Fashion design and architecture field are related. While their initial basic inventions present simplicity and need to satisfy basic necessity of clothing and shelter and no satisfaction of additional functions like beauty and aesthetics, their current forms continue to evolve in characteristic and function. Today, in addition to borrowing from each other, their forms meet more than one function ranging from shelter to cultural and religious representation.
This paper discus the relationship between the two aforementioned fields with a mention on the specific examples of the fashion designers and architects that have contributed in works that relate the fields. The paper goes ahead and gives view of the positive aspects and negative aspects of the relationship of the field in view of the current, past and possible future trends. The paper also gives a possible way out to avoid the negative aspect presented by continuation of invention in the field that seeks to nearly merge the two fields.
Introduction
Clothing and building in the past did not involve a complex design impartation as they do today. In fact, they were both basically introduced and being made out of necessity, which was primarily to shelter the human body. This forms the basic relationship between the two. Azra (2006) notes that the basic form of clothing which was an animal skin, was also used as a covering for basic shelter for man. In fact, materials which were first used to build, according to Phillip Beesley and Sean Hanna in a companion book on the Hewitt Museum of Design exhibition which was named “Extreme Textiles”, were woven (integrated fabric) and not masonry-flexible twigs woven with vertical arrangement as wall and a roof of straw or glass fibers.
However, further developments, particularly in the design developments of architecture and fashion, there has been revealed a common path between the two. While textile designers are using ideas of architecture to build fashions, architecture envies the fluidity of textiles and is utilizing textiles to come up with fluid spaces and intimate environment according to Azra. Today, the two can reveal the religious setting of a place, religious inclination of a people, political perception, cultural and social values in addition to beautification and use of similar trends and principles in developments.
Today, developments in the two fields have resulted in hybrid practices and usage of geometry by experts in the both fields, similar design processes among other relationships. Trends have been adopted where as a result of extreme cases of danger, human beings construct simple structures which can be carried or that they build portable and simple structures where they live afterwards. Therefore, just like a garment, structures can provide temporary and portable shelter to where the human may wish to go.
Relationships between fashion and architecture
The relationship between fashion and architecture may be discussed in light on more than one aspect. These range from the basic use of the two to the processes and procedures in their synthesis and in the view of the advances in their innovations through inclusion of foreign materials and ideas as compared to the original forms.
The reasons which may be put forward to explain continued innovations that have led to developments of more advanced forms of fashions and structures include the desire of man to better his surrounding and improve what he has already. Man has also wanted to explore the nature through research in search for more answers to today’s and yesterday’s questions. With innovative research, overtime, man has found new construction and other natural materials that he didn’t know in the past and has chosen to use them to better the environment and improve what he already has.
The quest is not over, since he has moved forward to develop man-made equipments and materials for example man-made fibers to mimic nature in efforts that may make him be described as a re-creator. Unfortunately, in quest for answers to natural problems through innovation, further difficulties which need to be solved have come up. Again, man has found himself in a practice of discovering natural materials such as the natural fibers and building components as sand and clay, and since they do not seem to satisfy his needs completely, he has sought for alternatives in man-made materials in an attempt to improve the natural characteristics in the already found materials, which again do not offer complete solutions and hence he is attempted to try a combination of the two.
The combination again does not present an all-round solution which may make him to embark on looking for more natural materials. Fortunate enough, the processes have resulted to increased technological know-how which has empowered man to advance the search more than ever before.
The developments in the fields of fashion and architecture are indicative of a man who is not satisfied with the basic forms of the goods in these fields. Coupled with competition and the need to beat others in this game, man cannot sit down and be satisfied with what he has found out. He must seek for what others have no idea about so as he will develop more than the others or just be at the edge. The incorporation of foreign materials, designs and ideas in the simplest forms of architectural structures and garments may indicate a curios man, one who needs to be identified differently from others or an explorer and innovator. Areas of similarities between architecture and fashion can be discussed in light to the following;
The desired or intended Purpose
As mentioned above, fashion and architecture are related in that the two involve building of final products which seek to achieve basic purposes of covering the body. This will be best explained by the fact that the innovations of the simple forms of buildings and clothing did not present much work and labor on design and beautification as today. While the clothing seeks to cover the body from interference for example by cold and wet weather, provide warmth and comfort, buildings may be considered to cover the human body from similar interferences like rain, cold and provision of warmth and comfort.
