An exhibition charting punk's influence on high fashion has opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this week. Above: Chanel by David Sims, 2011.

Aiming to examine the relationship between 1970s anarchic subculture and fashion design today, vintage punk outfits are shown alongside contemporary clothing by brands such as Alexander McQueen, Martin Margiela and Karl Lagerfeld.

"Since its origins, punk has had an incendiary influence on fashion," said Andrew Bolton, curator in The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Although punk’s democracy stands in opposition to fashion’s autocracy, designers continue to appropriate punk’s aesthetic vocabulary to capture its youthful rebelliousness and aggressive forcefulness," he said.

Approximately 100 garments for both sexes are displayed across seven galleries, each with a different theme.

One room is based on iconic Manhattan music bar CBGB, represented by bands such as Blondie and the Ramones, while the space opposite takes reference from Malcolm McClaren and Vivienne Westwood’s Seditionaries boutique at 430 King’s Road in London.

Located in the museum's second-floor Cantor galleries, Punk: Chaos to Couture opened earlier this week and runs until 14 August 2013.

More fashion exhibitions currently on show include a collection of David Bowie Is costume, set and album cover design at London's V&A museum and a range of fetishistic prosthetics, also in the British capital.

See more architecture and design exhibitions »
See all our stories about fashion »

Read the full press release from the museum below:

Punk Fashion Is Focus of Costume Institute Exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Exhibition dates: 9 May – 14 August 2013
Exhibition location: Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall

PUNK: Chaos to Couture, organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, examines punk’s impact on high fashion from the movement’s birth in the 1970s through its continuing influence today. The exhibition is on view from 9 May through 14 August at the Museum.

The Exhibition

The exhibition, in the Museum’s second-floor Cantor galleries, features approximately 100 designs for men and women. A few iconic punk garments from the mid-1970s are juxtaposed with recent, directional fashion to illustrate how haute couture and ready-to-wear have borrowed punk’s visual symbols, with paillettes being replaced with safety pins, feathers with razor blades, and bugle beads with studs. Focusing on the relationship between the punk concept of 'do-it-yourself' and the couture concept of 'made to measure,' the exhibition is organised around the materials, techniques, and embellishments associated with the anti-establishment style. Presented as an immersive multimedia experience, the clothes are animated with vintage videos and soundscaping audio techniques.

Organized thematically, each of the seven galleries has footage of designated punk ‘heroes’ who embody the broader concepts behind the fashions on view. The first gallery is devoted to CBGB in New York City, represented by Blondie, Richard Hell, The Ramones, and Patti Smith. Opposite is a gallery inspired by Malcolm McClaren and Vivienne Westwood’s Seditionaries boutique at 430 King’s Road in London, and between the two is Clothes for Heroes, embodied by a slow motion video of Jordan. This gallery examines designers who extend the visual language of punk, as it was originally articulated by McLaren and Westwood, by merging social realism with artistic expression.

Do-it-yourself, punk’s enduring contribution to high fashion, is explored in the four final galleries: D.I.Y. Hardware, focusing on couture’s use of studs, spikes, chains, zippers, padlocks, safety pins, and razor blades, with Sid Vicious as its icon; D.I.Y. Bricolage, highlighting the impact of punk’s ethos of customization on high fashion, including the use of recycled materials from trash and consumer culture, as epitomized by Wayne County; D.I.Y. Graffiti and Agitprop, exploring punk’s tradition of provocation and confrontation through images and text exemplified by The Clash; and D.I.Y. Destroy, examining the effect of punk’s rip-it-to-shreds spirit, typified by Johnny Rotten, via torn and shredded garments associated with deconstructionism.

