Fashion History/Designer

DESIGNER/SPRING COLLECTION – Luella Bartley

I like Luella Bartley’s 2008 Spring Ready-to-Wear collection because of its relaxed yet vibrant sensibility in both simplicity and streetwear. The inspiration for her show this season was Thora Birch in indie art house film Ghost World. Bartley’s unabashed intellectual is clearly at the head of the class in “geek chic” this season, with Liberty-style floral prints, a Batwoman cape, military epaulets, and the handbag accessories for which she’s especially known, including a navy patent tote.

Bartley often incorporates American Western, rock n’ roll, and English street motifs into her collections, the likes of which include short plaid trenches, pink cowboy boots, and quilted bags charmed with guns and records. In previous collections, her street-chic style has alternated with a preppy sophistication evident in elegant touches reminiscent of Chanel, like triple-strand pearls and full-leg, slouching trousers in country club neutrals. Regardless, Bartley's eclectic combinations aren't as unique without shades of the occasional avant-garde jumper, geometric printed miniskirt, or black-and-white alphabet suit.

A contemporary of designers Matthew Williamson and Stella McCartney, Bartley’s inspiration is influenced by her English upbringing, notably the British music scene and private school prep. After having lived in New York for six years, Bartley moved back to England for her first show on native turf, coinciding with the opening of a London store.






FASHION HISTORY/FASHION ICON

Avant-Garde Clothing: the Russian Constructivists and the Italian Futurists
Icons of Fashion: The 20th Century, Gertrude Bauxbaum

Retro elements and symbols of prewar fashion were an aspect of an era in fashion from 1915-1921 known for crinolines and masculine clothing: Chanel’s appearance amongst the fashion elite with sporty, unisex jersey dresses, tweed, and faux jewelry, as well as of course, Chanel No. 5; Avant-Garde clothing; and Erte, a designer and illustrator known for his Art Deco style, influencing Harper’s Bazaar and costume for a 1913 stage performances by Mati Hari.

Prior to World War I and during the 1920s, Avant-Garde artists, Russian Constructivists and Italian Futurists, attempted to bridge the gap between art and life in abstaining from the division between fine and applied arts.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) was the impetus for an European avant-garde with his Futurist manifesto of 1909. In reinventing clothing, Italian Futurists dressed as though for a theatrical performance. Giacoma Balla (1871-1958)’s 1914 manifesto Il Vestito antineutrale (Anti-Neutral Clothing) advocated simple, practical and reusable clothing, which exhibited asymmetrical cuts, bright “muscular” colors, and shirts made out of metal.

In 1919, Futurist Ernesto Michahelles (1893-1959), or Thayaht, developed a unisex “uniform garment” similar to overalls. Comfortable and inexpensive, it consisted of a one-or two-piece T-shaped suit that he called a tuta (jumper). Counter-designs to the Futurists were developed in the 1920s by Russian artists Varvara Stepanova (1894-1958), Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1954) and Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953).

In 1925, the Italian artists encountered avant-garde movements from other European countries at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, the Russian Constructivists and Suprematists accompanying them with their textile creations.