Journal of Fashion Business Vol. 8, No. 6, pp.39~56(2004)
A Study on Surrealistic Expression in Modern Fashion+ - Focusing on Surrealistic Fashion in 1990s -
Yang, Chieu-Kyung Professor, Dept. of Clothing Sungshin Women’s University
Abstract
At the outset, surrealism starts from pure art, but surrealism has greatly influenced commercial art and fashion circles, more so than any other genre of art. The critical thinking methods of surrealism and its mode of expression continues to influence fashion theory extensively. Even now, surrealism may be found in the designs presented in fashion circles and is still expected for future lines. Surrealism in modern fashion has been reborn, newly integrated and transformed, based on the features of Surrealism paintings. The characteristics of its forms can be found in a combination of modern material, modern design and new skills and the classical items : bodyform molding context of architecture, experimental and sex-appealing of body. Expression was made by borrowing natural motives and recreating natural fabrics while the existing typical idea about clothes was destructed, with the boundary of patterns changed. Expression was also made by mixing items, uniting future images, and using up-to-date functional techniques. This study is significant that up-to-date technological culture expands cyber-space and increases surrealistic expressions by combined heterogeneous materials, thus arousing much interest. The purpose of this study is to determine interrelationship between how surrealism developed and what formative properties those clothes affected by surrealism obtained in the 1990s. Key words: Surrealistic fashion, Depaysment, Automatism, Paradox, Hybridization
I. Introduction for future lines. Surrealism in art became dominant when At the outset, surrealism starts from pure art, Manifesto Surrealism was founded by Andre but surrealism has greatly influenced commercial Breton in 1924. According to the definition of art and fashion circles, more so than any other surrealism in the first Manifesto Surrealism, genre of art. The critical thinking methods of “Surrealism expresses our practical thoughts surrealism and its mode of expression continues through many and varied forms, sometimes by to influence fashion theory extensively. Even now, speaking, sometimes by writing and sometimes surrealism may be found in the designs by using other methods. This means that presented in fashion circles and is still expected surrealism is free from the conscious control of
+ This paper was supported by Dr. Lee Sewoong’s Studying Fund 2001.
39 Journal of Fashion Business Vol. 8, No. 6 reason and that it expresses all the thoughts in all 1990 up to 2000. the areas free from our aesthetic and moral The research unfolded in the following order: conventions.1) For the theoretical background of research, I Performance Art is greatly influenced by examined the formation background of surrealism, which creates dreamlike worlds Surrealism with its principles, expressive through artistic fantasia and is based on the techniques, aesthetics and the surrealist trend association of objects and later free techniques. shown in the clothing in 1990s. At the same time, In art, the experiences as well as the varied I analyzed the works of foreign designers techniques expand to incorporate the unknown advocating surrealism, and studied the point of imaginations. Even such an extremest theory in view in which surrealistic clothes agree to the the realm of art finds there’s no object that the art clothing aesthetics. My examination includes the cannot deal with. implementation of essential functions of clothing, In contemporary fashion, new materials are expressing human nature in harmony with men. being used. The range of materials becomes Literary materials were collected for this diversified; the existing styles and notions of theoretical study from relevant literature, general beauty are broken. Style, beyond our fashion dictionary, design-related literature, imagination, becomes diversified and more periodicals, and other local articles. In selecting complicated. These elements will form the photos, the selection was made from local and characteristics of clothing in the future. In this foreign relevant technical books with the latest context, the purpose of the research is to relate concerns and interest because these clothes surrealism to modern aesthetics of clothing, affected by surrealism had been considered. exploring every mode of expression from objects Any significant results of this research could be to humans and their spirits. A new possibility of devoted to the development of the clothing Surrealistic expression is attempted to extend the culture in pursuit of the future. area of creativity of clothing and the development For the research on the aesthetic value and of clothing as art. The purpose of the research is artistry of clothing aims at analyzing the clothing, to help forecast future trends by freshly and more positively approaching the new spirit of presenting the clothing of surrealism, and to the world. The method of conscious structure and dedicate to the development of creative clothing the expression of the living sense of modern in pursuit of the future by an original, creative, people are the process of creative procedures. experimental spirit. Looking at the preceding research, Kwon Hyuk This study is significant that up-to-date Mi studied the formative expression of clothing in technological culture expands cyber-space and the 20th century; Chang Dae Sik studied the increases surrealistic expressions by combined various modes of expression; Yoo Deuk Reong, heterogeneous materials, thus arousing much the formative and the informative in paintings; interest. The purpose of this study is to determine Park Seon Kyung, the world of Elsa Schiaparelli’s interrelationship between how surrealism works; Park Sunwi. A study on the surrealistic developed and what formative properties those expression in fashion modeling. clothes affected by surrealism obtained from
