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52 ORNAMENT 29.2.2005 I pnigtrehnrdyaso etr aho.Soiga h mtsna’ oprHwt,National D attheSmithsonian’s Showing Cooper-Hewitt, Western fashion. spanning three hundred years of andLuminance acolor ordark.) iswhether iseitherlight pure thehue is; color thegreater of orlesserimpact andluminance: instructively, saturation (Also, itshue, andviolet. depends onacombination of indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, be called: thathave thelusciouspermutations come to andthere you have isdiscernible: what simplypicture arainbow, color, But to visualize appearwhite. things there andwhen are nopigments, color are pigments blended, primary when lig and white—white results colors from of combining primary What we actuallysee oureyes. how waves light refract off London. the environs of or aravishing Vivienne Westwood museum (white) inMilwaukee, designed dress (kaleidoscopic) through moving aSantiago Calatrava- landinginCleveland, orange) red, aSouthwest Airlines jet(blue, inaSanDiegofield, (green) LE atao iktfeaboae ihpatpten nln,circa 1740-50s. England, Mantuaofsilktaffeta brocaded withplantpattern, BLUE. Kyoto Kyoto o h aia ulte fcolor influence fashionisthesu How qualitiesof themagical asitdoesnotreally exist butisbasedon Color issuch abeguilingstate phantasmicquality, dueto itsintrinsic agbemtra.S rmr sclrta tsae u es fdmninlt n ou,like Sycamore trees andlocus, dimensionality iscolor oursenseof thatitshapes Soprimary material. a tangible itasalmostasolidsubstance, We thinkof reality. keep inmindascolor to ourfundamentalsenseof issointegral Thisisnotsomethingwe mirage. t isastonishing to remember that whatwe regard as color of isinfactaform Costume Institute unless noted otherwise. Images courtesy of Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Design National Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian of courtesy Images otherwise. noted unless Institute Costume AHO IN FASHION sclri pcrmrnigbtentetoplso black between thetwo polesof as color ranging isaspectrum t n h bec flgtrslsi lc;blackappears results inblack; light andtheabsence of ht, Hue is the actual shade or color; Saturation ishow Saturation Hue shadeorcolor; istheactual bject of Fashion in Colors, with sixty-eight costumes sixty-eight with Fashion inColors, of bject of Historicand COLORS Contemporary 300 Years All costumes from the collection of the the of collection the from costumes All Costume Carolyn L.E.Benesh esign 000-000_29.2_FASHION 1/12/06 7:47 PM Page 53

YELLOW. Robe a la Française of , England, circa 1760.

Museum, the exhibition divides into color stations of black, multicolor, blue, red, yellow, and white costumed mannequins. The Museum has consciously grouped the historic and contemporary costumes by a specific color or multiple colors to evince hundreds of years of cultural, spiritual and social associations, as well as to emphasize clothing details and structure that also reappear over the centuries, rather than by the usual methodologies utilizing chronology, occasion or designer. The viewer participates in singular chromatic environments consisting of the costumes and lighting of the same shade. Grouped among the sixteen Black costumes are a jacket and skirt riding habit of (France, circa 1810); a Visite (coat) of silk , chenille and jet beads (U.S.A., circa 1885); and a day dress of silk -back crêpe by Gabrielle Chanel (France, circa 1927). In the twentieth century the long-standing cachet of the color black reached an apogee, with a new level of elegance among the elite in the century’s early years and among youthful beatniks, punks and goths emerging from the 1950s onwards, as bold iconoclastic visual indicators of rebellion. Also symbolic of changes in social status concomitant with grief and mourning and WHITE. Wedding Dress of silk crepe a psychological disappearance or loss of self, it was the color by Madeleine worn by widows and older women, with traces still existing Vionnet, France, in contemporary life. circa 1937. Fifteen Multicolored costumes date from the eighteenth century to 2004. The enduring domination of French ateliers is a recognizable element throughout fashion history: from the lushly ornate and elegant rococo expressions of the late 1700s (shown in a brocaded silk dress from 1775) to the incomparable genius of Elsa Schiaparelli (with a printed silk crêpe evening dress, circa 1937) and a silk with wood and glass bead embroidery dress from Yves Saint Laurent (1967). While it was the introduction of Asian fabrics, which promoted the growth of printing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and synthetic dyes from the nineteenth century, the explosion in patterns and multiple colors was another twentieth century development. In fact, these often riotous fashions probably stamp more than any our visual memory of this recent century. Another handsome mixture of fifteen garments in Blue nicely demonstrates the emotional importance of hue, saturation and luminance in clothing. In these examples, blue’s varying tonality provokes romantic, poetic musings of an exquisite, demurely feminine sensibility. There is a French evening dress of brocaded silk taffeta, silk satin and silk

