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Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
- Steve Jobs

Understanding Design & Aesthetics

History of Design & Fashion Patricia Sumod

Session 1
References :
- Objects of Design: Design and Society since 1750 By: Adrian Forty
- Understanding Aesthetics (pgs. 3-20 & 159-226)
- Culture and Society By: Raymond Williams
- Encyclopedia: Articles on the Artist, Craftsman and Designer
- Design History: A Student’s Handbook Edited by: H. Conway 1987
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Patricia Sumod
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Understanding Aesthetics Patricia Sumod

• Art and design were more closely tied at the turn of the
twentieth century than they are today. Artists did not see
the difference between creating an original work of art, such as a
painting, and designing a textile pattern that would be
reproduced many times over. Each was a valid creative act in
their eyes.

• The famous French couturier Paul Poiret moved in artistic

circles, employed Parisian artists, and collected their work. He
went to art galleries and showed his artistic sensibilities by
preferring Impressionist paintings at a time when they were new
and unappreciated by the public at large. Poiret became very
interested in modern art and said, "I have always liked
painters. It seems to me that we are in the same trade
and that they are my colleagues.“

• The Fauvist painter Francis Picabia was his friend, and they
shared a love of bright color with other painters Maurice An illustration of Paul Poiret’s designs. In 1908
Vlaminck and Andre Derain, whom he knew from sailing and 1911, Poiret commissioned respectively the
excursions on the Seine in Chatou. Among other artists whose graphic artists Paul Iribe and Georges Lepape to
create illustrations of his dresses that were put
work he collected were Picasso, Matisse, Dufy, Rouault, and
together in catalogues offered to Poiret’s clients.
Utrillo. The idea was part of the new methods of
marketing and promotion adopted by Poiret.
• Poiret also loved the theater and throughout his career
designed costumes for the theater that served as a
springboard for his couture designs. He was famous for
his parties, elaborate costume dramas with decorations
by modern artists.
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Understanding Aesthetics Patricia Sumod

 Poiret’s theatrical background explains his great interest

in the Ballet Russes, whose first appearance in Paris in
1909 impressed Poiret so much. With their colorful
designs by Leon Bakst, echoing Russian peasant art, the
costumes and sets expressed for Poiret not only the
exoticism celebrated by painters like Picasso, but the
appeal of spontaneity, a concept at the heart of much
modern art. Immediately he began including
"oriental" motifs in his dress designs.

 The fashion press employed fine artists to illustrate the

designs of the day. A new technique in printing
allowed fashion illustrators to show broad,
abstract expanses of bright color and a simple
line. Poiret realized its potential from the beginning
and employed printmaker Paul Iribe to illustrate his
radically simplified gowns.

 Poiret was only the best known and best Thousand and Second Night was influenced by
documented of couturiers with connections to Diaghilev's Scheherazade the costumes for which
the art world. Many other couturiers in the first half were designed by Leon Bakst.
of the twentieth century were not only collectors, but
also friends of artists. Some collaborated with modern
artists in the design of couture or in other artistic
projects, especially for ballet and the stage.
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Understanding Aesthetics Patricia Sumod

 The interest of artists in fashion was not restricted to France. From

the artists of the Glasgow School in the nineteenth century, to the
Russian Constructivists, Bakst, the Wiener Werkstatte, many
participated in other aspects of art and design–including
illustration, theater design, decorative arts, and even advertising
art. Couturiers traditionally participated in events that showcased
the decorative arts, taking part in international expositions since the
first appearance of the designer Charles Worth at the Crystal Palace
Exhibition in London in 1851. Poiret belonged to the Société des
Artistes Décorateurs, founded in 1901 for the promotion and display
of modern French art.

 Through the first half of the twentieth century, fashion design

tracked and echoed trends in modern art. The developing aesthetic
of modernism can be followed in the progression of fashion design The French couturier Paul Poiret
from the heavily corseted S-curved silhouettes that reflected Art frequently found inspiration in
the Orient, creating this “Harem”
Nouveau interpretation of the female form early in the century to evening ensemble in 1910
the first uncorseted, tubular, simplified silhouette that arrived before
the First World War and continued into the 1920s, to the
streamlined, body-hugging dresses of the 1930s.

 Designers in the early years of the century could choose fabrics with designs from the stylized
organic motifs of Art Nouveau or the flat, abstract designs of the Vienna Secession movement–both
styles having originated in the 1890s. Cubist painters, whose canvases presented greatly abstracted
objects to a shocked world, influenced fashion silhouettes. Tubular dresses and rounded cloche hats
turned women’s bodies into geometric shapes that echoed those found in modern paintings.
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Understanding Aesthetics Patricia Sumod

 The chemise dresses of the early 20s were a perfect foil for surface design. Taking
advantage of the plain tubular shape as a painter’s canvas, each garment could be highly decorated
with beading and ornamentation. Underlying this would be a textile pattern based on Japanese,
Egyptian, Persian, or Viennese design.

