This show, Dirty Looks: Desire & Decay in Fashion, currently on at The Barbican, covers many aspects of contemporary fashion’s fascination with dirt and desire, historically known as la nostalgie de la boue. Life time and the body itself all conspire against the perfection that fashion can aspire to.
Solitude Studios bury fabric into peat bogs, offering them to nature’s transformation before making them up into garments. In the installation above, the bodies themselves have disappeared, leaving modern “bog bodies” as a record of an event that has taken place.
These trainers from Balenciaga by Demna, lent by a private collector, are another case of a designer distressing pieces to sell at high prices. The point isn’t only the wearing.
I used to work in fashion many years ago and admire many of the designers shown here. I like the way they explore concepts, developing them into garments and entire collections.
These extremely wearable dresses are a collaboration between print designer Helen Bullock and fashion designer Phoebe English.
It’s hard not to touch them.
Growing Pains, by Michaela Stark, was for me the most interesting part of the exhibition. Her work explores issues of desire and the historical distortion of womens’ bodies. Her display comprises a couple of photos with some of the worn articles framed alongside. The items are so beautifully and delicately made yet perform an eroticised violence on the body, making it almost unrecognisable.
More to follow next week.