The Odd One Out

Minimalism and Fashion,Reduction in the Postmodern Era by By Elyssa Dimant

"Consumers have had plenty of reasons to meditate on the new wave of minimalist fashion now in stores, namely to decide if a simple camel coat — as all the magazines suggested — is the right look for them this fall. As a trend, minimalism seemed to come out of left field this season, ubiquitous on the runways for no better reason than, well, Phoebe Philo is doing it, so it must be right.

Elyssa Dimant, a fashion historian and a former research associate at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, decided to look a bit further into the subject in her substantive new book, “Minimalism and Fashion: Reduction in the Postmodern Era” (Collins Design). Ms. Dimant examined the role of minimalism in fashion, but also looked at the broader context of its appearance in art, architecture and design, noting some surprising correlations along the way. One of the most intriguing aspects of her book is the juxtaposition of runway looks with art and sculpture, such as an organic piece by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher opposite dresses from an unrelated resort collection by the Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa, or a Richard Serra installation of curling metal plates next to Hussein Chalayan’s coffee-table dress from 2000.

Hedi Slimane

Dressing for Pleasure in Rubber, Vinyl & Leather.The Best of Atomage 1972-1980

For early devotees of leather, rubber and vinyl fetish wear, Atomage magazine was the underground bible of the 1970s. Founded, designed and published by the English designer John Sutcliffe as a platform for his extraordinary talents as a manufacturer of weatherproofs for lady pillion riders, it quickly became a rallying point for explorers of every kind of fledgling clothing scene, functioning as both an instruction manual and a mirror. The experimental clothing showcased in its pages, including items made by the readers themselves, transformed a passion for a sexual proclivity into a cult phenomenon. From motorbiking and mask-wearing, to mudlarking and wading worship, Atomage covered every conceivable variant on and use for fetish wear. The amateur photographs reproduced here reflect a golden age of DIY enthusiasm, before fetish became the industry it is today, and inadvertently depict a suburbia from which dressing for pleasure was a necessary escape. The outrageous costumes found in Atomage also served as inspiration to a then-new generation of fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood, and many of these costumes have since been acquired by high-end collections. Compiling the most astonishing imagery from all 32 issues of this now extremely rare and sought after cult magazine, Dressing for Pleasure illustrates not just Sutcliffe's exceptional designs, but also, through their own photography and writings, the fantasies and desires of the Atomage followers.

Published by Fuel Publishing

Rodarte, Catherine Opie, Alec Soth

California Condors, Boris Karloff as Frankenstein, Japanese horror films and Gordon Matta-Clark are among the many influences that make up the world of Rodarte. In just five short years, Rodarte has upended the fashion scene, bringing Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the designers behind the company, to the forefront of contemporary design and visual culture. Kate and Laura, who live and work between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena, California, have consistently brought their love of nature, film, art and science to bear upon their unconventional and exquisitely crafted collections. Burning, sanding, dyeing, knitting, twisting, staining and weaving are some of the many complex techniques that have entered into the Rodarte textural vocabulary.