 In the late 1920s, a new streamlined design aesthetic dubbed Moderne (now known
as Art Deco) combined Cubism’s geometric base with graceful embellishments. Once
again, textile patterns and fashion design echoed the trend. Shiny fabrics only enhanced the
connection with the "speed" of modern life–and art.

 The dresses, coats, bathing suits, and evening wraps found in the Tirocchi shop (Laura Tirocchi,
designer), when placed chronologically, shows not only the changing silhouette of fashion, but also
reflected the fact that fashion was part of aesthetics of its time. From the chemise and cloche
of the 1920s, echoing Cubist concerns, to the evening dresses of the 1930s, with the
body-skimming silhouettes and reflective surfaces, each garment has a particular
relationship to the art of its time.

 The designers of these garments–and by extension Anna and Laura Tirocchi and their clientele–
were reflecting the developing aesthetic of the early twentieth century and asking the question,
"What does it mean to be modern?" The Twentieth Century felt "new" to people. Advances in
technology increased the speed of life and the speed of change. Artists and designers
responded to this new age with their work. The Tirocchis and their customers
watched modern trends with interest, and did their best to wrap themselves in
clothes of a new age.
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Is fashion an Art Movement ? Patricia Sumod

Excerpt : Zandra Rhodes

 “I think fashion is an art form - you might call it

decorative or applied art as opposed to fine art, but
what's the distinction? Because the same amount of
artistic expression goes into clothes, a piece of
pottery or a painting. I've founded a museum on the
basis that I think it's an artistic form that should be
remembered. I think fashion galleries - such as the
one at the V&A and the one at the Metropolitan in
New York - are very relevant.

 Fashion can tell you what people wore at a certain

period just as pottery can tell you what their tea
parties were like. I don't think the fact that these
things were designed to be practical distinguishes
them from fine art. You could say a painting is
designed to go on the wall, but if it were made as a
fresco, where it was part of the wall, would you say it
was not art because it was practical?
 Fine art at the moment is no longer particularly concerned with beauty,
so you could say that fashion - which is always about a concept of beauty,
whether or not everyone agrees on the concept - is more relevant, more
artistic, than the garbage they put out as conceptual. If you look at it that
way, fine art may go by the wayside, and fashion, which has a bit more
effort put into it, will take over.
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Is fashion an Art Movement ? Patricia Sumod

 Some designers are directly influenced by fine art - a lot of

Bill Gibb's things were influenced by the slashed panels in
dresses in, say, Flemish paintings. I myself once designed
something called the Venus dress which was somewhat
influenced by Botticelli, though I haven't really gone too
much in that direction. But when I see my clothes in my
museum I don't feel any differently from how I felt about Bill Gibb design
them at the time - I see that I believed in what I did with commissioned by Twiggy
them, that they were the right thing to do. for the Los Angeles
premiere of The
 Ossie Clark (on next slide) would have argued that fashion Boyfriend, 1971 /
Photograph Justin de
was art - he definitely thought his contribution was Villeneuve
worthwhile, and his clothes were being shown in museums
even at the time. He certainly would have expected them
to be in museums now.”

 When Zandra Rhodes stitched scissoring seams onto her

dresses in 1967, she unknowingly kicked off the
deconstructionist fashion movement that would
dominate the 90s. Thirty years later Versace proved that
Liz Hurley’s dress could be fastened by nothing but a Bill Gibb's hippie-inspired
handful of safety pins, and Jean-Paul Gaultier put a pair of outfit for the Baccarat label
was proclaimed 'Dress of the
cones on Madonna.
Year' in 1970 / Photograph
by Mike Davidson
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Patricia Sumod

• Endlessly innovative, Ossie Clark

brought street style to London’s

most fashionable people. A ‘master

cutter’, he was also a celebrity in

his own right, numbering among

his friends David Hockney, Patrick

Proctor, Mick and Bianca Jagger,

Patti Boyd and George Harrison. His

collaboration with his wife, textile

designer Celia Birtwell, saw the

blossoming of a new young and

exciting era for British fashion.

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Understanding Aesthetics Patricia Sumod

Importance of Aesthetic Experience

• If you walk down any shopping mall, you are likely to find a music shop, a candy or
cookie shop, a cosmetics and perfume shop, and a sportswear shop. What do they all
have in common?
• They all sell products where pleasurable experiences are of primary importance in
purchase of the products.

