Surrealism Research

SURREALISM IN ART AND FASHION

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali is one of the noutorious and best known Surrealists of History. He was born in Spain and after a traumatic upbringing he moved to paris to attend an art school where he met and recieved guidence from Pablo Picasso. Salvador Dali's work has been decipted to show parts of his past along with random and distorted objects. While I personally like the imagary of his work I find that it's quite random and because of this I struggle to see the point in his work and for me I dont particularly like this. I like to know what I'm seeing and why I'm seeing it and with Dali's work it makes me feel lost.

 Man Ray

Man Ray was an American visual artist who contributed to both the Dada movement and the Surrealist movement.   His work captures his version of what is surreal and what is beautiful. I don't like Man Ray's work as i feel like theres no point to it. It doesnt really seem to have a theme and they are just abstract objects with little meaning.

         

 

Viktor and Rolf

“It’s natural to look for ways to turn a show into something more of an experience” – Viktor and Rolf

Viktor and Rolf started working together in 1993 when they were studying in University in The Netherlands. They created their brand a few years later and began making ready to wear clothes in 2000 and couture garments even before that. It’s clear that Viktor and Rolf incorporate surrealist themes into their designs, this was especially clear in the S/S 2010 catwalk show when their models featured chiffon dresses resembling Edamame cheese and the skirts looking like they had been cut apart and stuck back on in the most abstract of ways. Also when looking at their couture show in A/W 2011 they feature outerwear which could easily be called outlandish and surreal. Their runway shows always look like they’ve either travelled from crazy dream or a haunting nightmare.  I personally really like their couture creations as they are completely unwearable and at the same time totally memorable.

Hussein Chalayan

 Hussein Chalayan is a Turkish fashion designer.  In … he and his family moved to England where he studied Fashion in Central Saint Martins. “His graduate collection in 1993, titled "The Tangent Flows", contained clothes which he had buried in a back yard and exhumed just before the show where they were presented with an accompanying text that explained the process. The ritual of burial and resurrection was said to give the garments a dimension that referenced to life, death, and urban decay.”  After this his career continued in the same surrealist style it began in. Since then he has gone on to create some of the most interesting ideas, for example his balloon dress and the table dress. I like the originality of his designs to an extent, I find that they are very random but not necessarily in a particularly good way, I feel as though the initial thought of the design didn’t have a lot of thought in them. Obviously I understand that the fundamentals of making a dress out of balloons and/or tables is a very difficult process I still feel like the initial idea wasn’t very much of a development of ideas.

Iris Van Herpen

Iris van herpen is a Dutch fashion designer. After interning with Alexander Mcqueen she realeased her own award winning fashion line. Her award winning haute couture pieces are highly based on surrealist themes. Her work displays an obvious curiousity with the world and different parts of nature and natural forms. Van Herpen uses a combination of old and forgotten techniques and new technologies to create her pieces which over all work well to create eye opening and unforgetable pieces of art. I personally really like Van Herpens work as I find it to be a combination of simple garments along with crazy avant garde themes which compliment the other perfectly.