We are creatures of habit. We bow to time and its markers, sometimes without even noticing it. Even when we say we aren’t paying attention to things like anniversaries, we do because we are slaves to our marking and measure of time. We need that kind structure in our lives; the obedience of order is inherent to our sophistication of modernity. A passing decade brings a new vibe, a new outlook, a new generation with a new take on how life is seen and experienced. But how about a new century?
More than a century ago William Morris attended the Great Exposition of 1851 in London and was horrified. The Industrial Revolution brought mechanization to craft and at the exposition the “fruits” of that craft was cheaply mass-produced substandard wares that he felt the public didn’t deserve. He reacted by creating furniture in the hand-made way and this ushered in the Arts and Crafts movement. This approach to providing quality and beauty was taken to another level. If the Arts and Crafts movement abandoned technology, another movement embraced it and embraced the unlikely mixture of new materials, looking not to the rigid forms and added on fuss that Neoclassical leaned on, but to take inspiration from the sweeping forms of nature and produce a new way to make things. This was Art Nouveau. It didn’t last long, but it was key to usher the world into a new mindset for the next century and provided inspiration to the successive modern movements that sought to break free from centuries of convention.
Now we are in a new century, looking to do the same thing, to go in a new direction and to find a new voice. Recently we have looked at the blandness as well as ecological damage done by fast fashion and how the public is offered substandard disposable things through mass production. This plus economic austerity has spurred the creation of a return to spending less and on better quality items. For fashion this has given to the rise of bespoke fashion houses creating tailor-made items of good quality meant to last.
Recently, design has looked for new inspiration as well, and it is to nature and in particular biomimicry as a new source for design. Combining technology and new materials we seek to create a new world with new design and new inspiration and…isn’t it funny that we came right back to a new level of more of the same?
So…when conditions mirror past events, trends take inspiration and use those events as a jumping point and as there are very well-informed and perceptive designers in the pack, some of them see the patterns we are repeating and take cues for inspiration.
Of course we see a lot of botanicals and florals; this is a mainstay of this season (tulip skirt by Philip Lim certainly takes that to a level of cut rather than merely pint). But other designers went with other elements of Art Nouveau as well, such as Alexander McQueen (Gustav Klimt patterning in metalics and dragonflies in print), Anna Sui (hippy drippy sweet and pretty lace and florals mixed psychadelia and Art Nouveau), Badgley Mischka (some Art Nouveau gowns that were very Aubrey Beardsley and one Nouveau volumous chiffon item had large abstract almost tie-died looking florals), Carlos Miele, Gucci (some florals like 70s Art Nouveau interpretation of post-flower child garden looks) and even Rachel Zoe (a 70s version of an Art Nouveau tiered dress).
If history is to repeat then we know what will happen with bespoke and eventually with the movement that is our Art Nouveau. It may not last but it will open the doors to a new way of thinking and for those of us eager to get on with the 21st century this can’t come soon enough.