Table Of Contenti
Francesca Granata is Director of the Fashion Studies MA and Assistant
Professor in the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons
School of Design, the New School, New York. She holds a PhD from Central
Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and is the editor and founder
of the journal Fashion Projects. Her work has appeared in Fashion Theory, Fashion
Practice, and The Journal of Design History, as well as in a number of books and
exhibition catalogues.
‘Experimental Fashion is very well written and rich in illustrations. It is highly
engaging and thought provoking. It is a very welcome contribution to the
field of fashion studies, not least through its attention to an aspect of fashion -
experimental fashion - that has so far been given little attention’.
Agnès Rocamora, Reader in Social and Cultural Studies at London College
of Fashion, University of London and author of Fashioning the City (I.B.Tauris,
2009)
ii
Series Editors: Reina Lewis & Elizabeth Wilson
Advisory Board: Christopher Breward, Hazel Clark, Joanne Entwistle,
Caroline Evans, Susan Kaiser, Angela McRobbie, Hiroshi Narumi, Peter McNeil,
Özlem Sandikci, Simona Segre Reinach
Dress Cultures aims to foster innovative theoretical and methodological frameworks
to understand how and why we dress, exploring the connections between clothing,
commerce and creativity in global contexts.
Published and forthcoming:
Branding Fashion: Bridging the Self and Modest Fashion: Styling Bodies, Mediating Faith
the Social Consumer edited by Reina Lewis
by Anthony Sullivan
Sinophilia: Fashion, Western Modernity
Delft Blue to Denim Blue: Contemporary Dutch and Things Chinese after 1900
Fashion by Sarah Cheang
edited by Anneke Smelik
Styling South Asian Youth Cultures: Fashion,
Dressing for Austerity: Aspiration, Leisure Media and Society
and Fashion in Post- War Britain edited by Lipi Begum, Rohit K. Dasgupta
by Geraldine Biddle- Perry and Reina Lewis
Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide
and the Grotesque Body to Key Theorists
by Francesca Granata edited by Agnès Rocamora and
Anneke Smelik
Fashion in European Art: Dress and Identity,
Politics and the Body, 1775- 1925 Veiling in Fashion: Space and the Hijab
edited by Justine De Young in Minority Communities
by Anna- Mari Almila
Fashion in Multiple Chinas: Chinese Styles
in the Transglobal Landscape Wearing the Cheongsam: Dress and Culture
edited by Wessie Ling and in a Chinese Diaspora
Simona Segre Reinach by Cheryl Sim
Fashioning Indie: Popular Fashion, Music Wearing the Niqab: Fashioning Identities among
and Gender in the Twenty- First Century Muslim Women in the UK
by Rachel Lifter by Anna Piela
Reina Lewis: [email protected]
Elizabeth Wilson: [email protected]
At the publisher, Philippa Brewster: [email protected]
iii
Experimental
Fashion
Performance Art, Carnival and the
Grotesque Body
Francesca Granata
iv
Published in 2017 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London • New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright © 2017 Francesca Granata
The right of Francesca Granata to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may
not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this
book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
Dress Cultures
ISBN: 978 1 78453 378 6 HB
978 1 78453 379 3 PB
eISBN: 978 1 78672 029 0
ePDF: 978 1 78673 029 9
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Typeset by Newgen
Printed and bound by in Great Britain by T.J. International, Padstow, Cornwall.
v
To Jay and Corinna, with love
vi
vii
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
1 Against Power Dressing: Georgina Godley 15
2 Fashioning the Maternal Body: Rei Kawakubo 36
3 Performing Pregnancy: Leigh Bowery 54
4 Deconstruction and the Grotesque: Martin Margiela 74
5 Carnivalised Time: Martin Margiela 103
6 Carnival Iconography: Bernhard Willhelm 119
7 The Proliferation of the Grotesque: Lady Gaga 149
Interview with Nicola Bowery 161
Interview with Georgina Godley 169
Notes 179
Bibliography 198
Filmography 211
Index 212
viii
LIST OF
ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Publicity shot from Working Girl, 1988, ©20thCentFox/
courtesy Everett Collection 16
2 Georgina Godley, Muscle Dress, spring/ summer 1986, The
Face, March 1986, no. 71, photograph by Stevie Hughes 26
3 Elsa Schiaparelli, Skeleton Dress, 1938, courtesy of the Victoria
and Albert Museum 27
4 Georgina Godley, padded undergarment ‘Bump and Lump’
collection, autumn/ winter 1986– 87, photograph by Cindy
Palmano, courtesy of the artist and Georgina Godley 28
5 Georgina Godley, dress, ‘Bump and Lump’ collection,
autumn/ winter 1986– 87, photograph by Cindy Palmano,
courtesy of the artist and Georgina Godley 29
6 Robert Mapplethorpe, Lisa Lyon 1981, courtesy of the
Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation 37
7 Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, padded dress,
‘Body Meets Dress’ collection, spring/ summer 1997,
courtesy of Firstview 39
8 Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, padded top, ‘Body
Meets Dress’ collection, spring/ summer 1997, courtesy of
Firstview 40
9 Fashion spread juxtaposing Jean Paul Gaultier’ and Rei
Kawakubo’s work, Six, no. 2, 1982 42
10 Cindy Sherman, Untitled 296, created for Comme des
Garçons advertising campaign, autumn/ winter 1994– 95,
courtesy of Metro Pictures and the artist 44
11 Cindy Sherman, Untitled 302, created for Comme des
Garçons advertising campaign, autumn/ winter 1994– 95,
courtesy of Metro Pictures and the artist 45
