Essays

On Dress and Adornment

I recall my mother’s consternation: ‘You’re not going out in that, are you?’ As a spirited teenager with a leaning towards the bohemian side of life, my wardrobe reflected a certain aspiration for creative individuality to which all art students seem to aspire. Today, with my theorist’s hat on, I suspect my then choice of dress would be viewed in a postmodernist context as a meld of historical quotations and stylistic parodies. Well, that was part of what I hoped for in my combination of secondhand-shop discoveries and homemade attire. It was not that I was going out showing too much leg or cleavage, nor revealing a dirty bra strap (definite sins against propriety for women of my mother’s ilk), but rather that my clothes mismatched and my accessories were incompatible. There were appropriate tenets to follow: ‘blue and green should never be seen’; ‘your shoes, gloves and handbag should always match’; ‘jewellery should be understated for daywear’; ‘women should always wear a hat’ and a raft of other versions of June Dally Watkins’ dress codes and etiquette tips.

Objects Undefined

Photo by Penny Lane

Model: Sarah Pauley @ Viviens Model Management.

Photo copyright of WA Musuem

With such guidelines to follow, women of my mother’s generation could be assured of looking suitably stylish and avoiding the dreaded fashion faux pas. A well-dressed woman was a statement, an indication that she was well brought up and came from a good home. As Anne Summers notes:

If a woman did not know how to put together an ensemble — hat, gloves, coat, shoes, dress — in which every item looked as if it had been designed to go with every other, severe doubt was cast upon her fitness to go out and grapple with the world on behalf of her husband and children.¹

Indeed, although the fabric of the frock, the height of the hemline and the depth of the décolletage may change over time, this adherence to the codes of fashion is a reflection of the fit between an individual body and society. A person’s manner of dress, the garments in which they clothe their bodies, and the accessories with which they adorn themselves provide indicators for those around them; signs as to the wearer’s character and demeanour: whether, in fact, they are fit to be seen in public.

These assumptions are made with relative ease, especially when the codes of behaviour, desirable dress and fashion standards are inculcated through various forms of mass media. Magazines, television, cinema, You Tube, fashion blogs, even those ubiquitous junk-mail catalogues, all furnish us with clues about the appropriate style for every occasion: what’s in, what’s passé, what the fashionable set is wearing. From a relatively young age we learn to read these codes, negotiate their meanings and develop a sense of style in response, whether or not we conform or decide to rebel and set our own individual look. Such is the case for the artists and designers in this exhibition, who question the rules that guide the conventions of dress. They look beyond the garment into a realm of possibilities and creative imaginings. Much of their work disrupts conservative modes of attire and questions the boundaries of what constitutes dress or adornment.

In a playful examination of jewellery, Sophie Kyron ventures beyond conventional understandings of what a necklace or a brooch might be to consider the nature of body adornment. Through her work she opens up for us a trinket box full of nostalgia and reverie. We are enticed into the imaginary world of childhood dressing-up games where there are no such things as style guides or fashion taboos. Like an eight year old rummaging through our grandmother’s treasure trove, we are at liberty to thrill in the sparkle against the body and to indulge in the joyful exuberance of ornamentation. There is an illicit pleasure in this jewelled abundance. Sophie’s necklaces are like aprons of glamour that cover our ordinary selves and transport us from the humdrum of everyday life into the realms of faerie and fancy. Let’s face it, at some stage in their life every girl craves to be a glamour queen or a fairy princess, and Sophie’s work gives the wearer that imaginative opportunity. In adorning our bodies with her jewellery, we are able to imagine ourselves as that eight year old again, dazzling the world with our beguiling charm

Caged in, 2010.

Photos by Penny Lane.

