Viktor & Rolf Dream On
by Christina Binkley
Wall Street Journal
February 27, 2008
“NO!”
Enough is enough. I was intrigued last season by the three-dimensional violins built into clothes by Viktor & Rolf. And I absolutely loved the show they did a year ago when models were outfitted with framed apparatus so they could carry their own lighting and sound systems. It was great theater and, since you couldn”™t see the clothes at all, it highlighted the nature of fashion shows, which have more to do with the production than with the clothes.
But now we have V&R”™s three-dimensional words build into clothes “” a “NO!” rising up off a model”™s shoulders and emerging like a hunchback behind. Lots of “NO!” painted on models”™ faces. And “DREAM ON” or “WOW” similarly built into clothes. To which I say, “Huh?”
The gold staples used in place of sewing on many garments were interesting. But apparently, this had to do with a protest against fast fashion, which is like a protest against fashionable clothes for the poor and middle class “” just a little too Marie-Antoinette for me. I share the fashion industry”™s concern that valued artisans are losing jobs to poorly paid Chinese factory workers, but fast fashion isn”™t the problem: economics, and environmental and labor laws is.
Some designers “” I”™m thinking of folks like Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto here “” create fine art with their clothes, but this isn”™t that.
It was more like a schoolboy”™s prank.
Read more about Viktor & Rolf’s Fall 2008 collection: