary design at all levels. Ranging from subtly striking black and white patterned imagery to the garish tones heralded by Vogue as ‘Ibiza colour’, this movement represents a bold contrast of linear detail and eye-popping prints.

Autumns’ couture catwalk shows illustrated this new take on psychadelia beautifully. Op art influenced garments designed by Alexander McQueen, Dior by John Galliano, Eley Kishimoto, Celine and Moschino, to mention but a few. Jonathan Saunders, a new designer who is beginning his rise to the fashion fore, began his career as a furniture designer before achieving an MA in print at Central St Martins. In a recent interview he revealed his interest in the head turning prints of Pucci, Cardin and Rudi Gernreich. His own designs demand an eighteen colour printing process, and of this Saunders said “It’s painstakingly complicated, but very rewarding. The clash is so important, otherwise the effect would be too vintage.”

At present, the 60’s vintage influence is more of a select reference than a direct duplication. It is colour, rather than silhouette, which appears to be the primary focus. Designers who have recently employed 60’s inspired colour include Alberta Ferretti, Marc Jacobs and DKNY, whilst Paul Smith is producing bold graphic geometric prints of leaves. Meanwhile, Harvey Nichols stocks include Marc Jacobs designs in bold red and turquoise overlaid circles. With contemporary fashion palettes becoming increasingly opulent, it is easy to trace these influences to other design areas. The most recent publication of the popular Sunday Times fashion supplement ‘Style’ projects these contemporary directions on its front cover. A female model poses on a flat backdrop of fluorescent pink, lime green and burnt orange, with a sobering flash of white. Burberry’s current advertisements have employed similar photographic styling through bold ‘action shot’ imagery in tonal black and white, framed by stills in pale yellow with silver circles, bright pink, and vivid dark forest green. Meanwhile, makeup giant M.A.C’s viva glam IV campaign features Elton John in a slick black and white twist patterned outfit on a neutral backdrop, alongside Shirly Manson and Mary J Bilge. In the same image, the bold black and white stripe on Mary J Blige’s mini dress is echoed in the top corner of the room, transforming the photograph into a powerfully balanced conceptual image overall.

And this designer influence is not only restricted to the top level of the marketplace. In the high street, Top Shop are distributing gift voucher cards with Warhol-esque prints in pink, yellow, and blue with a bold overlay black. This is a direct reference to the famously popular Marilyn Monroe pop art paintings, modernized in ambiguous reversed images of a male model. In book cover design, the Granta referenced novelist Monica Ali’s new book, ‘Brick lane’, is similarly simple in intent. The cover is bright white with the title featuring in an opulent palette of rainbow stripes of reds greens, marbled blue, and speckled pink. Correspondingly, the album cover of Suede’s ‘Coming Up’ album is a creation by Chris Ofili, and is entitled ‘Afro Love’. This simple image appears on a computerized backdrop which blends fluorescent yellow to black. In the midst of the dirty tones is a black and white stripy bed, where a monotone photograph of a man strikingly overlaps with outlines of woman rendered in fluorescent graphic rainbow colouring. This influence in 60’s graphic prints is also echoed in interior design and ceramics. Sweet and straightforward, 1960’s pop art prints are being revamped by the Finnish ceramics design company Marimekko. New additions to their lines include beautiful singular images of a bold poppy in flat red and black, with a splash of warm orange on a white dinner service.

It’s groovy baby!

Links.

For more information on op art: http://www.artlover.org/more_art/arthistory/pages/opart.html

To see op art influenced designs by Eley Kishimoto: http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/designers/index.asp? section=catwalk_shows&designerid=429

For examples of Jonathan Saunders’ use of colour: http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/designers/index.asp? section=catwalk_shows&designerid=636 To see the current examples of Marimekko’s interior design prints: http://www.marimekko.fi/index_eng.html

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