The earlier in its simplest form can be considered to be a mobile shelter compared to the latter although the latter could perform additional functions such as storage. One observation that can be made is that both have evolved from simplest forms to more complex forms which include achieving aesthetical, religious, and cultural among other functions. Structures made of fabric materials for example to provide temporary residence and shelters have been constructed. Ban Shigeru who is an architect has constructed Paper Emergency Shelters (1995-99) using blankets provided by the United Nations to refugees in Rwanda and paper-tubes.
Today, clothing is developed to present beauty and elegance such as in beauty contests, to show social class, and to offer body comfort. Beautification functions have been achieved through usage of various colors and a combination of them in a professional manner as compared to historical simpler forms which had little or none of such considerations. Social class functions have been achieved through usage of different materials some of which have been synthesized through scientific innovations like the fibers which are man-made brands.
The discovery of properties of fibres through research has helped determine the comfortability characteristics of textiles and thus usage of these ideas by designers has resulted to achieving the comfortability functions of fashions. Developments in the architectural field through research have resulted in combining components to come up with better, more beautiful and more durable structures. In addition, usage of different designs and shape has helped to build more attractive buildings. Similar developments in architecture and fashion to result in structures that allow inclusion of security features have been reported.
Design processes and procedures
Design processes are the processes that are used to generate products and the products undergo the stages before being passed out as complete design. In most cases, optimal designs are achieved after a number of readjustments and corrections on the original sample or sketch. Skin+bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture indicates similarities between design processes or procedures in the development of new fashion and architecture work which also involves use of similar materials in the initial design stages, and involvement of similar design stages in both.
Skin+bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture was an exhibition taking place in Los Angeles and the similarities between the two fields of architecture and fashion over the then past twenty five years was explored. During this exhibition, a Multilayered Blouse, jacket and pants by Viktor & Rolf was featured. According to Manferdini Elena, fashions may form a case study for the architectural systems and not only for shelter and social space.
During design, experts in both fields have used similar paths to come up with their models. Architects on the one hand begin their work with sketches on a piece of paper, for example, one Frank Gehry, has constructed a sample model from pieces of old paper, old velvet and paper bags among other material and then embarking on a process of improving this model to refine the final product. The final work is then computer-generated and used to construct the desired structure.
On the other hand, a fashion designer like Narciso Rodriguez would begin to develop basic ideas on sketchbooks to rely the idea to his sewers and patternmakers. In addition to working with a fit model, such a fashion designer would go ahead and develop and refine these ideas to result in magnificent better work for developing the real fashion. These would be generated with a computer. Thus the similar paths indicated include use of similar paths in development of designs, use of similar design material and a practice of re-optimization of design in both fields. Rodriguez has admitted that he has constantly achieved inspirations from architecture and that he says he incorporates in his work the practicality and function of a structure.
Identification functions
Today, structures may be used to judge the religious identity of a place since appearance may indicate whether it is a church or a mosque for example. In addition, a particular people may be identified by a particular way of building their houses, and again for various reasons. Such may reveal identity to a particular culture and social setting. Arab World Institute in Paris which is the work of Jean Nouvel, an architect present an identification to the Arabian architecture and culture by use of certain elements in the south façade of the building. Similarly, fashions have been used to identify a particular people according to religion, culture, traditional background and social values.
Islam worshipers for example may be identified with a long white artier while the various religious Christian denominations’ worshipers and clergy have adopted a particular color and appearance of artier which may distinguish them from others. In addition, adopting a particular way of dressing or construction may represent identification with a particular social class. For example, the Afterwards Collections (autumn/winter 2000-1) by Chalayan-a designer, represent his identification with the Balkan conflict refugees at the time when he was a Turkish Cypriot living in London. The designer conveys the message of adversity by refugees who hurriedly leave their homes without clothes yet they need to dress by presenting a scenario of transforming furniture into dresses, for example.
