Architectural Inspirations In
Fashion DesignBy: Furqaan Afzal
What is an Architectural- Fashion?
•Fabrics as a building materials, creating both hard and round lines.
•Oversize proportions, exaggerated angles
•Strong silhouettes with emphasis on structure, shape and form.
•Major pleats, folds, pinning, layering, surface texture and three-dimensional designs.
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/cheat-sheet-architectural-fashion/
Old-school masters
•Pierre Balmain (1914-82) declared, “dressmaking is the architecture of movement,” believing “nothing is more important in a dress than
its construction.”
•With his structured approach to design, Gianfranco Ferré (1944-2007) was known as “the architect of fashion.”
• Not uncoincidentally, both Balmain and Ferré held degrees in architecture.
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/cheat-sheet-architectural-fashion/
Fashion is ArchitectureArchitecture and fashion have a lot in common, both, designer and architect use geometry to generate forms, they create structure, design lines and shapes.
• As Coco Chanel said: “Fashion is architecture. It is a matter of proportion.”
• That fashion and architecture have a great deal in common may be surprising given the obvious differences between the two.
• Fashion can often be ephemeral and superficial, and uses soft, fluid materials; whereas architecture is considered monumental and permanent, and uses strong, rigid materials.
• Regardless of differences in size, scale, and materials, the point of origin for both fashion design and architecture is the human body both practices protect and shelter us, while providing a means to express our identities whether personal, political, religious, or cultural.”
•In 2010, Derek Lam gave a nod to Frank Gehry’s IAC building as an influence on his fall collection: “Walking to work each day between Chelsea and the Meatpacking District I get to enjoy all sorts of views of Frank Gehry’s building,
from which I got a lot of the impetus for this collection.” (Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz) has also channeled Gehry’s soft lines,
•Last October, the 27-year-old avant-garde designer Gareth Pugh presented a collection of armor like outfits — “a modern warrior,” he called the aesthetic —
bringing engineered clothing to new heights.
•The current designers, Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi, are carrying the label’s lineage into the future, with “the introduction of new, more fluid fabrics that enable the hard architectural shapes to become softer and more feminine.”
•The Swedish designer Sandra Backlund doesn’t look at architecture for direct inspiration, but admits, “I am very fascinated by all the ways you can highlight, distort and transform the natural
silhouette with clothes and accessories.”
Nordpark Railway Station, Austria
L’Oreal Office
Building, Stockholm,
Sweden
National Centre for the Performing Arts (The Egg, China)
Antonium (Brussels, Belgium)
Colorful Composition of Windows, Venezuela
A magnificent display of Gothic Architecture, germany
Gothic Architecture, central doorway
Monumental Architecture
Vintage Spiral Staircase
Worlds Most Futuristic City
The Superstar was designed by Chinese architects. “A Mobile China Town” with shopping
malls, Chinese food restaurants, and other cultural exhibitions.
The Superstar will provide housing for 15,000 inhabitants
who will enjoy health and sports facilities, drinking water lakes,
and a “digital cemetery” among others.
Argentina
South American Neighborhood
Worlds Tallest Sky-Scrappers
A flowing mesh dress, evokes the organic dynamism of her world-famous buildings, particularly the Thyssen Krupp headquarters in Germany.
“Lara Miller” creates a tea-dyed frock out of newspaper, the Chicago designer didn’t have to look far for inspiration. The “post-architectural” skyscraper by award-winning architect
“Solomonoff” based her designs on the structural roof
Unlike actual bridges, however, the pump is wearable. Lined with a patent-leather inner sole, the shoe includes a coating of synthetic
rubber on the bottom for traction.
New Designer Mikio Sakabe , incorporated of architectural aesthetics into fashion, integrated with the urban architecture.
Architectural- Inspired designs by D&G, and Bottega Venetta
Hussien Chalayan, British –turkish designer
Fashion VS ArchitectureAn orange Lanvin dress from Spring 2008 and Frank Gehry’s Hotel, Opera House, Sydney
Architectural FashionSir Norman Foster’s Hearst building, San Francisco
Latest designs of summer 2012 A-line skirt, Louis Vuitton
Brocade –Stella McCartney, New National Library, Kazakhstan
Parada- Grafitti- Café, Bulgaria
Monochrome Prints- Versace, Town Hall ,Spain
Wiggle – Lanvin, The Cloud- International Business Center, Korea
Sydney Opera
LA BOCA
GALATA TOWER, Istanbul- Turkey
KONGRESSHALLE, Germany- Berlin
TAJ MAHAL, A Tribute to Beauty
Architecture is making its presence felt in cutting-edge fashion.
Although the relationship between architecture and fashion was recognized more than a century ago, the connection
between them has rarely been explored by historians, designers or practicing architects.
The Fashion of Architecture is the first attempt to investigate the contemporary relationship between architecture and fashion in considerable depth, by examining the ideas,
imagery, techniques and materials used by visionaries such as Martin Margiela, Issey Miyake, Alexander McQueen, Tadao
Ando and Daniel Libeskind.
As mavericks ranging from Hussein Chalayan and Rei Kawakubo to Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid describe
architecture’s role in the formation of fashion identities, new readings of both areas emerge.
The End