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II. Histrical Context of Surrealism German philosophers, especially Nietzsche5). In Chirico’s paintings such as Melancholy and 1. Emergence of Dadaism Mystery of a Street, Disquieting Muses(Fig. 1), he describes irony and unfamiliarity like enigmas The birth of surrealism can be traced to which are composed of fantastic and dreamlike Dadaism2). The late l9th century is generally strength of the subjects. considered the birth of the period of Modernism Surrealists fanaticized over the realm of in art. Chirico’s painting. The emphasis on the sense of No distrust or fear toward machines is absurdity is derived from the combination of revealed, but entering the 20th century, the start incongruous elements, subconscious awareness, of conflicting international interests ensues. and other prevalent characteristics. Chirico’s The Tension among advanced 1st world countries Song of Love, 1914, especially, conveys distinct and capitalism appears. Europeans witness the metaphysical characteristics. In The Song of outbreak of World War I, the unprecedented war Love, red rubber gloves for surgical operation of wars in Man’s history. Consequently, the social and Apollo’s marble head are placed as sharp and cultural ramifications include a deep oppositions. The green ball painted near the pessimism toward the human condition and the bottom of the frame functions as a symbol of world3). In a spiritual aspect, critical thinking of unity, which combines the two contrary objects. religion emerges. A developing mood of nihilism The isolation of such fantastic elements and the takes root throughout Europe. experimental manipulation of materials are In 1919, Surrealism was born in part by the important to the establishment of the basic psychoanalytic theory developed by Sigmund principles of the aesthetics of Surrealism. Chirico Freud, the dialectics of G. W. F. Hegel, and the is considered a pioneer of Surrealism. metaphysical paintings of G. de Chirico based on Dadaism. The basic idea of Dadaism originates from being faithful to the intrinsic desire of individuals; but Dadaism stresses the simple negation and destruction of the convention, and does not offer any concrete substitutes for the negation of reason and rationalism. Surrealism shows the inner world of the consciousness4).
2. Metaphysical Paintings of Giorgio de Chirico
Many of the surrealistic artists adored G. de Chirico and were influenced by him, but Chirico himself was a painter who was influenced by the
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3. Psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud Automatism. Depaysment, a French word which can be Surrealists sought to explore the imagination, translated as “transposition” or “translocation,” the dream world, and the origin of the originally means leaving one’s dear hometown or unconscious. Artists not only characteristically one’s country. Later, it becomes a typical mode developed keen attentions to the profound of expression in Surrealism, which separates an psychology of Sigmund Freud, but were also object from its usual places, and puts it in an 6) greatly influenced by his psychoanalytic work . unfamiliar place-completely different from its Freud’s psychoanalysis represents the 20th original character-in order to elicit psychological century’s ideology of socio-science in which shock in the mind of the viewer8). By doing this, European thinking begins to take notice of the Surrealists believe the unconscious world locked studies related to human irrationality. Anti- in the depth of the viewer’s mind may be intellectualism makes a tremendous response in released. Consequently, it is usual for contemporary literature, art, and morality at this Depaysment to portray strained scenes which we time. can see only in our dreams. The typical Surrealist The acceptance of dreams by Surrealists as artist who represent the mode of Depaysment are another perceptive method toward humans and R. Magritte and S. Dali. the world owes greatly to Freud’s theory. Automatism can be translated as the method of However, there is greater interest in the automatic technique and be used as a way to manifestation of free spirit, spontaneous thoughts explore the unconsciousness world under our including childhood memories, variously mingled waking mind. This technique is an expression desires, omens and presage to a certain reality in mode of Surrealism which records the process of the dream rather than the sexual phantasma in our thoughts, free from any aesthetic and ethical 7) the dreams which Freud emphasized . In other preoccupations without any constraint of reason. words, Surrealists do not try to reconstruct the Max Ernst expresses