(circa 1853); another French evening dress, this time by 53 ORNAMENT 29.2.2005 000-000_29.2_FASHION1/12/067:47PMPage54

54 ORNAMENT 29.2.2005 O and DominiqueCardon, Yasuo Kobayashi, Claude Imbert, Lourdes Font, ClaudeLévi-Strauss, by Akiko Fukai, withessays publishedby Assouline, exhibition catalog, role ofcolorinmarketing andconsumercustomization. The program concludeswithapaneldiscussiononthe links between colortrends withinvarious designdisciplines. Acolortrend forecast examinesthe on colorperception. human visionandtheeffectssymposium exploring oflight telephone 212.849.8400orvisitwww.cooperhewitt.org. and 91stStreetinNew information, Forfurther York City. andYohji Yamamoto.Pucci, Emilio JohnGalliano, Domenico DolceandStefano Gabbana, in theexhibitioninclude Azzedine Ala Someofthedesigners directorBarbaracuratorial Bloemink. Institute chiefcurator Akiko FukaiandCooper-Hewitt Theexhibitioniscurated by Kyoto Costume 2006. March 26, 2005through from December9, National DesignMuseum, Fashion in Colors isaccompaniedbyFashion afull-color inColors Cooper-Hewitt hostsa 11, February On Saturday, ofFifth AvenueThe Museumislocatedatthecorner Barbara Bloemink. in Colors shows attheSmithsonian’sin Colors Cooper-Hewitt, Fashion rganized by theKyoto CostumeInstitute, ï a, Christian Dior, Christian a, most restrained and simplest in design isaquilted silksatin andsimplestindesign most restrained The andonefromthe eighteenth thenineteenth centuries. emotional passionsanddesires. respiration andbloodpressure but not onlyourmetabolism, itraises beatsquickerThe heart whenwe lookatthiscolor; pleated silk(circa 1920s). andaDelphosdress of beads, glass goldCoptic stenciled pattern and with plainsilk, crimson of Italian Mariano Fortuny designer isrepresented by hiscaftan Thegreat andprinted petticoat (1850s). (1870s), cotton andsteel bustle wire twill a cotton satincorset (1880s), through itself Ashowy ensembleasserts English drama. strength and costumes inRed itspower, amplydemonstrate jumpsuit by noted Japanese Issey Miyake designer (1983). andalinenjacket andcotton silk petticoat (circa 1951); asilkfailleunderdress insilkgauze with and Robert Piguet, yJnaWtnb,Jpn 2000. Japan, by Junya Watanabe, Jacket ofpolyester organdy andSkirt RED. oro h i elwgret r nls,three from thesix Yellow are English, garments Four of thesixprovocative While more limited numerically, Collection of the of Collection 1998. Netherlands, The Rolf Snoeren, by and Viktor Horsting Pants ofcottonsatin JacketHarlequin and MULTICOLORED. Groninger Museum. Groninger 000-000_29.2_FASHION 1/12/06 7:47 PM Page 55

dress (robe a la française), circa 1750-1755. If calm and tranquility are sought turn to blue not yellow—those who love yellow relish its warming capabilities for stimulating mental and physical energies. White is not so blank a at all, but communicates very large female issues like innocence and virginity within established social structures, whether it is the eighteenth or twentieth century. Like its opposite black, white makes its own evocatively charged statements in the exhibition with ten fashions dating from 1795 to 2002. Distilling the essence of refinement and purity, Japanese Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons shows a 2002 dress and overblouse of gauze, cotton and broadcloth. From 1795 is an Italian dress, called a round gown, of cotton embroidered with silver and trimmed with . Just five years in span from the discreet 1795 Italian gown but stylistically very different is a deceptively sensual Empire-style dress from the United

BLACK. Evening Dress of silk by Cristobal Balenciaga, France, 1964.

RED. Day Dress of cotton printed with Indian floral pattern by Laforcade, U.S.A., circa 1885.

States of cotton gauze (circa 1800). Each country’s dress seemingly has no emotional, symbolic or cultural connection with the other, but one wonders and doubts whether their only commonality resides in the use of cotton as the material for draping. If we look beyond its temporal presentation, Fashion in Colors is more than merely another fashion affirmation of art, culture and society but a window to our native being. It reminds us to what degree we miraculously experience a bright, vivid world through the wonders of light and the brilliance of color. “If the doors of perception were cleansed,” says William Blake, “everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” Transcendent and pure, color is an eye to the cosmic and we must appreciate its complexity, even in the form of dress. 55 ORNAMENT 29.2.2005