Model: Sarah Pauley @ Viviens Model Management

Photo copyright of WA Musuem

While Sophie offers us the chance to reengage with our inner child through a playful encounter with her jewellery, by contrast, Kathryn Bell explores a different aspect of imagination and reality in which her journeys into the memories of childhood have an adult twist. A dark humour pervades her work. Her forms are shape-shifters, both literally and figuratively. In them she questions the established boundaries of millinery. Her hats are more than just simple accessories designed to complement an outfit. Instead they act like kinetic sculptures for the head that are activated by the wearer’s movements. It is as though the wearer’s dreams and imaginings are actualised in form; a three-dimensional thought bubble revealing the inner workings of the mind. With these works, the codes of behaviour, deportment and what is appropriate to say or do in public are called into question. Kathryn shows us that a woman in a hat has the potential to make a statement beyond what is simply considered stylish; that she can be transformed into a person to be reckoned with and whose ideas count.

The licence to play with forms, materials and ideas is taken even further in the work of Jocelyn Tan. Whereas both Sophie and Kathryn have couture pieces ready to adorn our bodies for that special occasion, Jocelyn encourages the wearer to invent the outfit themselves. In exploring the field beyond garment, she presents a collection of elements that are no longer bound by usual descriptors such as necklace, bracelet, belt, collar or cuff. Conceived as components, these forms are like words in a sentence that can change in meaning depending on where, and alongside what, they are placed. With her work, the wearer is given liberty to mix and match, to create their own prêt-à-porter. Importantly, in this schema there are no rules. Jocelyn leaves it solely to the imagination and daring of the wearer to define the parameters of what an accessory or garment might be. No longer constrained by the dictates of conventional dress, the wearer is free to customise fashion, subvert the established codes of style and create their own sense of panache and elegance.

The materials from which Jocelyn creates her pieces are important as they not only afford her creative opportunities but also enable the wearer to experience textures, shapes and forms in new and often unexpected ways.

Geometry

Photos by Penny Lane.

Model: Sarah Pauley @ Viviens Model Management.

Photo copyright of WA Musuem

Similarly for Alister Yiap, the innovative use of materials provides the springboard for his exploration of the boundaries between dress and adornment. Although acrylic has been in use in the fashion accessory market for some time, Alister usurps its conventional usage and extends its possibilities beyond mere jewellery into the form of contemporary wearable art that enables the clothed body to be seen in a new light. Like Jocelyn, Alister is not limited by standard terminology or normal pattern-making techniques. His pieces become combinations of collars, bodices, corsets, armlets and ruffs. In a form of postmodern revolutionary dress, these works echo historical costume design and imagine futuristic science-fiction attire. In so doing he creates items beyond garments. His work sits in spaces between dress and adornment, neither one nor the other but a combination of both. It is as though these objects act not only as a frame to display the body but also enable the wearer to activate these shapes in such a way that their body decorates the form. Thus, through his creative exploration of ornamentation Alister offers the wearer a fresh approach to fashioning themselves.

If, as my mother’s generation believed, the right pair of shoes highlights the taste and upbringing of the wearer, then Zomp throws this traditional lore into a new era of interpretation. Inspired by bespoke design traditions, Zomp raises questions about the role and function of shoes as well as what
constitutes stylish footwear. Like all the artists and designers in this exhibition, their work is informed by an original approach to materials, production techniques and inventive solutions. Handcrafted with care and attention to detailing, each pair of shoes functions both as wearable objects and as works of art. These shoes are not only made for walking; they are made for admiring. Through predicating their work on an exploration of beauty, understood through form as well as decoration, Zomp highlights a seamless transition between dress, adornment, functionality and ornamentation.

All the artists and designers in this exhibition present works which challenge the established standards of clothing and attire. Through their imaginative play with materials and forms, they investigate our traditional understandings of how, and with what, we adorn our bodies. Not content with making run-of-the-mill marketable commodities, they have considered a world beyond garment, where ideas and objects have endless possibilities. It is a place where these artists and designers can reveal the full extent of their innovative approaches to dress and adornment, and one in which the wearer has the opportunity to abandon their mother’s favourite maxims about modes of attire. Indeed, this exhibition exhorts you with: ‘I hope you will go out in that!’

References

• Summers, A. 'On Begging to be a Bridesmaid in a Ballerina Dress: Some Meanings of British Fashion in the 1950's' in History Workshop Journal, June 44 (downloaded from http://hwj.oxfordjournals.org on 28.4.2010).

• 1. Summers, 1997; 299.