History of designers: introduction

Fashion history is crucial to learn about if you plan on studying for a career in the fashion industry. It is important to know about what came before you, not only to know it's there but also to gain inspiration and learn from mistakes or achievements others have made. Designers learn and innovate from past designers and create excellence in their products because they have learned about their history, if there was no fashion history, the fashion world would not exist. Its crucial in the fashion world to know about it. If, for example, the government did not know about government history it would not be able to function properly maybe making the same mistakes from the past or staying in the same places it had already been, and that's much like fashion history, we don't want to be stuck in one place, lacking innovations and many different creative ideas. We have to look back to past designers and create inspirations or decide to "never go there" for your creativeness.

Knowing about the history of fashion and fashion designers very well relates to my future career in fashion, as a product developer i would have to look back at past creations and innovate, research what might of have gone wrong and forecast to what might work in the future. Knowing about past designs and designers will help in creating innovations and forecasting by looking into what has worked before and will work in the future. As a product developer there is many different job opportunities from trend research to fabric development and even forecasting. Learning about what has worked for designers will inspire, and impact my creativity and help me do the right choices to keep on the right track in the job. Also, knowing about fashion history can help me learn about possible "innovations" that may not be new ones and help recreate them so they are current and still have the influence from the past.    

Personally, i consider fashion fundamental, And without it's history there is nothing left in the fashion world. it might not be part of my personal past, but it is and will be part of my history in the future. Designer's lives and history of couture will always be there for me to look back at whenever i need to. They have created this world for us, and new icons will grow thanks to them and their experiences. All designers had or have something new to offer and its up to us to help get those names out there and make them become a part of history, so that later in life we can reflect on that and learn from what has been done.

Fashion history inspires me the way it has inspired many, designers give people the vibe and desire to enter this world. Most people in a point in their life where they have thought about or wanted to be in that environment, the one of the designer, and it feels so unreachable that people start to give up. But after learning about the lives of most designers and how they got to where they are now, it seems more of a realistic goal and not just an unreachable dream. Not anyone can do it, but if you have the talent and the desire to do it, the goals you set will become reality.

The designers that have inspired me the most, from the 1940's all the way to the 20th century are Pierre Balmain, Roberto Capucci, Paco Rabanne, and Kenzo. They are, to me the most inspiring figures of fashion because they have all made an impact in the fashion world, from the designer who claims creating the "new look" to a designer who works with metals and recyclables, one that mixes diverse cultures into one and even one that makes garments for art, and not wearable. They are all very different but have one thing in common, they have made an impact in fashion society and have created, with the help of many others, this wonderful world and its history. 

Kenzo

Born: Kenzo Takada in Kyoto,Japan on February 28, 1940. He was the son of hotel keepers and began his fashion career in Tokyo, designing patterns for a magazine. Kenzo started as a designer of "poor-boy-style skinny sweaters" which were thought of as "ingenious knits." During the 1960's he arrived to Paris and started off by selling sketches, and doing freelance work for several of Feraud's collections. In 1970 he opened his own boutique and decorated it with jungle patterns naming it "jungle jap" which portrayed a cultural diversity, for what he is mostly known for. Due to the lack of money in the beginning of his career, Kenzo created his first collection all from cotton, and much of it quilted and he also used photographic mannequins instead of real life regular models. This, to his surprise was considered innovative and also began a new trend. His inspirations at the time were different cultures and he believed mixing patterns from diverse cultures made the different cultures unite. Throughout time his designs have been widely distributed in the United States, in freestanding shops and in-store boutiques. Kenzo prefers to view fashion as an adventure of continuous creativity, besides anything else.  

Kizoa slideshow: kenzo - Slideshow

       "It pleases me when people say i have influence, but i am influenced by the world that says i influence it, the world i live in is my influence" states Kenzo. He has become an iconic figure for the fashion world because of his initiative and passion for creating diversity and integrity come together in his designs. He is one of the mos radical designers of his time and is considered a "wunderkind" and a celebrity from the 70's fashion. Mixing styles from all over the world and combining them into a peaceful internationalism, he has for more than twenty years become the most prominent traveler of fashion and also the most multicultural and syncretistic in the fashion world. In all of his designs he insists mainly on the diversity and compatibility of different styles, ethnicity and cultures from all around the world.