the accidental imagery of dream into painting; rather, try to use it phenomenon through Frottage, Grattage and as a means that can approach the contents of the Decalcommanie techniques; Andre Mason, suppressed unconsciousness. Therefore, the through his picture of sand; and Salvatore Miro Surrealists perform creative activities by practices Automatism by dispersing the signs combining those elements with more imaginative freely on monotonous backgrounds9). general forms of visual art. Harold Osborn classifies Automatism into three categories10): 1. Mechanically automatic composition such as III. Art Form of Surrealist Decalcommanie, Frottage and Grattage, on the basis of surrealistic technique. Although the mode of expression in the 2. Psychological automatism which employs paintings of Surrealists show strong personality the space of unrealistic dreams by using the and uniqueness, the mode of expression can imagery of dreams. roughly be classified into Depaysment and 3. Superrational automatism-a mode of
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composition in which one form begets another subtlety. By using the Decalcommanie method, form and connects with still other forms. This is Ernst mainly describes mystic moods of forests, accomplished by the nonsensical and unexpected jungles and marshes. connection, to the extent that further development brings the state of destruction. When it achieves 2. Rene Magritte the united single unit, it is then that the superrational automatism is accomplished. Rene Magritte, in his paintings, chooses everyday life-like and ordinary materials as his 1. Max Ernst motif, but the placement of materials deviates from the conventional expectations, shocking In the paintings of Max Ernst, things in nature most viewers12). such as birds, animals and plants are shown as In his work, the tip of a shoe becomes a tip of a important motifs. In constructing those images, toe (La Modele Rouse, 1935); a woman’s face Ernst creates his own technique and applies it to made of marble bleeds blood and objects are his works from which he gains the chance effect. flying in the air (Zeno’s Arrow, 1964); fish scales Applying this technique, he portrays images that change into stone (Connivance); a bird fluttering shock conventional aesthetics. He invents a becomes a sky with white clouds and becomes symbolic phantasm by employing both abstract transparent (La Grande Famille). By such an symbols and concrete symbols11). unrealistic arrangement of objects, a reverse Ernst creates a method called Frottage, in perspective of nature, and the conversion of the which a sheet of paper is placed on an materials of objects, he challenges conventional embossed surface of an object with sensibilities, shocking people by revealing an massiveness. It is rubbed with pencils or crayons unknown world13). until the texture of the surface is transferred. Some critics see the images of Rene Magritte Through Frottage, he pursues the representation in terms of a paradox. It can be said that his of unplanned images from such natural and paradox is a means of destruction of usual accidental things such as spots on wallpaper or consciousness governing our reality. Instead of in crannied rocks. unconsciousness, dreams and illusion, Magritte He also invents the Grattage method, designed concentrates on the mystery of reality with a clear to gain unique images by scratching undried consciousness of paradox14). canvas covered in thick paint with a comb, fork, In Suzi Gablik’s book, Magritte’s works using pen, razor, piece of glass, needle and so forth. created materials in the Depaysment method with The Decalcommanie method is to apply some realistic description are classified into the ink or paints (dye) on a sheet of paper, and then following 8 categories: (1) Isolation, (2) Paradox, to place another sheet of paper on it just before (3) Hybridization, (4) Double image as a form of the paper dries. The surface is pressed on with visual stimulation, (5)Conceptual bipolarity, (6) hands, in different degrees of intensity and Change in scale, (7) Modification, and (8) strength to accomplish a limitless variation of Provocation of accidental encounters15).
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3. Man Ray
One of the typical photographs is the photogram. The photogram developed by Man Ray is called “Rayogram,” named after him. Rayogram means an image formed by the optical function by placing objects directly on photographic paper and exposing them to light without using a camera or negative film. Man Ray’s fashion pictures as a professional photographer are different from those of other ordinary fashion photographers because he put artistry into his pictures through the creation of fantastic space instead of simply reproducing
