Viktor and Rolf Fashion Show Transformation

Born: (both Viktor and Rolf) Netherlands, 1969. Pedagogy: Both graduated from the Academia of Amhem, 1992. Company History: Created first drove, 1993; created second drove, 1994; "Winter of Love" presented at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1994; third collection, 1994; created photographic collection, 1995; clothing exhibition in art gallery, 1995; created the Prêt-á-Porter Catalogue, 1995; launched Viktor & Rolf Le Parfum, 1996; Torch Gallery installation, Amsterdam, 1996; connected developing fashion trends as art exhibitions; collection exhibited in Groninger Museum, 1998; designs turned more towards ready-to-wear, 2000. Awards: International Festival of Hyeres, 1993; ANDAM, 1994. Exhibitions: Visionaire Gallery, SoHo, 1999; Groninger Museum, Netherlands, 2001.

Books

Horsting, Viktor, Viktor & Rolf, Artimo Foundation, Amsterdam, 1999.

Articles

Martin, Richard, "Viktor & Rolf: Le Regard Noir," in Due north-28, 1997.

Goldberg, Rose Lee, "Claude Wampler [Operation Art]," Artforum, September 1997.

Phillips, Ian, "Fashion: 21st Century Boys Run into Viktor & Rolf," in Newspaper Publishing PLC, 3 Oct 1998.

Horyn, Cathy, "Two Dutch Designers Take Couture to the Surreal Side," in the New York Times, i June 1999.

——, "Is At that place Room for Fashion at the Paris Haute Couture Shows?" in the New York Times, 25 July 1999.

Bong, Katy, "Amsterdammer Chaos: Viktor & Rolf are Mad as Hell and They're Not Going to Wear Information technology Anymore," in Metro Agile, January 2000.

Socha, Miles, "Christmas Comes Early at Viktor & Rolf Exhibit," in WWD, Groningen, Netherlands, 10 November 2000.

Bellafante, Ginia, "This is Paris: No Giggling, Please," in the New York Times, 21 March 2001.

Wilson, Eric, "Victor & Rolf to ICV," in Women'due south Habiliment Daily , 5 September 2001.

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Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, more commonly known as Viktor & Rolf—purveyors of elaborate manner and exotic design, are as much known for their works of art as they are for fashion. They sculpt their designs by distorting proportions—creating high collars and elaborate draping to hide the body, making it seemingly vanish into the sculpture. Always calculation to the fabrics, Viktor & Rolf often employ decoration that mocks accessories, including Christmas trees balls, colorful tinsel garlands, and pleated Pierrot collars. This is a clear indication of their reputation to shock and challenge way and remain with the forerunners of originality. Their creation of the unusual "diminutive flop," for example, was a shrewd combination of

Viktor & Rolf, autumn/wintertime 2000-01 haute couture drove: pants with bells sown down the sides and matching bell-covered jacket.

© AP/Wide World Photos.

extreme fashion and art. The costume had the model'due south caput resting on tiptop of a huge mushroom form, a chiffon blouse inflated with brightly colored balloons, jackets with neon mink dots, and a blackness-and-white collection shown under scant neon lite in a dark room. "Style doesn't hold a big value with Dutch people," Snoeren commented to the New York Times' Cathy Horyn. "In Holland," Horsting connected, "the mentality is you're non supposed to want to stand out. We made our collections to be noticed, just it was also a reaction."

Adhering to their reputation to intrigue and fascinate, Viktor & Rolf created Le parfum to awaken the fashion manufacture'due south senses with a perfume that provided no aroma. The 250 express edition bottles of Le parfum were never meant to exist opened; another stride clearly meant to integrate style as an fine art course.

Viktor & Rolf's first habiliment collection was shown at a competition called Salon European des Jeunes Stylistes in 1993. The collection was comprised of preexisting pieces of garments composite into a collage, to create new article of clothing. In 1994 Viktor & Rolf created two collections, the first consisting of several variations of a white wearing apparel, most of which were high-waisted and long, like ballgowns, but there were also shirts diddled up with balloons and confetti, giving the presentation a satirical aptitude. The other collection revolved around the aptly named "Black Square Wearing apparel," with squared-off shoulders to create an illusion of abstract art.

In 1995 their collection appeared at the Galerie Patricia Dorfmann in Paris, and consisted of v suspended gilded garments of several different silhouettes. Side by side came the "Shadowdress," a dark, opaque dress which was a 3-dimensional form of the pieces from the collection. Tracing back history, the "Shadow Cape" of 1996 featured the strong silhouette of an 1890s body merely in light, silk textile. Softness and versatility were behind the addition of a grayness bodysuit and supple white apparel added to the collection.

Viktor & Rolf have proven that fashion and art can be interchangeable, and the Groninger Museum recognized their efforts in 1998. A permanent collection of 28 pieces from v collections exhibited fashion every bit an fine art form. The apparel, eerily exhibited on mannequins in a dark room, were illuminated as lights striking their rotating platforms. In January 1999, the designing duo created a blackness and white collection with firm skirts and poofy ruffs. Presentation of the collection involved ultraviolet lights so every white object glowed. Three of the 17 outfits from this collection were put on display at the trendy Visionaire art gallery and publishing house in SoHo, where fellow designers Diane von Furstenberg and Ronald van der Kemp were in attendance, forth with a multifariousness of celebrities. In a July 1999 prove, the designers presented a collection past placing their model atop a revolving turntable. Dressed in a silk minidress, additional wearable was placed on the model by the designers with every revolution of the platform. By the 9th rotation, she was seemingly engulfed in Viktor & Rolf's designs—and so was the audience. Horyn decreed the prove, "the nearly vivid of the calendar week."

With their reputation equally style designers and artists, Viktor & Rolf have recently segued more into ready-to-wear collections, yet without detracting from their reputations as designers of art. Their first ready-to-wear drove, in collaboration with Gibo SpA, was launched in 2000; the lines was more than habiliment and functional, like jeans, ruffled shirts, and sexy pantsuits, which exhibited the designers' fondness for masculine styling for women. Withal the well-nigh popular portion of the jump collection was a stars-and-stripes motif, on jackets and shirts, inspired by the song "American Pie" by Don McLean. Several upscale retailer, including Barneys New York, placed orders.

A bound 2001 drove at the famed Louvre museum featured American classics, specially onetime Hollywood, and the styles from the glory days of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s—as modernized by Viktor & Rolf. The new line included fluid cabaret trouser suits, variations on the bones white shirt, trench coats, swinging skirts, and tap shorts. Silver seemed to be the hot accessory of the flavor, with metallic flashes seen on tops, shirt collars, pants, and even tuxedos. Always paying shut attention to bringing art into mode, Viktor & Rolf ended a 2000 fashion show by tap-dancing together in white tuxedos.

—Kimbally A. Medeiros

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