       Kenzo has always been innovative and an originator of fresh new ideas, which makes him an important fashion icon that will last throughout history and time. His designs were not directly influenced by past designers, but mainly by the American popular culture, paintings, calligraphy, and of course diversity. Traveling for influences, he believes just jeopardizes his imagination and his traveling. He is very much the prototype of the "young designer" the one with a sense of humor towards fashion and a lively curiosity for clothing itself, he creates a prodigious continuing talent. His color palettes have always been vibrant, filled with different color combinations, reflecting diverse ethnicity and different patterns. His work very much reflects the zeitgeist from the internet era because he is very innovative and he has created an ability to digest many style traits and achieve powerful composites.

His art and life have captured the popular imagination of fashion and innovation. His sense of exuberance, and creativity has marked Kenzo for more than two decades. He has influenced fashion over all because of his great use of cultural diversity in his garments. In the 90's his company became  LVMH's (Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton) second largest fashion house after Louis Vuitton itself. And even after his retirement Kenzo brand continues to grow, making in 2001 its very own children line, he says "if anyone is willing to pay $1,000 for a suit, they wont mind buying 3-4 items from the same brand for their children." He has brought initiative and global creativity to the fashion world and has left for us the thought of combining cultures to make diversity something positve for new designers to think about. 

Martin, Richard and Lisa Groshong “Kenzo” gale power search. 2002. 25 August 2011 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=fashionidm&tabID=T001&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE|CX3401400235&&docId=GALE|CX3401400235&docType=GALE&role>

Price, Holly, and Anne Stegmeyer Who's who in fashion fifth edition New York, NY: Fairchild books, 2010

     

Paco Rabanne

 

                           

Born: Francisco Rabaneada Cuervo in San Sebastian,Spain on the 18th of February 1934.  As a young boy his family was obligated to leave Spain and re start, with his mother, their life in France because of the execution of his father by Francisco Franco's troops. after that he decided to study architecture. As a side job to pay for his schooling, he decided to use his drawing skills and go on and enter the world of fashion in the 1950's. Paco Rabanne first became known as "Franck Rabanne" and later changed his name to his actual designer name "Paco Rabanne."  During the late 1950's and 1960's he started to be influenced by the "space race" and "futuristic technology". He created garments that seemed to be ahead of its time and was innovative and non-conformist. He was also inspired by the traditions of the dadaist and followed their steps in recycling ready-mades, which was his main influence for all of his designs. Rabanne was known for creating pieces of clothing with unusual materials such as aluminum, metals, wood,  laser discs, coconut and later on wire, paper, plastic and many other materials as seen in his first collection "twelve unwearable dresses", which broke the rules of regular couture clothing. Paco Rabanne opened his own couture house  in Paris during the year 1966. Even though his designs were radical, impacting and extravagant, they failed to make profit and he was obligated to start manufacturing ready to wear and licensing agreements from what he successfully gained profit, mostly from licensing fragrances.

Kizoa slideshow: rabanne - Slideshow

       "I used strange materials, that's how i stood out from others" Rabanne stated. That's what makes him so iconic, his manifesto was such a revolution, everybody will remember him in the fashion world as a master of unusual materials. Rabanne was the first couturier to use music in fashion shows, he was the first to have Black girls, Asians, and models from all around the world, and was the first one to use metal, plastic, and paper, or so he claimed. Rabanne's work was characterized by a rejection of traditional techniques and was instead in favor of the exploration of unusual materials and methods of assemblage. His over sized Rhodoi jewelry in various forms and bright colors brought him his first major success, and established one of the principles of his style. He was also greatly recognized for creating sculptural dresses in unconventional, unwearable materials which broke the rules and were greatly revolutionary for the fashion world.Rabanne helped introduce new technologies and push fashion forward forcing designers and consumers to reexamine and re-think about the concept of Haute Couture.

       Of course, like many other young designers he was influenced by a greater designer, Cristobal Balenciaga, for whom his mother had worked with as a seamstress when they still lived in Spain, but In the 1960's His main influences as a young designer portrayed contemporary artists, the well known space race, and futuristic technology. He admired the contemporary artists because they had given up the traditional media of paint and canvas and gone further in their imagination and creativity for their pieces of art. And the space race and his use of futuristic technology became part of his zeitgeist. Which helped him into being considered revolutionary and "ahead of the times." 

