This book is very inspiring to my whole intention for this blog. Although the essays in this book speak mostly about western architecture and its relationship to western fashion, the theories are still applicable.The Fashion of Architecture by Bradley Quinn
This is the book which was referenced in yesterday's posting:
"Architecture is making its presence felt in cutting-edge fashion. The pliable metals, membrane structures, lightweight glasses and plastics used in building construction are creeping onto the catwalk. As they do so, their impact on recent textile developments has produced fabrics that enable clothing to act as individual climate-controlled environments that can exchange information with embedded sensors, resulting in wearable ‘dwellings’ that act as both shelter and clothing. At the same time, architects are borrowing the techniques of pleating, stapling, cutting and draping from traditional tailoring to design buildings that are flexible, interactive, inflatable and even portable."
WARNING: This post may offend some people. The intention is only to inspire thought and provoke comments regarding the theory of the veil.
In the book The Fashion of Architecture by Bradley Quinn, the work of Hussein Chalayan was featured discussing the concept of sensuality and its association with revealing and concealing the body.
Here is a segment from the book (p. 22-23):
"Exploring the sensuality associated with revealing and concealing the body, fashion innovator Huseein Chalayan has even placed his catwalk audience under surveillance. In 1997 he sent models onto the catwalk wearing black chadors of varying lengths and nothing else, exploring the capacity of traditional Islamic dress to define and de-individuate the body by concealing the wearer's identity. The shortest chador exposed the model's body from the navel downward, while another model roamed the catwalk in only a yashmak. Both enabled the wearers to gauge the audience's reactions while remaining anonymous to the onlookers.
An expert on the social significance of veiling, Fadwa El Guindi points out that, 'dress form and behavior...are not accompanied by withdrawal, seclusion, or segregation'. With vision and mobility among the essential concerns of Islamic dress, the sense of privacy afforded by veiling is comparable to the refuge of a building, yet allows the wearer to wander freely.
Chalayan's inversion connects contemporary modes of visuality with this long tradition, demonstrating this power that masking can provide for a wearer who wishes to see and yet remain unseen."
***the picture was edited in order to avoid posting inappropriate nudity on this site.