Generation of forms
Simple forms of clothing and architectural structures are what existed in the past and during the ancestral ages. With time, more complex forms have emanated with the advance of technology and science even through research into both and other related fields. Arising of new forms has come up with inclusion of new ideas and material into what was originally simple forms, so that the basic forms will be extended to cover additional functions such as aesthetic and others. During developments in the aforementioned fields of architecture and fashion, there have been similarities in the generating of clothing fashion and architectural forms where both have adopted the use of geometry.
For example, forms like the torus have been employed by use of projective and descriptive geometry in the generation of spatial effects in the building work by Preston Skott Cohen. Elsewhere, in Japan, a circular 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art has demonstrated the use of shapes in the work of architecture. In the field of fashions, Isabel Toledo and Yeohlee Teng have demonstrated the use of shapes and geometry in the construction of fabric forms.
The latter’s consist of component pieces of fabrics of different shapes like squares and circles, and the geometry effects no longer are visible on wearing the garment as a result of the effect of gravity and draping. A Packing Dress designed by Toledo is circular in shape if it is placed flat but the effect fades on wearing. Convoluted twist shape has been employed both by Peter Eisenman in architecture and Meejin Yoon in the fashion field to create both Max Reinhardt House and a non-usual dress respectively. Therefore we see the use of similar shape to generate forms in both fields, leave alone the general use of geometry.
In addition to using geometry to come up with forms in both fields, there has been sharing and exchange of ideas amongst the designers in the two fields. The methods used for building and developing garments such as weaving, folding and printing have been incorporated in the field of architecture, while the methods employed in the architectural field have also found their use in fashion designer’s world to end up with more voluminous garments and different structural forms. There has been reported research effort into the possibility of developing buildings using methods like weaving, knitting and braiding, which are employed in formation of textiles-a research by Peter Testa and Devyn Weiser.
Elena Manferdini has given the exchange ideas between fashion and architecture a shot by coming up with a garment by using a software formerly employed in animation and architectural fields, and further extending the idea by using a machining software to cut the garments in its fabrication process. Use of architectural similarities in realization of volume and space may be indicated by Yohji Yamamoto’s wedding dress in 1999 whose skirt was far away from the body and as large like a marquee and the hat for the model had to be lifted in place by four men with the use of poles. The same designer views that both the designer deals with construction.
He adds on that the two fields have the same air although they are apart and that they try to make people happy in the place they live and what they wear. This indicates the fact that some fashion designers and architect are aware and consent to the fact that their fields share common points. The Birmingham’s Selfridges store utilizes aluminum discs to cover it in a mimic of the Paco Rabanne dresses in the 1960s by achieving shapes through draping.
The stores aforementioned was architect Amanda Lavete’s job Future Systems (Words by Rhiannon Harries, 2008). Lavete the architect for the Future Systems thinks that fashion design and architecture both contributes to visual culture though they don’t share sensibilities. The differences according to Lavete is that in fashion design there are no necessarily obstacles hindering construction of the cover for the similar human body probably like obstacles which may be present in the case of architecture. These obstacles may be indicated by the need for architects to respond to needs for various specific sites which may require particular techniques and need to overcome physical among other challenges.
Yet in fashion design, the need to come up with new forms may also be driven by need to overcome the present limitations in the current designs just like the evolution or innovation of new architectural structure forms which may be driven by the existing limitation in the present design. In fact, development in both fields to achieve forms which can be used to achieve more than one function such as for shelter and for aesthetic reasons may have resulted from the existing limitation of the then previous forms in their function (functional limitation).
Functional limitations of the basic house structures may be explained by lack of such structures to achieve beauty, religious, social class, identification and other purposes leading to development of structures which achieve more than basic functions of shelter. The same case applies for fashions some of which may have arisen as a result of developing forms which achieve more than one purpose like waterproofing and for beautification, for example.
The borrowing of similar techniques between fashion and architecture may have sparked the design of portable architecture. This trend however has been indicated as not new since some nomads used to have portable homes which they could relocate with in search of greener pastures. In the twentieth century, there was realized the Walking City in Britain, the Plug-In City and the “Pneumatic” architecture by the French Utopie group (Lloyd, 2007).
