by Theo Fletcher
Anti-fashion has been present in many different facets of the fashion industry and continues to exist in the current day. For example, it has roots in punk culture as a result of its inherent punk nonconformist and rebellious views. However contrarily, it was defined early on by Gabrielle Chanel in the early 19th century, by going against the current style of conspicuous opulence, Chanel contrasted this by presenting simple yet evidently quality garments to consumers, rather than flaunting wealth.
Later on, this idea of anti-fashion shifted to the design language of ‘The Black Crows’, a term that the Western fashion press linked to Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake in the early 1980s when they first showed their collections in Paris. The garments shown in the early 80s by these designers were the antithesis of Parisian fashion at the time, and were heavily disapproved of by critics, these garments showcased distressing, asymmetry, oversized fits and monochromatic colour palettes.
A broader definition of anti-fashion would be a movement in fashion that opposes the current trends in fashion. For example, during the rise of the baggy denim trend, there were still people who stuck to a slimmer silhouette, choosing to wear skinny denim from brands such as early 2000s Dior Homme under Hedi Slimane and Balenciaga under Nicolas Ghesquière.
See the list below for my favourite 5 books I own concerning the topic of anti-fashion!
1. Others
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Others by Marco Bartolucci is a book that explores various philosophical ideas, and mainly focuses on the discussion of the notion of ‘The Other’ in fashion. While this similar concept for human behaviour surrounds the idea of non-conformism in society, this book defines ‘Otherness’ in fashion as: the deconstruction of garments, the post-human relationship, and the relationship between corporeality and garments. The idea of fashion is viewed from the perspective of the unconscious reasoning behind the garments, or in other words the innate human motives behind the differences in clothing design.
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This book contains exclusive interviews from numerous designers who could be described as avant-garde, contemporary, very experimental and who also fit into the cohort of anti-fashion designers. Tatsuro Horikawa, founder of JULIUS (this is one of the very few interviews with him to my knowledge), Damir Doma, Barbara I Gongini, Henrik Vibskov and Boris Bidjan Saberi.
JULIUS SS11
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FirstView: Boris Bidjan Saberi, JULIUS
While this book gives a valuable and otherwise rather uncommon look into the deep background of these mostly self-effacing designers and their design processes, personally this book contained some ideas which were difficult to comprehend as the book seemed to meander around ideas without giving them a full explanation, making them complicated to grasp, however, is still very much full of interesting and unique ideas.
Price ~ £20
2. Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between
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The release of this book surrounding the work of Rei Kawakubo and her brand Comme des Garcons accompanied the MET’s costume institute exhibition that took place in 2017. The show featured more than 120 examples of Rei Kawakubo’s womenswear designs, this publication excellently photographs these garments illustrating the intricate details and styling opportunities of the pieces. The book starts with a conversation between Rei Kawakubo and Andrew Bolton (the author of the book) where Kawakubo goes into detail about her feelings regarding the exhibition, her thoughts behind which collections she chose to include and the reasons behind this, as well as her feeling that her collections are not fashion but art, and that they should be viewed in that way.
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This book also contains important and well-curated quotes from Kawakubo that accompany each image and fit perfectly, giving invaluable context around the creation and appearance of these garments. This allows for a meticulous observation of Kawakubo’s feelings and thoughts throughout her whole career.
Overall, this book is a comprehensive look into one of the defining characters of the anti-fashion movement, into the world and the mind of Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garcons, it is an informative and inspiring book, that is simultaneously easy to digest and filled with exclusive imagery.
- Price ~ £45
3. Japanese Fashion Designers: The Work and Influence of Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo
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This book has a nondescript name in ‘Japanese Fashion Designers’, yet encloses a super interesting and overarching exploration into the 3 designers that were part of the so called ‘Black Crows’. This book goes into depth into the impact that these designers have had on Western fashion, and how they challenged ideas of status, sexuality and beauty in the industry. While this book discusses the past and present work of these designers independently, it also considers the past in unity, in order to establish the fundamental aspects of historical Japanese design and dress, and the differences in this compared to traditions in the West. These cultural traits are embedded into the work of these 3 special designers, creating an important outlook on design, that is culturally rich and imbued with history of the past. There is also a focus surrounding innovation within design, ideas and technology, this innovation is born from the cogitation from these designers about evolution, generated from the rejection of change for the sake of it, and the refinement and subsequent growth of previous ideas, collections and garments. There is also mention throughout of adjacent designers such as Ann Demeulemeester, Hussien Chalayan, Martin Margiela and Walter Van Beirendonck.
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This book is more text-heavy compared to others in this list, however, it is easy to digest and a fun and accessible text. There is also sufficient images to accompany this text and bring context to the words in places. It is also a great read to learn more about these amazing Japanese designers, and fashion history.
Fun fact… This book is based on 12 years of research into this topic!
- Price ~ £20
4. A.F.Vandervorst: Ende Neu
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This book surrounds the Belgian fashion brand A.F Vandevorst, a brand inspired by horses, military uniforms, the red cross, and fetishes, among countless other reference points. Showcased within this book is 20 years of its fashion collections, from the first collection (Autumn/Winter 1998-1999) to the 2017 collection. Throughout I would describe this as an image-rich book, full of interviews, anecdotes from other designers in adjacent spaces, and exclusive archival imagery that is available nowhere else other than this publication. These archival pictures and accompanying description give an exclusive look into the behind-the-scenes elements of putting together a collection, in regards to references, producing said collection, backstage and editorial images of the garments and models (allowing for a completely comprehensible fulfilling outlook into the brands’ world) and the intimate story behind each collection told by the founders and creative directors themselves: An and Filip.
One of my favourite exerts is surrounding the brands’ work is the concept of the Spring/Summer 1999 collection, where the models were in hospital beds, that were completely scattered across the runway space, entangled with the audience.
A.F.Vandervorst SS99 collection
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The design of the A.F Vandevorst book is stunning and extremely high quality, without even taking into account the contents of the book. The front and back cover are canvas-backed, with the title of the book and the brand embroidered into the front and side of the book, and on the back the red cross logo is present. This is one of my favourite books I own, it is incredibly inspiring to see the images and references behind these beautiful garments.
- Price ~ £50
5. Martin Margiela: The Women’s Collections 1989-2009
This Margiela book reveals the fine details surrounding the 20 years when Martin Margiela was at the helm of his namesake label (before he left, and the following shift to Maison Martin Margiela). Contained is 41 runway shows from 1989-2009, this book has an adequate amount of high-quality images, from the time, including archival runway and backstage photos and even reinstations of the same styling that was seen on the runway back then, but re-photographed, allowing for better quality. As well as showing the garments on models, the book presents some garments in a flat-lay perspective. From the outlook of anti-fashion, Margiela is a very important designer (often placed in the same caliber as Rei Kawakubo), due to elements such as his deconstructionist style, distressing, innovation in design, minimal/no logo, and the anonymity of the designers himself. These characteristics are clearly established within the text and images of this book.
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This book is great for an introduction to each year of Margiela’s collections and immerses you in the Margiela aesthetic, containing context around each collection and the background of the day of the collection, as well as some information around the wearability and construction of the garments. I would say it is very digestible, while also holding some great insight into the design process and background of how each collection thrived, and the critics thoughts.
- Price ~ £35
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