Moda, arte e história: um encontro na obra da estilista Rei Kawakubo

Abstract

Currently, the question "Is fashion art?" it no longer holds. The only possible question in contemporaneity is based on: "When and how is fashion art?". Based on this question, this research investigates the blurring of boundaries between fashion and art, highlighting some historical considerations. The central issue of this text is to demonstrate that art and fashion have progressively approached, especially in the 20th century, and that, from the post-World War II period, more specifically from the 1980s onwards, there is the possibility of some works of fashion function as works of art. It is argued that this phenomenon was built historically and that it was only possible from the second half of the 20th century onwards, thanks to the expansion of the concepts of art and fashion. Among the possibilities of contemporary experiences that can function as art, this research will focus on the piece Lace Sweater from the 1982-1983 autumn/winter collection, entitled Hole, and on the images from the 1997 spring/summer collection, Body meets dress, dress meets body, by designer Rei Kawakubo, founder of the Comme des Garçons (CDG) brand. The study focused on two main objectives: 1) to understand the impact of the designer's works in the last decades of the 20th century; 2) understand how the works of Rei Kawakubo works in works of art through the theories of Arthur Coleman Danto and Nelson Goodman. For this, the Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo and her brand Comme des Garçons are introduced, historically locating her works in the 1980s and 1990s; it addresses how the issue between art and fashion was outlined in history with a focus on the 20th century; theoretical categories are investigated to explain the direction of contemporary art; then, Kawakubo's works are analyzed with a focus on Nelson Goodman's analytical philosophy through theoretical assumptions about the symptoms of the aesthetic. In relation to the analyzed works of the designer, the research detected that these have the symptoms of the aesthetic, in addition, they were exhibited and implemented. We understand that these pieces function as works of art, which was only possible thanks to the historicity based on "when"; from the 1960s and which had its consolidation in the 1980s.