Towards a practice of unmaking The essay film as critical discourse for fashion in the expanded field By Lara Mendonça Guterres Torres A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) University of the Arts London London College of Fashion December 2018 2 Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction 14 1.1. Introduction 14 1.2. Rationale 15 1.3. Definition of key terms 17 1.3.1. Defining fashion 17 1.3.2. Fashion in the expanded field 19 1.3.3. Critical fashion practice 19 1.3.4. Essay film 21 1.4. Situating fashion practice-based research in the field of fashion studies 22 1.4.1. The Gap in Knowledge 25 1.5. My previous fashion practice (from 2005 to 2013) 27 1.5.1. Modus operandi: the importance of process in my fashion practice 27 a) Implicit Memory (2005) 27 b) Project Mimesis/Fac-Simile (2008) 30 c) An impossible wardrobe for the invisible (2011) 36 1.5.2. Discussion: exploring my fashion practice as a practice of destruction towards a practice of unmaking 40 1.6. An artistic fashion research practice and its theoretical articulation 44 1.6.1. Historically bound: the gap between theory and practice 45 1.6.2. Fashion as practice-based artistic research 46 1.7. The research question, aims, and objectives 47 1.7.1. The research structure 50 1.7.2. The thesis overview 52 Chapter 2. Methodology and theoretical approach 2.1. Introduction 55 2.2. Methodology rationale 55 3 2.2.1. Research Methodology 58 2.2.2. Liquid Times: capturing the fashion Zeitgeist 61 2.2.3. The essay film methodologies 63 2.3. Why Critical Fashion? 67 2.4. The Postmodern condition of fashion 71 2.4.1. Fashion In the expanded field 76 2.5. The critical In fashion deconstruction 81 2.6. Re-defining the role of the fashion designer today: the fashion practice in the Anthropocene 88 2.7. Towards a practice of unmaking: ‘not making’ as form of protest and resistance 94 2.8. Discussion: the absent critical discourse 98 Chapter 3. A brief map of fashion practices in the expanded field in the twenty-first century 101 3.1. Introduction: Situating fashion in the 21st century 101 3.2. The historical context of fashion in the expanded field 101 3.2.1. A parallel between conceptual fashion practices of 1980s and 1990s and conceptual artistic practices of the 1960s and 1970s 105 3.2.2. Unmaking art: a historical review of destructive practices in art 113 3.2.3. Unmaking fashion: a historical review of destructive practices in fashion 120 3.2.4. Fashion after Duchamp: Maison Martin Margiela’s replicas and the Duchampian ready-made 124 3.2.5. Viktor & Rolf’s performative fashion projects and their parallels to conceptual artistic practices 129 3.2.6. Hussein Chalayan: a conceptual approach to fashion 131 3.2.7. Bless-Service: appropriation and critical thinking through the fashion practice 135 4 3.2.8. The de-territorialization of fashion in the 21st century 139 3.3. Fashion in the museum space: the evolution of fashion exhibition as a site of fashion in the expanded field 147 3.3.1. The exhibition ‘The Future of Fashion is Now’ as a context for fashion in the expanded field 151 3.4. Exploring the relation between film and fashion: towards the development of fashion film 155 3.4.1. A Fashion Film practice 159 3.5. Discussion 162 Chapter 4. A Reflective methodology: The Production of a critical fashion discourse through the essay film 164 4.1. Introduction 164 4.2. The rhetoric of the fashion image 165 4.3. Film as a way of registering thought 167 4.4. The creation of meaning through film images: critical discourse 168 4.5. The Essay film: a thinking media 170 4.6. A Reflective methodology: generating a critical discourse through the essay film 171 4.7. A strategy for a practice of unmaking: reflective methods 179 4.7.1. Deconstruction and montage in Warburg and Benjamin: the production of fashion critical discourse 182 4.8. Fashion film meaning-making: contents for critical practice 193 4.9. Discussion 211 Chapter 5. Conclusion 214 5.1. Introduction 214 5.2. Reflections 215 5.3. Unfinalizability 220 5.4. Contextualizing critical fashion in fashion studies 221 5 5.5. Limitations 226 5.6. Future research 227 5.7. Facilitating Discussion 228 Bibliography 231 Appendices 260 Vimeo links and passwords Appendix 1 261 Appendix 2 262 Appendix 3 264 Appendix 4 271 Appendix 5 273 Appendix 6 288 307 6 List of Images Figure 1 Implicit Memory, 2005 Photo: Rui Vasco, courtesy of the Lisbon Fashion Week 28 Figure 2 Mimesis/Fac-Simile project, 2012 30 Figure 3 Porcelaine T-shirt, the Mimesis/Fac-Simile project, 2008 32 Figure 4 Plaster mold making at the Mimesis/Fac-Simile project, 2008 33 Figure 5 Fac-Simile exhibition view, 2008 35 Figures 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, Film stills from An impossible wardrobe for the invisible, 2011 40 Figure 13 Archival image An impossible