In 1981, a Figaro reporter described Rei Kawakubo’s clothes, shown in Paris for the first time, as “apocalyptic creations (…) as if worn by survivors of a nuclear holocaust.” Her silhouettes — alongside those of Yohji Yamamoto — opened the way to new definitions of elegance and sexuality, to which buyers were quick to respond. Designers, too. These early collections became a major reference point for the emerging Belgian designers of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

Across the Channel, young London creatives gathered in the legendary clubs of Covent Garden. Students from Saint Martins School of Art and the Royal College of Art came for the music, but above all for their sartorial performances. Their intense will to fashion — highly selective, almost elitist — stood in opposition to punk, yet constantly referred back to it. Everywhere, a fashion avant-garde was probing a new relationship to spectacle, and to its contestation.

However, these periods cannot be limited to mere despair. On the contrary, they are the breeding grounds for transformative seeds of resistance originating from the fringe. The now-legendary designers Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto brought about a radical renewal in Paris starting in 1981, proposing an aesthetic of deliberate pauperism. A reporter from Le Figaro described Kawakubo’s clothes as “An apocalyptic creation (...) as if worn by survivors of a nuclear holocaust.” Their silhouettes paved the way for new definitions of elegance and sexuality, to which buyers quickly responded. Designers too: these early collections constituted a major reference point for the new Belgian designers from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, the Antwerp Six, and especially, for Martin Margiela. A fashion avant-garde thus questioned a new relationship with spectacle. The photography of these new creators, integrated into a parallel discourse to the superficial world that reigned, became the substance of a global artistic project.

Benefiting from new media structures such as The Face and Blitz, a photography inspired by documentary and punk favored an aesthetic more akin to documentary photography than studio work: humility of means and technical poverty were embraced in favor of an aesthetic of the instant, a realistic one. Figures like Jamie Morgan (and the Buffalo aesthetic), Wolfgang Tillmans, Juergen Teller, or Corinne Day no longer promoted a style that was a matter of money. Musical Lo-Fi found its full echo in grunge. The entire reference system became politicized with anti-capitalist affiliations, the valorization of rave counter-culture and associated consumption, and a new approach to gender issues.

HERCULESBETWEEN VICEAND VIRTUE

THE ANIMAL TURN

WHAT GRUNGEPHOTOGRAPHYCAN'T DO

ENTEND-T-ONLES CRISEN IMAGE

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THE HOUSEOFDUST

CONTACT

HERCULES
BETWEEN VICE
AND VIRTUE

THE
ANIMAL
TURN

WHAT GRUNGE
PHOTOGRAPHY
CAN'T DO

ENTEND-T-ON
LES CRIS
EN IMAGE

THE HOUSE
OF
DUST