Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Herd of Independent Minds

I always wonder if art and design schools suffer from the same herd mentality that infects other disciplines. Based on the scouting of graduating collections at the Antwerp School of Design as undertaken by StyleBubble that certainly appears to be the case.

No, the bloggress herself, Susie Bubble (aka Susanna Laudoesn't make this comment - it is all mine. I'm basing it, however, on the images she so wodnerfully provides (and I repost).

The images on Lau's blog range in terms of the quality of designs - some (like those of Emmanuel Beguinot and Madeleine Coisne) are better, some (like that of an Israeli grad and former Bat Sheva dancer Eran Shanny) are worse. But what unites them all is an attempt to translate the simuloutaneity of the street into clothing. By and large this attempt can be boiled down to a replication of graffiti - either as pattern or as cut or both. Speaking of cuts - they are mostly uninteresting.

Graffiti is the one visual element that a spectator immediately perceives. It is everywhere, in the cacophany of graphic forms, clashing primary clolors.

I'm not sure what this means for the future of these students - graduation collections do not necessarily reflect future paths - but it speaks to a kind of shared Zeitgeist that permeates the school..

Here, take a look for yourselves ladies - each image is from a different collection - (and for a more detailed look go to StyleBubble):












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