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and at the same visual line are the eyes of the shape of a jacket, changing the intended bust of Voltaire, the philosopher. purpose and usage of the jacket(Fig. 24). Thierry Paranoiac anamorphosis is a method of Mugler’s heroines are deliberate cartoon-strip transformation based upon the cannibalistic logic exaggerations. Like the superhumans described of Dali. Dali’s objects were edible things that in the comics, Mugler’s women retain an explicit change into inedible ones to resolve the visual sexual appeal, even when they achieve desire to indirectly eat. His work, La pesistance Amazonian power. In his science-fiction de la Memoire, 1931, reveals infantile scenes, a projection into the future, the designer created an soft and flaccid watch, ants, etc., with image of a woman poised in mid-transformation unidentified, living body forms along the bottom from flesh to metal or leather(Fig. 10). While armor of the frame. All of them show the world of encases much of her form, her face, breasts, and somewhat ominous illusions18). waist are exposed. The apertures are not points Unlike our experiential images, Dali of vulnerability; they are opportunities for the extravagantly distorts solid objects into weak projection of sexual attraction as a weapon. Jean things, painting heavy objects lightly in the air, Paul Gaultier displays surrealistic garments and straight things into twisted contortions. He through Depaysment, making corsets that do not completely changes our ordinary notions about function as undergarments, but are worn as every objects, shocking the senses. outerwear, radically changing our fixed ideas about outer garments and underwear(Fig. 15, 16). In total contrast, Issey Miyake insulated the IV. Formative Characteristics of breasts with a buffer of pile-lined felt in the Surrealistic Fashion ensemble shown(Fig. 8). Perhaps he was reacting to the erotic objectification ultimately 1. Depaysment (Transposition, Translocation) expressed by similar contemporary latex renderings that are sold as sexual paraphernalia. Depaysement, translates as “transposition” or Maybe he was also responding to the fetishistic “translocation,” and is a typical mode of isolation of the bust as a primary erogenous zone expression of surrealism. It intends to produce in Western culture. The nipples suggested the psychological shock from the viewing audience absence of a bra, and their visibility set off an by placing elements in preposterous places, erotic trigger. Ironically, the articulated nipple as entirely different from the original attribute of the an erotic sign in fashion was a consequence of element(Fig. 11). Surrealistic fashion is expressed feminism. Brassieres(Fig. 5), with their reformative by using methods which attack our fixed ideas abstraction of the natural bust, were an apt about the ordinary clothes of these times(Fig. 9). symbol for early feminists’ repudiation of the Parts of clothes are removed from its original cultural control of female body(Fig. 6). By burning position and usage, and arranged in the the bra, it could be argued. Women situated their unrestrictedly completely different positions and bodies on pas with those of men. By casting off usage(Fig. 5). the control of bras, what some social critics have Conversely, John Galliano designs a skirt in the called women’s eroticized, commercialized, and
45 Journal of Fashion Business Vol. 8, No. 6 politicized breasts might alternatively be equated 2. Paradox with the neutral “natural” breasts on many non- Western cultures. In addition, gravity pulled the We can see that the surrealist artist, Rene braless breasts into a more pendant Magritte, expressed surrealism through paradox asymmetrical profile, with a long, faintly concave in his work Le Viol, l934. In Le Viol, Magritte upper breast line and a shorter, more distinctively describes man’s face in a woman’s body along convex under-breast line. with paradoxically reversible clothes. The woman’s body carries a masculine look on her entire face. We can also see a similar paradoxical
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expression in the work of Vivienne Westwood in eroticism, or sauciness-fuels her ingenious which man’s genitals decorate the skirt of a designs for men and women. She invites wearers woman. The dual image confuses the concept of to expand their horizons, develop their sex (Fig. 20). personalities, and adopt playful attitudes towards As Westwood states: “Creativity comes from dress-to experiment with erotic or sexually- technique.” Her knowledge of the history of charged looks instead of becoming conformist, clothing and her fascination for different cultures- “neutralized” by the average range of consumer their sense of elegance, liveliness, potency, products. Westwood’s fashion is theatrical and
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volatile, often teetering on the edge of bad expresses the state of blindness of a man and taste19). Her designs skillfully and intentionally woman who fall in love with no personality (Fig. push the boundaries between traditional, vulgar, 13). This influences modern fashion including and middle-class taste. designers J.P. Gaultier in his work(Fig. 12), and Magritte’s work, The Lovers, 1928(Fig. 3), Alexander Mcqueen in his clothes(Fig. 14), to depicts the scene in which a man and a woman, express modern man who loses his personality, cheek by jowl, disguise themselves with white with such innovations as a disguised model in cloth. In this work, through white cloth, Magritte leather. The preeminent contemporary corsetiere