wardrobe for the invisible, 2011 42 Figures 14 and 15 Fragment, 2008 and Mimesis I, 2007 Photo by Rui Vasco, courtesy of the Lisbon Fashion Week 42 Figure 16 Thesis structure diagram 49 Figure 19 The Mnemosyne Atlas, October 1929, panel 5 and 6 photo by Warburg Institute London url: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/ 64 Figure 20 The Expanded Field, diagram by Rosalind Krauss from Krauss, R. (1979) ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Field’. October, 8, p. 37 76 Figures 21 and 22 Implosion collection, 2006, Photo by Rafael Esteves 83 Figure 23 Editing process, 2016 86 Figure 24 Yves Saint Laurent, Autumn/Winter 1965-66, Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (url: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/83442) 103 Figure 25 Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965 106 Figure 26 Ann Demeulemeester, Spring/Summer 1998, in Demeulemeester, 2014: p. 239 107 Figure 27 Hans-Peter Feldmann, All the Clothes of a Woman, 1970 112 Figure 28 Christian Boltanski, The clothes of François C, 1972 112 Figure 29 Gustav Metzger, Auto-Destructive Art, 1961 113 Figure 30 Gustav Metzger, Auto-Destructive Art, Third Manifesto, 1961 114 7 Figure 31 Yoko Ono, Cut Piece performance, 1965, by Albert Maysles + David Maysles, Film stills of performance at Carnegie Recital Hall, New York. 116 Figure 32 Film Still, Fragment, 2008 117 Figure 33 Photo documentation An impossible wardrobe for the invisible, 2011 118 Figure 34 Naomi Filmer, Be-hind, Be-fore & Be-yond, 1999 119 Figure 35 Comme des Garçons, 1982, Photo: Peter Lindbergh 121 Figure 36 Yohji Yamamoto, Spring/Summer 1983, Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute, photo by Takashi Hatakeyama http://www.kci.or.jp/en/archives/digital_archives/1980s/KCI_260 121 Figure 37 Comme des Garçons, Autumn/Winter 1992-93; Autumn/Winter 1983-84; Spring/Summer 1984 121 Figure 38 Maison Martin Margiela, 9/4/1615, 1999 122 Figure 39 Hussein Chalayan, The Tangent Flows, 1993 122 Figure 40 Maison Martin Margiela Autumn/Winter 2005-2006 125 Figure 41 Maison Martin Margiela, Artisanal collection Spring/Summer 2006 126 Figures 42 and 43 Hussein Chalayan, Autumn/Winter Collection, 2000 Photos by Chris Moore 133 Figure 44 Bless, film still Alexanderplatz, 1998 136 Figures 45 and 46 Bless for Maison Martin Margiela Autumn/Winter 1996 138 Figure 47 Anna-Sophie Berger, Four seasons, 2014, photo by Markus Krottendorfer 140 Figure 48 Anna-Sophie Berger, She vanished I, 2015, photo by Lisa Edi 142 Figure 49 Elisa Van Joolen, Sweaters Series 2, 2013 144 Figure 50 Christien Meinderstma, Fiber Market, 2016 146 Figure 51 View of the exhibition The future of fashion is now, An impossible Wardrobe for the invisible, 2014 152 Figure 52 Early Moodboard Wall, exhibition view Fac-simile, 2008 173 8 Figure 53 Early PhD Moodboard, 2013 174 Figure 54 Early Phd Storyboard for film, 2013 175 Figures 55, 56 and 57 Archival cards for Mood-boards, 2013–2016 (see apendix 6) 176 Figure 58 Archival cards for storyboards, 2016 176 Figures 59 and 60 Archival cards for Moodboards, 2013-2016 177 Figures 61 and 62 archival cards for storyboards, 2016 181 Figure 63 Storyboard, 2016 183 Figure 64 Storyboard activity documentation, 2016 184 Figure 65 Storyboard documentation, 2015-16 186 Figure 66 Georges Didi-Huberman and Arno Gisinger, New Stories of Ghosts, 2014 192 Figure 67 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 1, 2016 197 Figure 68 Martha Rosler, Semiotics of the Kitchen, 1975 197 Figure 69 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 2, 2016 198 Figure 70 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 4, 2016 199 Figure 71 Viktor & Rolf, Russian Doll, 2008 200 Figures 72 and 73 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 6 and 12, 2016 201 Figure 74 Francis Alÿs, Fairy Tales, 1995 202 Figure 75 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 7, 2016 203 Figure 76 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 8, 2016 204 Figure 77 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 10, 2016 204 Figure 78 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 11, 2016 205 Figure 79 Sanja Iveković, Instructions No.1, 1976. 206 Figure 80 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 9, 2016 206 Figure 81 Film still, Unmaking, sequence 9, 2016 207 Figures 82 and 83, Film still, Unmaking, sequence 14, 2016 208 9 10 Abstract Going against the traditional productivist nature of fashion design, this practice-based PhD proposes a strategy for critical fashion practices in a research context at the intersection of fashion, fine arts, and film methodologies. This interdisciplinary strategy investigates fashion in the expanded field, exploring fashion practice as a form of critical thinking, questioning the fashion system itself: a practice of unmaking.