These structures have come with advantages of being cheaper and replaceable. Again, borrowing ideas from Jacobs that conventional planning of cities is paternalistic if not authoritarian, it is proper to have trends that encourage mobile houses which may present difficulty in conventional planning and thus eliminating the associated disadvantages (Marty, 2005). The use of textiles to create a relocate-able and collapsible architecture structures was also explored in The Fashion of architecture exhibition held in New York (Azra, 2006). Other material in use includes membranes, pliable metals, plastics that are flexible and glass (Xeni, 2006).
A brighter future for the advancement of the collaboration and intermarriage between the two fields could lay in the fact that man is in dire need of more beautiful structures to end up with better cities and urban centers that encourages tourism and other business investments, and that intensely high population could lead to more stress on available natural resources like land and water. In fact, such ideas like relocation of homes and whole towns if implemented wisely could empower man to counter negative effects of insufficient natural resources like land since they don’t encourage building of large permanent structures that lead to waste of land and space. Again, permanent structures means that the place used as sites do not contribute to economic land use when the rest in a given locality is exhausted i.e. through continued farming. Man can relocate from places that can be more suitable for farming to places that are unsuitable for this use so as to maximize the benefits.
Implications of the current trend
The narrowing gap of association that may be now set to narrow even further may present some difficulties and limitations which may require man to be cautious about. Even when the association comes with its advantages adverse effects may threaten the merging of the two fields. Firstly, we may consider the fact that not all people may agree to the fact that the two fields are as similar as discussed above. Among the reasons given is that such like movable cities do not exist because a city will need to be planted in some localities and permanently to take care of the dwellers’ commercial, social, political and other needs.
The fact still remains that a movable city or town is not an impossible thing. Considering that there have been erected mobile houses, and that mobility of people from one locality to another would come as a result of dissatisfaction with existing condition-whether climatic, social, political, security or economic-or simply in search for better conditions, it can be conceptualized that many people would prefer certain localities whose climatic and other conditions combine well, over others not equally endowed. This means that many people may dislocate to favorable places-sometimes made easier by the fact that they do have a mobile house-which may cause overcrowding of certain places and dissertation of others.
In fact, there is the possibility that because man is wise, he may collaborate with others to move to same locality and form a city by combination of the so mobile houses resulting to a mobile city. A city ideally requires not be mobile. If the advancement of innovation is towards a city that is mobile, for example, in order to make it achieve the functions of a garment or a fabric since architects may be inspired by fashion designers and crave the characteristics nature of garments as mobile-in order for example to reach the objectives of a cheaper housing or collapsible structures, all the advantages that can be harnessed by having a permanently planted city or town may not be realized.
In fact due to the fact that nature does not provide equal endowment of natural resources like mines, the relocation of homes and therefore towns and cities may only favor some places and encourage deserting of others which will not be favored by the trend. In addition, capitalism which favors individual possession of land does not favor an absolute and free relocation of houses and towns. Relocation benefits can only be fully realized practically by those possessing very vast lands, and even this may be limited by associated difficulties.
If the present trend is fully welcome and implemented, there would be need to eliminate the present trend of constructing permanent houses or demolition of them. The associated difficulties may result to economic drawback since it would take time to acquire and fully switch to new trends. In addition, operations may be disrupted or disserted for a while.
The advancement of innovations that enable exact linkage between the fashion design and architecture through discovery of better materials and components that enable the two fields merge in character and function do not present an all-round-good deal. This is because man, in the interest of becoming more fashionable and living in better dwellings, may crave for newer fashion. This encourages dissertation of the indigenous trends like having permanent housing and fashion comprising of indigenous materials.
Whereas permanent housing present the possibility of decency due to the fact that planning by relevant authorities is possible before erection of structures, new trends like excessive mobility of houses may present the challenge of indecency, disorder and disorganization which may require formation of new laws and systems to counteract. Although the idea of mobility of cities and the continued innovation to result in magnificent and more beautiful cities may be supported by the view of Sonnie (2003) that designers should be supported to achieve this regardless of whether democracy, peace and egalitarianism are not represented, other difficulties may arise as a result.
The idea projected by Jacobs (1961) that a city-and not nations-plays an important role in a country’s macroeconomics may introduce us to the idea that disorganization, disorder and indecency of cities may present economic difficulties. Although Jacobs proposes dense neighborhood and mixed use in the city set up, such trends may be difficult to achieve even with mobility of cities since they may eliminate or make it hard to plan a city carefully. In deed, lack of or difficulties in planning may make achieving of a beautiful city hard or impossible and thus although architects and designers may be concentrating on making individual structures more elegant and beautiful, a collection of them may beat the same objective as a result of poor collection of the many structures.