• Cosmetics beautify the look and feel of the skin and fragrance fills the air around the
wearer with pleasurable, emotion arousing particles. A consumer may purchase a jacket
for its warmth. However, the decision to purchase a jacket will be affected by
considerations such as, Does the jacket make the wearer resemble an inflated rescue
raft?” Another consideration may be, ‘Does the texture of the wool fabric feel smooth
and rich or scratchy and harsh?’
• Be able to get a general sense of the types of pleasurable experiences that may come
from products. These pleasurable experiences can be described as aesthetic
experiences.
• Consumers report that aesthetic aspects of apparel are of primary importance in
selection and purchase of apparel. Aesthetics aspects are relevant to perceived quality
and ultimately to satisfaction with the product.
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Understanding Aesthetics
Patricia Sumod

Importance of Aesthetic Experience

• Apparel product features are not the only contributors to aesthetic experience.
Aesthetic Experience (AE) is also due to the promotional (shopping)
environment. The experience provided by the promotional(shopping)
environment has a definite influence on the consumer decision-making
process.
• Apparel professionals must understand aesthetic experience because this
experience is integral to the successful development, selection, and promotion
of apparel products.
• Apparel Professionals should consider aesthetic aspects of apparel and the
promotional environment to ensure consumer satisfaction and consequently,
the profitability of the apparel business.
• Aesthetic experience can be defined as the sensitive can be defined as the
sensitive selection or appreciation of formal, expressive, or symbolic qualities
of the product or environment, providing non-instrumental benefits that
result in pleasure or satisfaction
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Understanding Aesthetics Patricia Sumod

Sensitive selection or Appreciation

• AE can result from selection of the product’s design qualities, such as a designer
selecting fabrics for a season’s collection of garments or the wearer putting together her
or his ensemble of garments in the morning.

• AE can also be derived from appreciation of what has been created by others, such as
marveling at the deliberate synchrony between the beat of music and a model’s gait
during a fashion show. AE is not automatic, it needs to be worked-on and this is mainly
due to some mesmerizing powers of aesthetic qualities.Two people can look at the same
object (perhaps a sculpture or tuxedo), and one may be captivated by its elegance while
the other may only attend to non-aesthetic features such as price tag or weight.

• Sensitivity to aesthetic qualities requires training the senses and the mind to be sharply
aware of these aesthetic qualities.

• In AE, stimulation of the senses comes from attending to the formal qualities of the
object or environment. Formal qualities do not refer to the casualness of the quality.

• Formal qualities refer to the perceivable features of the structural composition of the
object or environment. For instance the formal qualities of apparel include color,
texture, line, shape, balance, rhythm, and the proportion
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Patricia Sumod

Influences of Art on Fashion

When rendering commercial objects for advertising Warhol devised a

technique that resulted in a characteristic image. His imagery used in
advertising was often executed by means of applying ink to paper and
then blotting the ink while still wet. This was a process akin to a
printmaking process on the most rudimentary scale. Warhol's work
both as a commercial artist and later a fine artist displays a casual
approach to image making, in which chance plays a role and mistakes
and unintentional marks are tolerated. The resulting imagery in both
Warhol's commercial art and later in his fine art endeavors is often
replete with imperfection—smudges and smears can often be found. In
his book "POPism" Warhol says, "…when you do something exactly
wrong, you always turn up something.”
Henri Matisse - his influence on fashion designer Sir Paul Smith.
British fashion designer Sir Paul Smith talks about the great
influence Matisse has had on his use of colour and pattern in his
own work. The designer sees Matisse as 'the boss of colour'.
inspiration, pattern, stripes, yarns, experimentation, classical, etc.
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Influences of Art on Fashion Patricia Sumod

Lady Gaga Pop's Art Edge

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born March 28,
1986 better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an
American pop singer-songwriter.

Lady Gaga's bizarre exaggerated outfits are reminiscent of

a pop style. Lady Gaga wore a "meat dress". Yes a dress
made of meat, to an music awards show.

• “When I’m writing music, I’m

thinking about the clothes I want
to wear on stage. It’s all about
everything altogether—
performance art, pop performance
art, fashion. For me, it’s everything
coming together and being a real
story that will bring back the
super-fan. I want to bring that
back. I want the imagery to be so
strong that fans will want to eat
and taste and lick every part of us.”
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People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women
Patricia Sumod

than motorcycle gangs.

- Unknown

Assignment 1
• Relate the design aesthetics of 5 prominent
international and 5 national designers.
• Do a comparative study
• 05 slides presentation – 5 mins. Per
presentation
• 02 students per presentation
• Presentation date: 19/01/12