(din of crowd)
(single piano note plays)
(gentle modern music playing)
BOLTON: The subtitle
of the exhibition
is "Fashion in an Age
of Technology."
And the show isn't really about
fashion and technology, per se.
It's more about
techniques and processes.
I think people are expecting the
exhibition to be about robots.
It really isn't about that
at all.
It's about rather subtle
hidden technologies.
The show's taking place
in the Lehman Wing,
and we've actually created
a building within a building.
It looks almost like
a sort of 21st-century hybrid
between a traditional
couture atelier
and a scientific laboratory.
It unfolds as a series of rooms
based on the traditional metiers
of the haute couture.
One of the garments
that inspired the exhibition
is a dress by
Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel.
Initially, it was sketched
by hand by Karl,
and manipulated on the computer
to give a pixelated
Baroque pattern.
Then the pattern itself
was hand-painted onto the train
and transfer-printed by machine,
and then finished by hand
by Lesage with gemstones.
It sort of embodies both
the handmade and machine-made
within one garment.
The exhibition itself
is structured
around Diderot's "Encyclopedia,"
the first time that fashion
was elevated to the same status
as arts and sciences.
What is interesting is,
the metiers
within Diderot's "Encyclopedia"
still structure the metiers
of the haute couture:
embroidery...
Featherwork...
Artificial flowers.
And on the lower level,
you'll come across pleating...
Lacework...
Leatherwork...
And a special category
on tailoring and dressmaking.
As you walk
through the exhibition,
there's conversations
or case studies
between the haute couture
and pret-a-porter
in terms of the processes
involved with those techniques.
People are so preoccupied
by the next thing
that there's
a lack of appreciation
in the making of fashion.
So part of the exhibition's
intention
is really to make people
look at garments.
It is not just the sort of
hand-in-the-machine techniques
that go into the making
of fashion,
but the concepts embodied
in one particular garment.
Instead of seeing the hand
and the machine as dichotomous,
the show tends to see it more
as a continuum or spectrum
of practice.
I think technology
should be used,
and especially
by good designers,
should be used as a way
to enhance
their design practice.
And I think that within fashion,
people sort of cling on
to those sort of notions
between the haute couture
and ready-to-wear.
And I think what I'm finding
is that the gap
is really diminishing.
The exhibition is trying
to come up
with a new paradigm
within fashion
that's not so polarizing
as the haute couture-
ready-to-wear,
the handmade and machine-made.
(piano chord plays,
music fades)