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known professionally as Mr, Pearl(Fig. 21) was, introduces as S-shape effect in which the upper and continues to be, responsible for many of the torso appears to be pushed forward and the corsets presented in French haute couture and abdomen shifted back. The corset’s extreme pre·t-a-porter collections including those of Jean constriction of the waist pulls in the flesh of the Paul Gaultier(Fig. 7). The photograph shows lower back and the stomach, exaggerating both Pearl himself. So corseted, he has achieved a the chest’s forward thrust and the burgeoning of nineteen-inch waist. Realized through traditional the buttocks. More than any nineteenth-century nineteenth-century techniques, his wasp waist model, this undergarment, the bra-girdle, is the
49 Journal of Fashion Business Vol. 8, No. 6 prime source of Jean Paul Gaultier’s signature underwear as exhibitionistic outerwear coincided corset(Fig. 16). As exemplified above, the with the evolving feminist theory espoused by reintroduction of the corset to a post-feminist such writers as Camille Palia. Madonna’s generation was abetted by Madonna (Fig. 15). exuberantly sexualized persona suggested that The iconic rock diva wore several versions of an explicit control of one’s image might transform, Gaultier’s corset looks. Madonna’s advocacy of or at least destabilize, the patriarchal relationship faintly archaistic, intentioanally provocative of voyeuristic male and sexually objectified
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female. have been hidden, was made in metal and Hussein Chalayan has played with the notion of plastic plates, respectively, and was designed to clothing as both repressive and expressive (Fig. be exposed out of their clothes. 13, 17, 19). His bustier seen, with its eighteenth- In The Magician, 1952, Rene Margritee century corset-like rigidity and body suppression, describes a middle-aged man who is eating his has the polished beauty of a coffin. In his bustier meal and has four arms. The four arms are busily shown on the facing page, Issey Miyake took the moving. The anatomical anomaly surprises the idea of a classical breastplate and interpreted it viewer, and lends a mysterious aura. Expressing for Space Age. such fusion reappears in the clothes of Marc Jacoks. One example has two arms holding up a woman’s breast, and the remaining two arms are 3. Hybridization the real arms of a body. As if the four arms were In surrealism, fusing means to combine two playing magic, it misleads the viewer’s intimate objects and has a third shocking effect. perceptions, and again, lends an aura of mystery. In Magritte’s work, Philosophy in the Boudoir(Fig. A number of contemporary designers have 4), l966, a woman’s genitalia and breasts are addressed the whole trunk of the body with fused with a permeable night gown hung in a designs that appear to be a combination of armor cabinet. This fusion of objects exists as a and corsetry(Fig. 18, 23). Jean Paul Haultier completely matured sensual beauty(Fig. 10). The blended political, social, and aesthetic narratives effect of such kind of fusion can be seen in the in works intended to provoke discussion, if not clothes of Kansai Yamamoto and Thierry Mugler. controversy. In his molded top shown above left, In their clothes, the shape of breasts that would he took the imagery of a body cast(Fig. 22), with
51 Journal of Fashion Business Vol. 8, No. 6 its implied address of violence or injury, and he Surrealist fashion, emphasizing the primitives by transformed the feather-plastered torso into a using ancient design or natural things and breastplate worthy of a Nike or Fury. Feminine expressing the longing for the past, the present vulnerability is transfigured into feminine power. and the future by using the images of machines In the form of clothing, the paradoxical and and human.
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Photographies
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6) Cho Kyung Rae, A History of Western 15) Gabric Suzi, Margritte, Thames&Hudson, Modern, Seoul Ale Shin Sa, 1990, p.529 London, 1985, p123 7) Suh Sook Kyung, “Research on Man Ray’s 16) Suh Sook Kyung, “Research on Man Ray’s Symbolism in Fashion Photographs”, Symbolism in Fashion Photographs”, Sookmyung Women’s University, 1993, Sookmyung Women’s University, 1993, p.239 pp.13-14 17) Shin Hyun Sook, Op. Cit., pp238-239 8) Kim He Sung, Eyes to see modern art, Seoul 18) Ibid, p239 Yolhwadang, 1985, p.79 19) Buxbaum Gerda, The 20th century locn of 9) Kim Yoon Min, “Research on the Formative of fashion, London, 1999, p. 119 Surrealist and Clothing of 21st Century”, 20) Choe Youn Mi, A new perspective on style 1991, Hongik University, p.12 and its change in the historical methodology 10) Osborne, Harold, The oxford companion to on dress : selected surrealism of dress, Seoul Twentieth Century Art, 1981, Oxford university National University, 1990, p.67 press, New York, p.35 21) Kang, Hyun Young, The trend of new fabric 11) Kim Chung Ho, “Research on Surrealistic through modern fashion, Chung-Ang Paintings”, 1989, Kyunghee University, p.24 University,1999, pp.84-85 12) J. L. Prerie, L’Aveture De L’Art Au XXe Siecle I 22) Ibid, p.85 (Kim Joung Hoah translation), Seoul API, 23) Kim, Young Hyun, A Study on the characters 1990, p.352 of fabric presented on the romantic images in 13)Joung Young Jin, Rene Margritte’ modern fashion, Sungshin Women’s consideration of dudgs and shapes, Se Jong University,doctor’s thesis, 2004, pp.22-23 University, 1998, p.12 24) Kang, Hyun Young, Op. Cit., p.59 14) Kim Ki hye, “Research on ‘Paradox’ in the Paintings of Rene Magritte”, p.100 Received 10 August, Accepted 22 September.
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