In modern fashion, the shape of a garment is considered a design element of its own, independent of its functional or practical purposes. However, more interestingly, the shapes of garment patterns used as a guide in needlework have also been increasi...
In modern fashion, the shape of a garment is considered a design element of its own, independent of its functional or practical purposes. However, more interestingly, the shapes of garment patterns used as a guide in needlework have also been increasingly used as a visual design element. This study examines the phenomenon of the visual incorporation of garment patterns in fashion from the perspective of modern art. In this study, patterns drafted on paper are construed as objets, and a parallel is drawn with objet trouvés (found objects), considering that they are dissociated from their primary context of use. Modern fashion and modern art intersect in several ways, of which the most significant is that they both have taken up the common challenge of the “avant-garde moving beyond representation.” Representational value has long been paramount to art and fashion. However, in the early 20th century, which heralded profound changes in thought and sensibility, attempts were made in both art and fashion to break away from representational value. As part of this shift, objets were first introduced in art, becoming a vital element of the avant-garde’s anti-aesthetic movement, and in fashion, this period witnessed the emergence of avant-garde styles which no longer represented or were dictated by the shape of the human body. This study aims to perceive the visual use of garment patterns in modern fashion in the context of the avant-garde’s attempt to transcend representation and analyze it with objet art’s expressive styles and methods to articulate a new fashion design methodology, which makes use of garment patterns.
To this end, a literature review was conducted on garment patterns and objet art, focusing on avant-garde approaches. Expressive styles and methods in objet art that emerged across the various stages of the avant-garde movement from 1910 to 1990 (historical avant-garde → neo–avant-garde → postmodernism) were classified, analyzed, and defined. Using the expressive styles discerned, collections displayed during the world’s four major fashion weeks (“Big Four”) between 1997 and 2023 were analyzed to highlight the transition in design from the use of clothes to the use of garment patterns, and a design methodology was formulated based on the results of this analysis.
“Collage,” “ready-made,” and “idea” were the three main elements constituting the expressive styles and methods of objetart in the avant-garde tradition. Most works in this category, which often took the form of combinations and variations of these three elements, can be characterized as follows:
First, objets were initially introduced in art through “collage.” Collage was a technique used in Cubism, a movement that ushered in 20th-century modern art, as a new way of rendering visual realities, defined by the rearrangement of two- and three-dimensional visual structures.
Second, “ready-made,” a term coined by Marcel Duchamp, refers to ordinary mass-produced objects selected by an artist and presented as art. As commonplace things dissociated from their original utilitarian purposes, ready-mades trigger a perceptual shift in the viewer.
Lastly, “ideas,” which extend objets beyond the material realm, were widely used in the modern conceptual art of the late 20th century. Idea-based objet works were highly abstract as they questioned the fundamental nature of art and incorporated abstract ideas and notions in other domains in a largely conceptual manner.
The expressive styles and methods of objet art, namely, the visual composition of collage, perceptual shifts with ready-mades, and the conceptual dimension of ideas, inspired novel design directions for modern fashion, suggesting ways of using garment patterns as a design element. The details of the influence of objet art on modern fashion, identified based on the analysis of concrete examples, are as follows:
First, the visual rearrangement of two- and three-dimensional shapes in collages manifested in modern fashion through deconstructing, dispersing, and recombining clothing items. In using garment patterns, certain groups of patterns were taken apart and regrouped in a new manner to create structural silhouettes.
Second, the perceptual shift caused by ready-mades as objects being removed from their primary context of use has subverted the meaning of clothes in modern fashion by transforming them into decorative elements deprived of utilitarian purposes. With regard to garment patterns, this effect manifests itself in their usage as textile patterns and surface designs.
Third and last, the influence of conceptual and ideational elements in objet art is felt in the introduction of temporality in modern fashion in which the creation and evolution of clothing are incorporated as its integral elements. In garment patterns, this is observed in the stages of the clothes-making process, such as sketching and drafting, visible inthe garment itself through various visual clues.
In conclusion, the three main ways of using garment patterns through an objet trouvé(found object) have been identified, including “deconstruction and reconstruction of patterns,” “creating fabric patterns out of sewing patterns,” and “making the pattern-drafting process evident in the garment.” From the methodology consisting of these three elements, three design themes have been presented, namely, “Reforming,” “Reframing,” and “Replaying.” These themes were expressed through the 'object project' under the concept of 'Escape the illusion,' representing a collection of 8 styles of artwork.
This study is significant as it sheds light on the intersection of avant-garde art and avant-garde fashion. Moreover, it suggests a new direction in fashion design development based on rediscovering garment patterns as an objet. At the same time, as this study is focused on the convergence of modern art and modern fashion in terms of the broad similarities in their avant-garde tendencies, its discussion of specific trends and how they are exhibited in fashion remains superficial. It is hoped that this study’s findings provide directions for future research.