HAUTE COUTURE / SS’16

For Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2016, the House of Viktor&Rolf further explores the notion of Wearable Art with a surreal merger of sculpture and clothing.

This season, the collection explores the idea of the archetypical white polo shirt meeting cubism. Resulting in a collection consisting of a series of form studies where clothing and sculptural elements interact with an increasing degree of complexity. The designs blur the boundaries between garment and sculpture, and question the relationship between wearer and clothing, sometimes overtaking the body and obscuring the face of the wearer. The sculpture is humanized and the wearer, sculpted: thus composing the performance of sculptures.

The polo shirt, with its strict scheme of short sleeves, buttoned closure and open collar, is juxtaposed with a selection of surreal cubist portraits, themselves oftentimes burlesque assemblages of organic fragments. Expressive configurations of eyes, noses and lips imagined from various perspectives emerge from the garments and parade through the Palais de Tokyo to a choral rendition of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’.

While the collection’s graphic and geometric volumes suggest a sculptor's hand working a 3-dimensional material, all garments are expertly executed in fabric: a pristine white technical piqué with a magnified eyelet structure. Seemingly unfinished hems, primitive volumes and mismatched parts generate a spontaneous, thrown-together look. The effect of rapid improvisation is deceptive however: every seemingly random cut, blotch or chip is meticulously hand finished.

BEHIND THE SCENES

two models in white haute couture dresses two models in white haute couture dresses
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details of faces on haute couture dresses details of faces on haute couture dresses
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models in white haute couture dresses models in white haute couture dresses
viktor rolf website fashion images viktor rolf website fashion images