Paco Rabanne has left for the fashion world great memories, when you think of his designs and what he used his super sized collars fashioned out of chain, and his metal handbags for example, you think of the now cravings for "Eye catching" accesories, the layers of necklaces and many other accessories come to mind. Rabanne influenced young designers such as Cristophe Decarinin and his aesthetic and fever for metallurgy. This designer created a lasting metal signature, which remind everyone that uses it now about the revolutionary designer Paco Rabanne. His artistic and ideological perspective is also left as a "signature" of his work and as he claimed, many great designers are now dead, but not he, and so maybe in the future this innovative designer may plan a comeback to the fashion world, his world.

 works cited:

Kamitsis, Lydia “Rabanne, Paco” Gale power search Gale 2005. 24 August 2011 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=fashionidm&tabID=T001&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE|CX3427500474&&docId=GALE|CX3427500474&docType=GALE&role>

Kellogg Ann T., Amy T. Peterson, Stefani Bay, and Natalie Swindell “Rabanne, Paco(Francisco rabaneda cuervo)”  Gale power search   2002. 24 August 2011. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=fashionidm&tabID=T001&searchId=R2&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=2&contentSet=GALE|CX2884900133&&docId=GALE|CX2884900133&docType=GALE&role>

Tang, Wing Sze and Juliette Baxter “masters OF DESIGN(the metal master: Paco Rabanne)” EBSCOhost Oct2010, 24 August 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=123&sid=9a6d19f8-64a9-4653-b985-668948ab63a2%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=53945539>

Roberto Capucci

Born: Roberto Capucci on December 2nd 1929 in Rome, Italy. He was a descendant of a wealthy Roman family. Capucci attended the Liceo artistico and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma and was undecided about becoming an architect or a film director. He started working as a young boy and opened his first atelier when he was younger than 20. Which is where he received his nickname of the "boy wonder." Roberto Capucci was greatly influenced by futurism, rationalism and its focus on shape, and pop art. He distanced himself extremely from ready-to-wear garments because he believed its logic of mass production was not in his style and necessity for his creative needs. Capucci payed a lot of attention to the details of garments and sometimes prepared more than a thousand sketches, all in black and white so that the color would not be a direct influence to the design. he was also greatly influenced by his experience in costume design and believed it was a fundamental influence in his later artistic development. He opened his first atelier in 1950and was the first Italian to receive the "Fashion Oscar" in 1958. In 1956 was said to be the best Italian fashion designer by the international press. And was the first Italian designer to be asked to launch a perfume in France.

Kizoa slideshow: capucci - Slideshow

         Greatly associated with Haute Couture and experimentation with structure, Roberto Capucci thought of himself as an artist, and disliked the thought of being called a designer to what once he said "I don't consider myself a tailor or a designer but an artisan looking for ways of creating, looking for ways to express a fabric to use it as a sculptor uses clay". The reasons this "artist" is iconic in fashion history is because of the way his creations portray intrinsic beauty and uniqueness. He gained a reputation of a master of silhouette and color, followed and blended the abstract shapes of geometry with the shapes inspired by pure nature and approached his work as an artist pleating and manipulating fabric into sculptural forms. He was known for being a sculptor of silk and a contrast in fashion. Capucci believed in "Geometry, form, naturalism, and botany" and was opposed to allowing any kind of "supermodel" to wear his garments. He believed they obscured the garments as well as any other aspects of contemporary fashion. Instead, he allowed opera singers, princesses,wives of presidents and debutantes from Roman aristocracy also called "capuccine" to wear his creations for the public.

       He believed a sculptural and architectural body inhabits objects that blur the boundaries between art and fashion. And even though some of his garments were worn, most of them rarely seemed to have dressing as their main goal and were not intended to be worn, but instead shown.Capucci was also the first to use the "optical technique" and was an outsider to fashion business. Most of his designs promoted the 50's and 60's flare which was extremely popular at that time. And his greatest influence to fashion history is his collection of angular clothing and his artistic creations. His designs were influenced mostly by architecture and 20th century artistic movements, but also had his influence from past designers like Giovanni Batista Giorgini of whom he worked for when he first presented his designs in Florence,1951 and whom he was greatly supported by. Before opening his atelier, he designed dresses for Giorginni's wife and daughter to model during one of his shows, and all buyers went wild with the talent in the young boy.


The "box look"by the end of the 1950's is one of many lasting signature silhouettes created by this designer.In the 1980's he decided to break free of the regular runway and decided to show his work only once a year, often showing in museums and always in a different city from which he created his inspiration for that particular showing. He was thought of as the "Michelangelo of cloth" and in 2003 influenced designers such as Bernard Wilhem, Sybilla, and Tara Subkoff to make a ready to wear line with his name, these designers now have access to an archive of nearly 30,000 designs all by Capucci and these designers use those in the making of the garments as an influence.The signature "box look" silhouette created by Capucci is still highly remembered in fashion and left for the fashion world his impeccable reputation of beauty, uniqueness and mastery of silhouette and color. His creations are still greatly recognized and are shown in leading museums worldwide.

