Op Art in Fashion and Design.pdf

7/24/2019 Op Art in Fashion and Design.pdf

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OP ART IN

FASHION

AND DESIGN


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Op Art in Fashion and Design

Itwas a marvelous time. In the 60syou were knocked in the eyeballs. Everybody, everything wasnew. Diana VreelandEditor in Chief of US Vogue 19631971

The Fashion Revolution of the 1960s

Not since the 1920s had the way people dressed changed so

radically. In the mid 1960s, thanks to a convergence of music, film,fashion and social change, the mod look blasted out of London, withthe boutiques of Kings Road and Carnaby Street at the epicentre ofthe scene.

For the first time in history young people had other options than todress like their parents. Up until then clothes for young womenwere known as Juniors or Missesa watered down version of adultclothes.

The sixties changed all that when young people started making theclothes they wanted to wear, clothes that completely excluded their

parents generation. The mod look was about looking forward tothe future: sharp, bold, minimalistmod-ernist.

Two of John Bates's 1960sdresses

The Mod Look

Mary Quant said of this time in her biography that she wantedyoung people to have a fashion of their own, absolutely 20thcentury fashion.

The monochrome geometric prints of Op Art perfectly

complemented the bold shapes of the mod look.The sharp five pointVidal Sassoonhaircut and the simple A lineshift dresses by Andre Courreges and Pierre Cardin soonentered the mass market, having been quickly copied and massreproduced thanks to the new large scale availability ofsynthetic fabrics.

Mary Quant having her hairtrimmed by Vidal Sassoon

Op Art Explosion

As Op Art and the artists at the movements forefront gainedrecognition; the youth culture explosion of the sixties was gainingmomentum. Mod bands such asThe Whocrossed over to theU.S. and everyone wanted a piece of The London Look.

The mod style, which was already waning in the U.K., reached theother side of the Atlantic at around the same time as the 1965exhibition The Responsive Eye in New York, which showcasedthe work ofBridget RileyandVictor Vasarely.

Suddenly Op Art patterns started appearing on everything fromclothes to advertisements, stationery, furnishing fabrics and that

useful garment peculiar to the 1960s:the paper dress.

Paper Caper Op Art Paper Dress
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Op Art Exploitation?

Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely had polar oppositeviews on the commercialisation of their work. WhileVasarely thought that art should be for everyone andeven collaborated with textile firms, Riley wasdismayed at seeing her original work co-opted forcommercial use without her permission.

In February 1965, Riley was being driven from the airport to the Museum of Modern Art in NewYork. Travelling up Madison Avenue she saw in the shop windows row upon row of dresses withdesigns lifted from her paintings. Riley denounced the way her art was being vulgarized in the ragtrade and publicly expressed her deep anger at the commercialisation of one of her paintings bya New York dress firm. The firm was producing dresses with a design based on one of herpaintings which was owned by the director of the firm. She tried to sue for copyright infringementbut was unsuccessful.

Who Invented The Miniskirt?Mary Quant is usually the name cited as the inventorof the miniskirt. In fact bothJohn Bates(under thename Jean Varon) andAndr Courrgeshad shownmini lengths before Mary Quant. Courrges hadshown mini dresses in 1964, but they had not beenwell received. John Bates was one of the mostprominent designers of the 1960s and memorablydesigned the iconic costumes worn by Diana Rigg inThe Avengers.

It was Quant though, who popularized the mini and

the one very practical element that would makethem somewhat wearable: tights. Up until the midsixties stockings were still the only option and longerlength stockings were initially produced to be wornwith mini skirts. The Jean Varon Avengers Collection

Quant contacted suppliers of theatrical costumes who, thanks to advances in synthetic fibres andmanufacturing techniques, could make opaque woven tights in the same colours as the skirts shedesigned. This meant skirt lengths could rise and rise while still protecting the modesty of thewearer to a certain extent.

Op Art not Pop ArtAlthough Pop Art was a separate movement, it is often confused orcombined with Op Art when discussing sixties fashion. Pop Art alsohad a huge influence on fashion during the mid 1960s with the graphicwork of Pop artists such as Andy Warhol being printed onto clothing.

