I recently read an op-ed piece in The New York Times by David Brooks
about the Revolt of the Masses which gave some context to the political
shit-storm that's going on in the UK, the US and further afield too I
suppose.
The working classes are repressed and
skint and are finally using the vote to make their voices heard and to take a
stance against the intellectual elite and a world where manual labor is looked down upon
while the suits are celebrated and rewarded, where instant vapid celebrity is valued
over craft and hard work.
Which wouldn't generally
provide a segue in to the very elite world of couture but the collection
Viktor and Rolf presented was a celebration of the beauty of something
clearly made by human hands. Strange, magical and idiocyncratic with a
slight tinge of "fin de siecle" about it. As if ragged ghosts from the
French revolution had wrapped themselves around the models just as they
stepped on to the runway.
Couture is one of the
last reaches of fashion where hands do all the work. The "petites mains"
of the work rooms are the skilled builders who help the designer
achieve their vision, they bring it to life and in this instance they
breathed life back in to disused fabrics and clothes to create fresh
beauty.
Re-birth. Re-naissance. Re-volt. Vive la revolution!
