Building fashion


Understanding the relationship
between architecture, a science
generally connected to buildings
and landscapes, and fashion is
a complex, yet energizing journey
defined by aestheticism and construction. Yet when one considers the basic structural elements of space, texture, color and dimension, this
connection is as natural as the form of a woman’s body.

Architecture and fashion have thus been connected for as long as each discipline has existed, and they continue to relate, without boundaries in time, culture and tradition. In the 1930s, designer Alix Grès, known for her neoclassical pleated gowns, gave a nod to ancient Greek architecture. Her gowns, with their columnar silhouettes of simple jersey and neutral shades, were reminiscent of the longstanding columns of Greece’s ancient Acropolis. Grès’ fashions, while innovative, were of a soft elegance compared to what we see in the contemporary relationship that exists between these disciplines.

The modern influencers in this realm, including revolutionaries like Tadao Ando, David Adjaye, Nicola de Main and Daniel Libeskind, are more conceptual than ever, creating new fashion identities that go beyond simple beauty and wearability. In 2005, Vogue UK commissioned fashion house Boudicca and renowned architect David Adjaye to design a dress. The result, what appeared as an unusual, spiky form, was what they defined as “space, that when you enter has energy around you.” Without reverence to wearability, Adjaye and Boudicca conceptualized the bond of fashion and architecture by making a dress that was “new and challenging” for both worlds.



Bradley Quinn, a New York-based author and curator, has taken large strides in exhibiting and attempting to define the intricacies of how both worlds work together. His revered books include The Fashion of Architecture, a detailed investigation of this contemporary relationship. Among the architects and designers he has commissioned is Nicola de Main, a London-based fashion designer who began her own label in 2004. De Main’s project was to explore the concept of the “Klien Bottle,” a theoretically “4-dimensional” vase with infinite surfaces. What she thus created was to be worn by hanging the bottle around the neck, as one would an apron or necklace. It had the appearance of both a dress and an architectural pendulum that, despite covering the body, did not classify as a garment. It was, however, purely a piece of architectural fashion.Fashion and architecture, two forms of living art, are accordingly open to a variety of artistic interpretations. Among the inspired exhibits available at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is “Blog.Mode: Addressing Fashion,” which runs now until April 18, 2008. The designs addressed here are as avante-garde as ever, with pieces that are the truest indications of conceptual fashion.

Highlights include Comme de Garçon’s pale beige polyester organza shawl and silver polyester and cellophane panné velvet dress, as well as Hussein Chalayan’s pink fiberglass and pink nylon tulle dress. Both pieces are created with such sculpture that they evoke a sense of space and strength that is easily stirred by inspiring architecture.

While the contemporary constructions of architectural fashion are often anything but wearable, they continue to revolutionize each discipline, both individually and simultaneously. The result is an amplifying world of art, in which space, texture, color and dimension continue to amaze its inhabitants with fresh ideas and unfaltering innovation.
-Georgia Bistolaridis