Gillion, Valerie. “Italian fashion.” Berg fashion library. Berg publishers 2010. 24 August 2011 <http://www.bergfashionlibrary.com/view/bazf/bazf00323.xml?q=roberto%20capucci&isfuzzy=no#highlightAnchor >

  Price, Holly, and Anne Stegmeyer Who's who in fashion fifth edition New York, NY: Fairchild books, 2010

Reinach, Simona Segre “Capucci, Roberto” Gale power search.  Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005. 24 August 2011<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=fashionidm&tabID=T001&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE|CX3427500111&&docId=GALE|CX3427500111&docType=GALE&role> 

Updike, David. “Roberto Capucci” Ebsco Host . 24 August 2011 <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=11&sid=13ea42f4-8f7a-4aa4-9a3d-2f8ad05367e3%40sessionmgr12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=60036963>

Pierre Balmain

       Born: Pierre Alexander Claudius Balmain in St Jean-de-Maurienne, France May 18, 1914
As a young child Pierre Balmain experienced a great loss, the death of his father at age 7. He was an only child and after that was raised by his mother who ran a fashion boutique. He studied Architecture and at age 20 started working for Captain Edward Molyneux who advised him to devote himself to dress design, Balmain took the advice and worked for him as assistant designer for the  Molyneux house for five years. After that he was called into the army and in 1940 returned to France to work with Lucien Lelong where he worked side by side with Christian Dior until 1945. That same year he opened his own couture house "Maison Balmain". Pierre Balmain of course was greatly influenced by Molyneux and shared similar thoughts and experiences with Dior. Although Dior was credited with the "new look" Balmain credited himself and cited it in his first collection of 1945 as evidence it met all the requirements of a the new look: a small waist, high bust, rounded hips, and long full skirts. He was credited for the new look by critics along with other designers but Dior was the only one fully credited for creating the look.

Kizoa slideshow: balmain - Slideshow

       This designer became an icon because of his impeccable construction and simple elegance in each of his designs. He believed in simplicity and detested excessive ornamentation in making garments spectacular he thought everyone had to "keep to the basic principles of fashion..." that way they would "...always be in harmony with the latest trends without falling prey to them."  He wanted to beautify the world as an architect and he took his knowledge to influence on his later designs. He also believed "nothing is more important in a dress than its construction." Balmain is truly a fashion icon he made a great impact on young new designers and also contributed in reviving french haute couture after World War I. He promoted that French Couture defined the ideal of elegance and refinement.

       His standards of elegance were so high that he became one of few French couturiers to design for theatre, ballet, cinema, and even royalty. These standards were later regarded in the world of couture by many designers. Pierre Balmain of course had his own previous designer influences, most of them coming from his first job with designer Edward Molyneux, Balmain defined him as a true creator and learned from him about finding elegance in simplicity, making his influences evident in later designs under his own couture house. This designer reflects the zeitgeist of time based on the simplicity of his designs making it supporting during the war, although later contradicting it with the "new look." but even though he adopted or "created" that look his designs were always elegant and of course relevant to his time.

Oscar De la Renta

       Pierre Balmain popularized and was credited with creating the stole as an accessory for day and evening wear leaving it as a trend for many special occasion wear and influencing other designers. His basic silhouette was slim for the day and full skirted for evenings. He created a lasting silhouette which was very feminine, longer bell shaped higher bust lines, narrow shoulders and smaller waist reflecting of course on the "new look." Balmain is also greatly remembered for his use of embroidered fabrics for evening wear. This designer has left a great impact on young new designers for example Oscar de la Renta, who took over in 1993. De la Renta uses Balmain's silhouettes and designs as an influence for his own present designs. Pierre Balmain left for everyone the idea of elegance in couture fashion. Influences on present fashion from this designer include of course the stole and the elegance and femininity of couture clothing for women.

Works Cited

Major, John S. "Balmain, Pierre." Berg fashion library. Berg Publishers 2010. 23 August 2011  <http://www.bergfashionlibrary.com/view/bazf/bazf00052.xml?q=pierre%20balmain&  isfuzzy=no#highlightAnchor>  

 Price, Holly, and Anne Stegmeyer Who's who in fashion fifth edition New York, NY: Fairchild books, 2010
 

Seaman, Margo, and Nelly Rhodes. "Balmain, Pierre." Contemporary Fashion. Ed. Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf. 2nd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 2002. 41-44. Gale Power Search. Web. 24 Aug. 2011. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3401400039&v=2.1&u=fashionidm&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w >   

The house of Balmain "The history of a great couturier." Balmain 2009-2010. 23 August 2011. <http://www.balmain.com/en/histoire-maison-de-couture-balmain/>