Lecture by Emma Neuberg

http://www.emmaneuberg.blogspot.com/

During that lecture Emma Neuberg was talking about modernism and semiotics ( untold signs and messages)
20Th-21Th textile print, the geometric patterns, graphic line and super flat colours, and the cultural and technological context of that era.

PICTURE

When Freud appeared and the Darwin evolution theory emerged God disappeared from the front scene , the worlds entered a post world environment where the body is part of the design, it was a process of re-socialism through dress. spots, triangle, stripes were part of the the fashion designs of the moment.
The movement was non-bourgeois , there were no place for romance, femininity, arabesque, divine, ornate or gilded ; modernism was a world of speed, graphic line and bold colour. It was the man machine integration



Soviet textiles industry: men at their machines, planes and uniforms, very propaganda like.


This mentality was very urban and was somehow linked with capitalism and communism. Sonia Delaunay painting

"Techno motifs" appeared using wave and electricity in art
Sonia Delaunay is the first artist to have identified electricity as a technological motif for high fashion, her art work inspired then the modernists motifs in the 60's.

Hans Schwipperts designed building, post war

The pan European architecture of the modernist was round up by the Nazis during WW2, many of Bauhaus modernist designs were Jewish, but their influence persisted post war, one good example is Hans Schwipperts work.

Michele Rosier Dress 1960's

At that time fine artists pushed the boundaries; Bridget Riley work and prints inspired the Mod's movement. Ben Shermann also became an important name with his checked shirts that became an symbols for the Mods and later the Skin heads.

Some other designers linked to the modernist movement were Pierre Cardin, Mary Quant and Michele Rosier.

Plastic, short and bright and bold were very present in the modernist fashion.

There were new form, new shapes and stretch, it meant new ideologies, more freedom.

The women fitted very well into this change, they became the body to represent and assimilate the cultural changes.

The semiotics of that period was obvious, no one talked about the change but it was there to be seen. Michele rosier design presented in ELLE gave subtle messages to the reader: Control/ Machine/ City Life

Photo

magasine cover 1960's

This whole idea was present during modernism, it was structuralist, binary: black/white, heaven/hell, now/never... and that could be seen through fashion.

The check board and black and white, bold colours and geometric shapes are timeless.

Lacoste Sportswear fall 08 presented at Mercedes fashion week.

I found this lecture really great, I love to learn about eras of history that are still very much influencing us, from this lecture I got my idea to use the mini skirt by Mary Quant as my Object analysis.

Some books and texts related to the subject:

• Stern,R. Against Fashion, 1850-1930, 2005

Weltge-Wortmann,S. Bauhaus textiles: women artists and the weaving workshop, 1998

Troy, V. The modernist textile: Europe and America, 1890-1940, 2006