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| Dries Van Noten: Spring RTW 2012 |
Selfridges & Co—a high-end chain of department stores in the UK—has gotten on the bandwagon of creating artistic fashion videos for campaign ads. A few that have caught our attention are Dries Van Noten, Comme des Garçons and Alexander McQueen. We found that for the most part, like many "fashion films," the garment and the short films themselves have no connection whatsoever; of course depending on the director: at times, becomes a homage to their own artistic vision, sans considering the actual designs and the pure aesthetic of the designer.
This is true in case of the films designated for Dries Van Noten's Ready-to-Wear collection, Spring 2012, as well as for Comme des Garçons's— both are currently sold at Selfridges. Granted all the films are directed by renowned filmmakers and artist.
The Van Noten's for example, is directed by Christopher Doyle: The Australian expat, has received the Cannes Technical Grand Prize, four times nevertheless—and yet there's some clear disconnect between the film, and the fashion designer's actual collection (see featured film above and samples of the collection below). Which is simply a shame: because this Van Noten collection is quite vividly exquisite indeed.
The Comme des Garçons, directed by Katerina Jebb is entirely about something, in fact someone else: pianist Madeleine Malraux. Yes it's common knowledge that founders of Comme Des Garçons are long time recluses, thereby the culture spilling over to its current designers; but we can't really grasp the connection between the aging prominent pianist and the usual seemingly deconstructed collection of Comme des Garçons this season. (Video featured at right.)
And lastly there is the Alexander McQueen film, directed by Dustin Lynn. Lynn is a young documentarian from New York, who got his first opportunity at the very fist opening of the Tribeca Film Festival; whereby, he launched his first film called, Tranquil Music. The film is a short documentary on the weeks that came before 9/11, just following his brother and friends go to parties on what was seemingly a glorious summer. This film inevitably jumped started his career.
His fashion film made for the Alexander McQueen's Spring 2012 collection (designed by Sarah Burton), is perhaps the most cohesive and precise rendition of the McQueen brand under Burton's direction. Ironically, the film is called Obscure Desires, because it underlines and magnifies the meticulous craftswomanship that embodies the deeply well-thought-out, intellectual and very particular philosophy of McQueen. (See film featured at right).
