SHAPE show and tell: Piet Paris on Arnhem Mode Biennale 2009
Piet Paris, artistic director of the first three editions of Arnhem Mode Biennale, selected the theme SHAPE as well as the designers portraying a renewed attention for shape in their work. He explained his choices in the exhibition’s guide book, of which fragments are quoted below. This is edition 2009 in a nutshell.
Piet Paris explains:
Imagine making a dress and leaving two centimetres extra when cutting the fabric. You sew it up and the extra fabric creates a two-centimetre strip around the dress. Put it on and you are instantly bigger. That is what Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough of the label Proenza Schouler thought up.
Fashion designers constantly affect the shape of the human body and use all sorts of means to do so. The corset, the shoulder pad, the material, the cut, everything is put to use to force the female curves into a desired shape. A shape that has to match its time.
Over recent years, designers’ search for shape has been explicitly omnipresent. Is it the soft draping dress of Lanvin that marks this time or are the hard graphic designs of Calvin Klein characterising this moment? Is it the designer who draws patterns and drapes that will take us to the next level, or should we rely on the rebellious designer to take fashion a step further? The programme of the third edition of Arnhem Mode Biennale asked this question.
None of the dresses in this exhibition held secrets for me. The first part of the exhibition, situated in nine pavilions scattered across the city’s market square on 5 meter high stilts, included designs showing how designers can create shape in their work. The second part, located inside the Eusebius Church, consisted of new work commissioned by Arnhem Mode Biennale. SHAPE served as the central connecting element.
The third dimension played an important role in the Shape exhibition. The mannequins on which the garments were shown were extremely lifelike. They underlined the direct connection between shape and 3D.
