Thursday, 26 January 2017

Design Movements

Dada:
The Dada movement began in 1916 in Zürich, Switzerland and ended in 1920. Since it came during the period of World War I, many thought that it was it that started the war. Other movements such as Futurism and Cubism influenced the Dada movement. Dada included collages, photography, sculptures and paintings. Designers and artists of that time were well known for everyday readymade objects.


 Hannah Hoch in Gotha, 1917

Hannah Hoch was a designer at that time. She created collages and photomontages while promoting women to work creatively in the society (The so called ‘New Woman’). In her collages she used and critiqued the society around her and also politics. Hoch used multiple sources to make her photomontages. Other Dada and Surrealist artists where inspired by her.

Cut With the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany 1919-20

Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany is a collage and photomontage made between 1919 and 1920. It is 35 x 57 inches. For this she used words and images cut by a knife from newspapers and magazines. In the top right corner on can find anti-Dada figures of the Weimar government and representatives of the old empire. Everywhere else in the collage are supporters of the Dada movement such as Raoul Hausmann. Hoch changed how things/people looked like by just replacing some part of the object/human by another. One can see this in the top right hand corner where Kaiser's moustache was replaced by a pair of upside-down wrestlers. This piece was exhibited in the First International Dada Fair in Berlin in 1920, it was one of the most popular pieces in the show.

Hannah Hoch in her studio, 1976


Other artists were inspired by Hannah Hoch and her creations:

Collage inspired by Hannah Hoch, Flickr user grigiabot, N/d

Collage inspired by Hannah Hoch, Flickr user Rebekah Armistead, n/d

Clothing inspired by Hannah Hoch, Celine AW14, n/d
 Hannah Hoch's Designs are incredibly beautiful, its really amazing how she transforms photos, pictures and words taken from multiple sources and combines them into one creative collage/photomantage.

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Art Deco:
Art Deco takes us back to the 1920s till 1930. It is also known as style modern because it developed into major styles in Western Europe and in the United States. This style was first exhibited in Paris in exhibition called Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes and from then they started calling it Art Deco. This movement represented modernism which later turned into fashion with products including both luxury and mass-produced. 
Art Deco Design, n/d

Art Deco consisted of streamlined, geometric and stylized forms made with plastic, jade, silver, ivory, obsidian, chrome, and rock crystal. Due to the industrial revolution, these forms were made with machinery and were mass produced. Though Art Deco objects were rarely mass-produced, the characteristic features of the style reflected admiration for the modernity of the machine and for the inherent design qualities of machine-made objects (e.g., relative simplicity, planarity, symmetry, and unvaried repetition of elements). Art Deco was influenced by other movements such as Art Nouveau, Cubism and Bauhaus.
Art Deco Design, n/d

Coco Chanel was a revolutionary fashion designer at the time of Art Deco. The French designer is famous for her trademark suits, timeless designs and little black dresses. She started in the fashion industry when she first opened a hat shop but later she opened her first clothes shop in 1910. The 1920s were big success for Chanel; she launched her perfume and later on her iconic suit and the little black dress. Chanel wanted Women to feel comfortable in their clothing.

 Chanel in her iconic Little black dress, 1926
The Little Black Dress:
Coco Chanel wanted women to feel comfortable in their clothing. In 1926 she designed the iconic Little Black dress. The mourning colour was now chic evening wear. It was a simple short black dress that was featured in the famous fashion magazine Vogue. Celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe wore this dress with pride and they showed that women can actually rule the world.

Audrey Hepburn in the Little black dress, n/d

Marilyn Monroe in the Little black dress, n/d

The Little Black Dress inspired multiple fashion designers such as:

Givenchy, 1961

 Dior, n/d
Dior, 1950s

I personally really love the Art Deco era because of the beautiful designs that were made. Coco Chanel is one of my favourite fashion designers and when I see her designs I feel really inspired. The little black dress is seen everywhere even nowadays and one can say that almost every women has that one little black dress that feel like they can conquer the world when wearing it.  

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