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敬请期待中文版  Picture credit: Getty Zaha Hadid, sitting in Issey Miyake pleats that followedthe flow of her ample figure, always had a twist of her fleshy lips- her signature smile - when I saw her in fashion's front rows. Herdeath at age 65 seems an unfathomable loss for someone who was sofar ahead of the curve. Her architectural skills were late comingto fruition, because she had to wait for the digital world to catchup, and it feels as though she still had so much toachieve.  ZahaHadid's Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul Picture credit: DDP When I stood in front of the DDP building in Seoul, I wasstunned by the rounded lines that were not only her trademark, butan example of her fervent imagination. Like a human body or themountains surrounding the Korean city, the shapes swooped, rose andfell.  ZahaHadid's Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul Picture credit: DDP  ZahaHadid's Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul was the location for the"Esprit Dior" Exhibition Picture credit: Jeong Yi Just as she has left us, I am seeing similar techniques of3D creation creeping timidly into fashion. From artist and designerIris Van Herpen and from less poetic, but stalwart, creatives, anew world is approaching where a garment is honed digitally to thebody. You do not fit into a garment. It adapts via a piece ofsoftware to your shape. Did Hedi Slimane, in his four years at Yves Saint Laurent,explore any of the inventive new techniques that may well in this21st century change the definition of what clothing is, either inits plain and practical or its fashion elements? I don't think so -unless you count the extraordinary lights and music installationsfor the Paris shows.  HediSlimane's last collection for Saint Laurent A/W 2016 Picture credit: SaintLaurent  HediSlimane's last collection for Saint Laurent A/W 2016 Picture credit: SaintLaurent Yet the drama that is surrounding Hedi's recentlyannounced departure is being treated in the fashion world as thoughit were the death - or at least the natural end - of somethinginfinitely precious.  HediSlimane and Yves Saint Laurent in 2001 at the Christian DiorMenswear show autumn/winter 2001/02 inParis Picture credit: Getty  HediSlimane and Pierre Berge, Yves Saint Laurent's partner, in 2002 ata Dior show in Paris Picture credit: Getty Perhaps because it follows the chosen departure ofRaf Simons as creative director at Christian Dior and theforced ending of the career of Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, Hedi'sdecision to leave the brand that he was rebuilding after the deathof its founder eight years ago, is being seen as a definingmoment.  LadyGaga wearing A/W16 Saint Laurent for her 30th birthdayparty Picture credit: Saint Laurent  DonatellaVersace, Baz Luhrmann and Hedi Slimane in 2006 at Sir Elton John'sOscar party Picture credit: Getty But what seems significant to me is that two company heads- Shaw-Lan Wang, the owner of Lanvin, and Francois-Henri Pinault,CEO of YSL's owner Kering, spoke of their respective designers asconcluding a "chapter" for the brand. Elbaz did not get muchgratitude for his 15 years modernising Lanvin. He was merelythanked for "the chapter he has written in the house's over 125year history". "What Yves Saint Laurent has achieved over the past fouryears represents a unique chapter in the history of the House,"said Pinault, adding that he was grateful to Hedi and his team for"having set the path... which will grant longevity to the legendarybrand". The tenures of the creative directors are getting shorterand shorter. Designers come in; (Belgian Anthony Vaccarello,currently at Versus Versace is rumoured to be the next at YSL) andthen they leave. Only the brand is a fixture. How different was the slow burn of Zaha Hadid's talent: along time passed between the period when she was dismissed as a"paper architect" and the actual creations of the millennial years,but she never lost her belief that she could mesh her dreams withhigh-tech engineering. The Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art inCincinnati, Ohio in 2003 was the first time that her 3D cubistpuzzle became recognisable as a building. I remember lookingat the great sweep of the MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Art in Romein 2009, wondering at the vision and the realisation. Fashion is an applied art that does not try to do muchmore than enhance the body with its covering and reflect a momentin time. Although I would argue that in a small way a greatdesigner can become an artist - as in the Yves Saint Laurent 1965dress inspired by Piet Mondrian, in which the abstract intersectingblocks of primary colour from the artist's work were cut in silkcrêpe de chine and stitched to fit the body line.  TheMondrian dress sits in a display amongst many archive YSL looks atthe exhibition last year of "Yves Saint Laurent: Style is Eternal"at the Bowes Museum, England Picture credit: Andy Barnham Who in the fashion world pushes the technical boundariesof the art of cloth today - outside of Rei Kawakubo of Comme desGarçons, maybe Miyake and a scattering of otherinventors Karl Lagerfeld understood the extreme designs of the firstfemale architect to win the Pritzker prize in 2004. He commissionedHadid to create a mobile contemporary art container for Chanel in2008. The sculptural pavilion, designed for travel, was anexhibition and event space using continuous arches in sequencetowards a central courtyard. It travelled to Hong Kong, Tokyo andNew York over a two-year span.  ZahaHadid and Karl Lagerfeld during the Press Conference in Venice,Italy for the launch of the Mobile Art Chanel Contemporary ArtContainer Picture credit: Getty Zaha Hadid did have fashion connections. She produced acollection of shoes with Rem D Koolhaas, the nephew of architectRem Koolhaas, who had been Hadid's original professor. What shecreated in 2013 for United Nudes were shoes that were bothfuturistic and ergonomic - mixing her dynamic architecturallanguage with a sense of purposeful movement. They can be boughtfor £1,300 at unitednude.com.  ZahaHadid's United Nude shoes Picture credit: Getty My dream would have been for Zaha Hadid to take a year outfrom designing the extraordinarily creative buildings that won suchdeserved international awards and made her a global "STARchitect".She could have put that technical mastery and futuristic visioninto designing what we would be wearing when the world finallycaught up with her. (责任编辑：admin) |