“createurope”: The Code of the Avant-Garde
Return to the essentials: examples from the createurope collections (Photo: createurope/Nico Knebel)
21 October 2009
In the sixties, flowery frocks were considered an accessory of rebellious youth. If you wore jeans in the GDR, you were already a subversive. Fashion was more than something to wear; it made a social statement and signalled the search for meaning. What about today in the 21st century? createurope 2009, the European fashion competition of the Goethe-Institut for young international designers, intersects fashion, statement and art. By Maxi Leinkauf
In the “Roaring Twenties” the bob cut was shocking and a cigarette holder was the symbol of the femme fatale. Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald presented himself as a true dandy at “Jazz Age” parties; glamorously scandalous. His works, like his public image, were bohemian. A feverishly eccentric way of life was exhibited by fashion.
On Friday, the big final gala of createurope 2009 will be held in Berlin. You can even follow the gala live on the Internet. Get your free online ticket here.
Today, in the early 21st century, what does my t-shirt say about me, my convictions and my social environment? createurope, the European competition for fashion design, examines this question. The contest was launched last year by the Goethe-Institut.
Students of fashion design and young designers from Europe, Africa and the Middle East can present their creations; this year, in addition to Europeans, a Moroccan and an Israeli designer will take part in createurope. “Sadly, fashion is often reduced to apparel,” says Michael Jeismann, head of the capital office of the Goethe-Institut, “where actually it reflects society while at the same time illuminating it.” Jeismann has a new kind of fashion show in mind, “one where fashion, social statements and art intersect.”
Trousers: an ideological battlefield?
In retrospect, it seems that in the sixties, fashion was reduced to political – and sexual – symbolism. For the philosopher Adorno, fashion was a decisive element of art; an expression of individual impulses opposed to painfully foreign social objectivity. If you wore flowery frocks, you were seeking meaning in society. In the GDR in the fifties and sixties, wearing jeans was enough to provoke. The trousers were the casual symbol of the American class enemy. Even in the early seventies, pupils who came to school in jeans were sent home. Levi’s became an ideological battlefield.The new trend is: mix it all up.
Ulrik Martin Larsen of Copenhagen who took part in createurope 2008, blends styles and fabrics from different youth cultures. Bricolage is the name of his pieced together collection, in which sack-like hamster trousers, flowing shirts and effectual Bob Marley hairstyles suddenly belong together.
His style caught on in Berlin and at the kick-offs in Casablanca. Larsen is still raving about his three days in Morocco, “the energy, the good food and young, inspiring designer colleagues.” They were both very traditional and creative at the same time; they used the catwalk as an art gallery.
Ballet on washing powder
Like Cem Cako, the designer who presented his collection last year as a performance. He named the spectacle, in which a French ballerina danced on a surface of white washing powder, “washing machine.”If we look at the fashion of the eighties from a cultural perspective, we wander through an oddly hedonist, non-utopian age. It was an I-don’t-give-a-damn mood rather than collective protest, yet even this was worn on the outside with fashion. Post-punk or fish net stockings, poppers or Goths, everything was possible. Very little was scandalous. Jean Paul Gaultier mixed genres and genders; he put kilts on the catwalk, worn by men and girls.
createurope: The Fashion Design Award 2009
Madonna, his muse, was promoted as the woman who acted like a predator; acting out whatever she desired without taboos: fame, wealth and consumption. She broke rules, not from conviction, but from pure lust. The mere act was her statement and she was emulated by millions.
“Today it’s harder to determine what’s in right now,” says Michael Sontag, one of last year’s createurope finalists. The 29-year-old studied at the Weissensee Art Academy and considers himself a creative professional. At first he wanted to become a freelance artist, until fashion became appealing to him. “I was looking to play with shapes, with personalities and the body. That was ideal for Twiggy in the sixties when miniskirts, bell-bottoms and platform shoes became popular.” Back then, new things were still happening.
Purchased street credibility
Michael Sontag, who lived for a year on an Erasmus scholarship in Paris and was an intern at Givenchy discovered there “that the great designers don’t really work any differently than we young designers.” Style is everything and it is nothing and especially it is no longer a dogma. This means that fashion is becoming more uniform on the one hand; on the other hand certain codes are dispersing.Groups that identify with one another or portray their attitudes to the outside world with fashion seem to be shrinking. You can love heavy metal and still wear a suit and tie, techno listeners sit in the boardroom, the line between a specific music or fashion scene to a social subculture no longer runs straight. The underground eventually becomes the mainstream. Yet, the more conformist the product, the greater is the desire for choice. This is what generates not only global one-of-a-kinds but also tailor-made sneakers that suddenly everyone is wearing.
The clothing in the hip-hop and rap scenes shows that the fashion industry immediately helps itself to every trend. Originally, XXL-size down jackets were meant to scare away potential enemies on the street. Today they are an attribute of coolness for big companies. Anyone can buy it. Adidas opened “Guerrilla Stores” in big cities. The message is, if you wear the brand, you have street credibility. Once a trait of penniless ghetto kids in the outskirts of American cities – toughened by their daily fight for survival on the streets – now it’s a pop item.
Can fashion be subversive?
The fact that cultural differences are disappearing, at least outwardly, is also a result of the Internet, believes Ulrik Martin Larsen. “This makes it harder for us young designers to disassociate ourselves.” They attempt it nonetheless, for example with contests like createurope. The goal is to create art and be able to make a living at it. As unique as their designs are, all of them fight in their occupation with similar uncertainties. Some return to the essentials. Tarané Hoock, who also had her debut with createurope, now presents her “eco-fashion” all over Europe. It’s the trend and has its price, just like organic beef.Michael Sontag does not wish to convey any political messages. He defined the values he lives by. It is important to him where he produces, with what materials and under what conditions. The way that he makes his fashion is already a statement. In an age of metro-sexual, unisex, commercialized fashion: can it still be subversive?
createurope pursues this question, reflects the many different facets, the artistic sophistication and the social reality of the young designers. They themselves reflect their times through their indeterminable fashions.