Mobility of houses may lead to difficulties in fighting crime and contribute to more crime, insecurity and social problems being concentrated in some places more than others. This is because certain categories and social ranks of people may prefer certain localities or places whether as hide-outs or as a result of preference in terms of conditions. In fact, it may be harder to balance out places in terms of economic and social equalities unless the current and indigenous trends of achieving this are changed or adjusted appropriately.
One of the problems with the current trends on the side of fashion designers that mimic architecture both in function and characteristic is that it may lead to higher cost of output garments. While the innovators in the textile and related manufacturing industry are striving towards minimization of the cost of production which would enable their products achieve a competitive prize, advanced fashion design encourages higher-cost end products which may not support the initiative.
In addition, people have a trend of preferring fashionable goods regardless of the price though up to a certain higher limit. Fashion designers may take advantage of this. In addition, hard-work in designing most current fashionable garments may be rewarded by the realization of more profit of the resulting product, something that may encourage high-cost end products.
In addition, man has been forced to leave or compromise his cultural identity represented by the manner of dressing and erection of structures, a problem set to increase further if the current trend is welcome. In fact, some of the features representing man’s culture, tradition, religious inclination have been eroded with the incoming of more beautiful, elegant and easy-to-handle products. This is because man has been forced to make a choice in preference of beauty, elegance, ease of handling in place of rich indigenous culture, tradition and religion.
Deserting the latter or superimposing them with present forms and ways of life has led to a loss in important values and practices of man as held in the indigenous setting. Man is now fighting with excessive modesty and fashion that goes beyond the mentionable in public due to erosion of moral values-a battle set to intensify if no further corrective measures are not put in place. Man has found himself in need of reintroducing these important moral values-what he has personally eroded-since they are vital not only for present but also for future generations. Even if it is possible to have a garment resembling a house or performing part of the functions of a house, it may be difficult to eliminate the need for housing since it is not applicable to replace certain buildings such as those performing functions of a house.
Therefore, as a result of emergence of intermarriage between the two fields, duplication of services or material components may result. This refers to a situation where a component performing certain functions is duplicated in another form. In the case of fashion and architecture, duplication may result from structures that perform similar functions as a result of excessive curiosity and exploration, coupled with the fact that replacing one component for another is not possible. Take for example that a house has additional functions such as storage and functions of an office. Innovations encouraging fashion designs that perform similar functions to those of architectural structures may therefore be a costly way of utilizing a country’s resources due to duplication.
Continued research in search of more materials, ideas and methods that combine the desired characteristics of architecture and fashion may necessitate high cost of input in terms of research methods, equipment and material, and analysis. This may result in high-cost end products so that the projects would be economically viable. Whether architecture and fashion design combine in function and characteristic or not may not be the final determinant in this intermarriage to all people, but that the cost of the output products may determine whether the ideas will be easily absorbed in the consumption pattern by the user.
If the absorption is difficult, whatever the technology for architecture and fashion may not be welcome and vice versa. Therefore, the disserting of the indigenous trends, ideas and materials in search for new trends, materials and methods may push the cost of housing and wears higher and discourage the use of these items. Even though the fact remains that man will demand shelter as a basic need, acceptance of new trends will be necessitated by lower or equal cost of the product on offer as long as it offers any preferable advantage; failure to which man will continue to adopt the previous or the indigenous forms of housing and clothing.
Advancement of innovation in these fields means that the resulting products can perform basic necessity functions such as shelter and secondary or tertiary functions such as luxury and entertainment. The latter two, according to the theory of human satisfaction, are only possible if the basic necessity has been met. Since the advancement of innovation encourages cementing of the two wants-basic and secondary or tertiary-their usage may be limited to a particular people of certain higher economic class who can afford them. This encourages social disintegration and worsens the situation of social boundaries between the poor and the rich.
Although the aforementioned challenges and implications exist, the solution is for man to ensure that the trend in the innovations in the fields of architecture and fashion do eliminate or minimize the implications and the challenges. In fact, I do not suppose that man should stop the trends that encourage collaboration or intermarriage between architecture and fashion, but that there may be control measures and methods of achieving his objectives.