The most iconic example of art meeting fashion in the1960s isYvesSaint LaurentsMondrian shift dress.It was featured on the cover ofFrench Vogue in September 1965; cheaper mass market copiesinevitably followed.

Also not to be confused with Op Art: geometric styles were usually

made up of panels of fabric in boldly contrasting colours such as blackand white or bright primary colours juxtaposed. Op Art was all aboutthe print.

Yves Saint Laurent s Mondrian Shift Dress
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Op Art Textiles

Textile companiesHeals,Hull Traders & EdinburghWeavers led the way in developing Op Art prints intofurnishing fabrics; though usually the colours and patternswere more muted than the eye straining patterns usedfor clothing.

Edinburgh Weaverswas the experimental arm ofScottish textile firm Morton Sundour, whichcommissioned leading artists, including Victor Vasarely,to create patterns.

Barbara Brown s Expansion fabric for Heals

Eduardo Paolozzidesigned prints for Hull Traders and Barbara Brown designed for Heals. BarbaraBrown in particular was probably the most prolific designer of Op Art influenced furnishing fabrics.

The End of Op ArtAs the sixties swung on, Op-Art prints and the modlook gave way to the swirling prints of psychedelia inthe late sixties, then led to more muted colours andorganic forms taken from nature, such as the floralart nouveau motifs made popular by Biba and laterCelia Birtwells prints for Ossie Clark.

Jane Birkin in Ossie Clark(photographed by Patrick Lichfield)

Op Art Lives On

The resurgence of fabrics by Finnish company

Marimekkohas led to a new generation of fansinspired by their bright prints, loved the first timearound in the sixties.Missonisstripes and zigzagsowe something to Op Art but they are woven,rather than printed.

UK textile artist Helen Owen has created somefascinatingOp Art textile designsover the past fewyears and continues to work in this style.

Eley Kishimotosop-art flame print has been used oneverything from cars to backpacks to motorbike

helmets in the past few years.

Op Art Helmet - Eley Kishimoto

Collaboration with Ruby Helmets (2008)
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1960's Op Art, Pop Art & FashionArt and fashion meet in the 1960's in the form of Op art and Pop art. Pop art and Op art wereseparate art movements but the public mixed them, much to the annoyance of the foundingartists. The term Op-art was first coined by Time magazine. It was typified by the dramatic, trick-optic effects of line and contrasting areas of color.

Bridget Riley

Op Art was a term coined in 1964. Optically distorted geometric patterns inblack and white produced a whole range of movements on a surface. Whenapplied to fabric it created a new bold look in fashion and accessories. OpArts primary goal was to fool the eye. Bridget Rileys dazzling black-and-white

paintings triggered an op art fashion craze in the 1960's. Victor Vasarely wasalso an influence. Op's greatest moment was the "The Responsive Eye"exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965.
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Pop Art was an art movement and style that had itsorigins in England in the 1950's and made its way to theUnited States during the 1960's. Pop artists have focusedattention upon familiar images of the popular culture suchas billboards, comic strips, magazine advertisements, andsupermarket products.

The original Pop art fashion movement was both political,in that it challenged the domination of couture andbourgeois status dressing, and an artistic reaction toabstract art and design, with the satirical and ironic use ofadvertising and of representational everyday objects.

Early Pop Art in Britain was a matter of ideas fueled byAmerican popular culture viewed from afar, while theAmerica artists were inspired by the experiences of living

within that culture. Pop Art therefore coincided with theyouth and pop music phenomenon of the 1960's, andbecame very much a part of the image of fashionable,'swinging' London.

Some freelance designers took their inspiration fromsources of contemporary art and graphics like AndyWarhol's Pop Art images. Warhol influenced fashion, andYves Saint Laurent certainly went down the pop art roadwith his Mondrian dress and the black and white blocksheaths he introduced in the early 1960s.Brightly coloured

large-scale geometric repeats were favourites for bothdress and furnishing fabrics.

Today Pop art still influences designers and runway couture.
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Op Art in Fashion and Design.pdf