So, I was watching Maria Schrader’s 2021 film “Ich bin Dein Mensch/I’m your Man” with Dan Stevens and Maren Eggert. And I got to thinking about the future, the future of knitwear and hand-knitting/crocheting/crafting in particular. In the film, the future doesn’t look drastically different sartorially than today, which is the jarring thing. This future could be just around the corner.
I loved the dramatic angular architecture in Berlin juxtaposed with the really old stuff in the Pergamon museum.And yet it’s talking about the future… so I started looking at the future of fashion, and stumbled ontoTechwear, athleisure, cyberpunk, and of course avant-garde fashion.
Of course we can look at wild and wonderful Rei Kawakubo’s work, but I thought I’d peruse a new-to-me designer, Rick Owens.
The most unusual silhouette is what I have dubbed “Angel Wings” because that’s what these statement shoulders look like to me. Owens also used them in his Autumn/Winter 2022 show as well.
Although their is a sheerness to the fabric, which speaks to our continued vulnerability, to me this dress is representative of the collection. A sort of, ‘yes, we want to get out into the world, but don’t come too close and don’t look at my tummy.’ There was a lot of draping around or near the tummy.
The platform thigh-high boots, the asymmetrical hem, the shoulder treatment and the metal wrist cuffs may put this on the avant-garde, but we’ve been seeing these elements individually for a while now…
I thought I was going to have to explain why a resurgence of the puffy sleeve (à la My Favorite Things’ Sweater No. 10) could be understood as being conceptually the same thing as angel wing sleeves. But Ravelry is literally a treasure trove! Here is fairly new designer Kristina Tyk’s 2in1 Viktoria Sweater and T-Shirt with very similar sleeve shaping.
The similarities between Teva Durham’s Skirt with ribbed detail, Anna Jaune’s Red Velvet Skirt and the Rick Owen’s runway piece have me reconsidering packing the handcrafting community into a conservative ‘we like what we like’ corner.
New plan… let’s look at how avant-garde our making community truly is… Happy Valentine’s Day.
The knitpurl dispatch 