Architects and fashion designers need to borrow a leaf or continue to do so, from other fields where control systems, rules and regulations and structures are put in place to ensure that the named disadvantages, challenges, implications and dangers are completely eliminated or minimized. Approaches such as introducing self-regulation in the two fields to make sure that quality is matched with cost and not merely brand with cost, is adhered to, or introduced.
Although innovation resulting to mobile architectural structures may end-up with cheaper structures, the same case may not apply to the field of fashion design as more efforts would seek to result in more voluminous and spacious garments which would be more expensive. Designers of fashion and architects must match the cost needs of the customer and beauty, elegance and other characteristics of the end-products in the two fields. Research can be directed towards development of cheaper materials for building the products.
Conclusion
In conclusion, fashion and architecture have been found to be related in a number of ways. These include the fact that both were expected to meet the need for provision of shelter for the human body though with a difference in that houses were static while garments were dynamic shelters. Man has been exploring the world of fashion and architecture by developing the very basic forms of goods involved in these fields to come up with more complex forms.
Intermarriage between fashion and architecture has also been found in the way the two are constructed and evolved in order to result in more refined better forms. The very basic materials used for construction in the past like the flexible sticks and grass were in form of ‘hard fibers’ and incorporation of the flexible sticks in a horizontal manner in vertical arrangements represent a weaving utilized in the textile industry to form garments.
Development of architectural and fashion forms reveal usage of similar procedures and processes such as using sketches. With continued research and technological development, man has found more materials, skills and ideas that he did not know before and with better characteristics that could improve his environment and what he already has. Inclusion of foreign materials in the simple forms of architectural and fashionable goods has resulted in better, more appealing and complex forms.
The use of new ideas, skills and materials to compliment the basic forms has been advanced by the desire to explore, compete and has resulted in design and production of materials that perform more than one function such as shelter; beauty and identification with a particular religion, culture and tradition. Whether by coincidence or not, architecture and fashion designers have come to use similar materials to achieve the very basic function of their goods or to meet advanced functions. The fashion designers have borrowed a leaf from the architects to come up with more voluminous and spacious garments while the architects seem to covet the applicability of garments as portable and collapsible for example, and hence have used textile goods to come up with structures with similar or closer to characteristics of the textile goods.
Both fields have explored the need to use color in painting for example, plaiting and braiding to meet their objectives. Fashion goods which have utilized similar shapes and even software as those utilized in the development of structural goods have been reported. These trends have been indicated to represent the indivisible boundary between the two fields. In deed, the roof of a house can be viewed as representing the hat, and the walls of a house similar to the clothing. There is an indication that future could present more for the goods generated as a result of innovations and basic ideas utilized in the two fields as the two fields continue to merge both in function and characteristics. With the presentation of more answers to man’s questions through the innovations and exploration in the two fields, differences separating the two fields may further be eliminated.
Man may realize more new materials as he continue to search for answers to his present questions through research or as a result of need to improve the current status. New materials that are realized by the architect may lead to construction of better architectural structures that enable man to respond to natural catastrophes and disaster-structures which could resemble garments, while a fashion designer may also discover new better materials which enable him to construct garments that meet the functions of houses which could be termed as moving shelter. In deed, the current trend has materials that render fabrics waterproof among other needs that are met by a house or architectural structure. Architects and fashion designers should however put into consideration the economic needs of the intended user so that their products will gain acceptance in the consumption trend and not exacerbate problems of social class and social standards.
References
Jacobs, J. (1961), The Death and Life of Great American Cities. (New York: Random House).
Lloyd, Alter (2007). Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Portable Architecture. Web.
Marty, Collier. (2005). [getsmart-I] Jane Jacobs takes aim at city. Web.
Skin+bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture. Web.
Sonne, W. (2003). Representing the State: Capital City Planning in the Early Twentieth Century. Munich and New York: Prestel.pp.368.
Words by Rhiannon Harries (2006). When is a dress like a house? Independent on Sunday. The FindArticles. Web.
Xeni Jardin (2006). Fashion of architecture, architecture of fashion. Web.