Designers in the exhibition include Miguel Adrover, Thom Browne, Christopher Bailey (Burberry), Hussein Chalayan, Francisco Costa (Calvin Klein), Christophe Decarnin (Balmain), Ann Demeulemeester, Dior, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana (Dolce and Gabbana), John Galliano, Nicolas Ghesquière (Balenciaga), Katharine Hamnett, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren (Viktor & Rolf), Christopher Kane, Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garçons), Karl Lagerfeld (Chanel), Helmut Lang, Martin Margiela, Malcolm McLaren, Alexander McQueen, Franco Moschino and Rossella Jardini (Moschino), Kate and Laura Mulleavy (Rodarte), Miuccia Prada, Gareth Pugh, Zandra Rhodes, Hedi Slimane (Saint Laurent), Stephen Sprouse, Jun Takahashi (Undercover), Riccardo Tisci (Givenchy), Gianni Versace, Junya Watanabe, Yohji Yamamoto, and Vivienne Westwood.

The exhibition is organized by Andrew Bolton, Curator, in the Met’s Costume Institute. Photographer Nick Knight is the exhibition’s creative consultant working with exhibition design consultant Sam Gainsbury (who was creative director for the Met’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition in 2011) and production designer Gideon Ponte (a set and production designer for photo shoots and feature films including Buffalo 66 and American Psycho). All mannequin head treatments and masks are designed by Guido Palau, who also created treatments for Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty and last year’s Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

The design for the 2013 Costume Institute gala benefit is created by Nick Knight, Sam Gainsbury, and Gideon Ponte with Raul Avila, who has produced the benefit décor since 2007. Additional funding for the gala benefit is provided by Givenchy.

Related Catalogue and Programs

A book, Punk: Chaos to Couture, by Andrew Bolton, with an introduction by Jon Savage, and prefaces by Richard Hell and John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols), accompanies the exhibition. This publication is illustrated with photographs of vintage punks and high fashion. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the $45 catalogue (hard cover only) is distributed worldwide by Yale University Press.

A series of programs will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition, including a Sunday at the Met discussion on the origins of punk with Glenn O'Brien, Jon Savage, and Roberta Bayley on June 16; a gallery conversation with Vivien Goldman and Curator Ian Alteveer on July 26; and performances by Liars on May 18; and by So Percussion as wellas Man Forever on June 8; a studio workshop on July 20; and related gallery talks in the Museum’s permanent collection.

The post Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibition
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art appeared first on Dezeen.

Referencing ornate baroque decoration from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana created a series of items from jumbles of metal emblems and figures.

Gold and bronze keys, leaves, animals and figurines were all welded together to create elements such as the legs of stone tables and furry chairs.

Shades for floor and pendant lights were constructed in the same way, while small gold crocodiles pile up to form one of the candle holders.

Crafted in a Roman workshop specialising in bronze work, the detailed pieces were first shown at The Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris last year, though the small tables are now on show for the first time.

The Brazilian Baroque collection will be on show at David Gill St James’s, 2-4 King Street, London, until 15 June.

The duo recently exhibited five beds including one surrounded by hairy curtains in Milan and a series of items for Louis Vuitton in Miami.

See more design by the Campana Brothers »
See more architecture and design exhibitions »

Read on for the full press release:

Campana Brothers to show new ‘Brazilian Baroque' collection in first show at David Gill St James's, 1 May – 15 June 2013

Bernini meets Brazil as David Gill Galleries prepares to host a major exhibition of works by the internationally renowned designers, the Campana Brothers. Entitled Brazilian Baroque, the exhibition opens at David Gill St James’s, 2-4 King Street, London SW1Y 6QP from 1 May to 15 June 2013.

This Brazilian Baroque collection takes its inspiration from the intensively decorative and sumptuous Baroque style of the 17th and 18th centuries, combined with the Campana Brothers’ own take on Brazilian art and culture. The collection includes new coffee tables, to be shown for the first time at David Gill Galleries, as well as a selection of works first shown at The Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris last autumn.

The Brazilian Baroque collection introduces a strongly theatrical, gothic and sensual element to the Campana Brothers’ distinctive style. The pieces on show revel in a sense of luxury, channelling the glories of the Rococo period and its sumptuous gold and bronze decoration.

Each piece is made by craftsmen in a Roman workshop, specialising in bronze work, demonstrating magnificent skill in welding together a jumble of decorative motifs – keys, leaves, cupids and crocodiles - to create organic and playful shapes which are combined with other materials. The Campana Brothers’ fascination with the natural world and their sense of humour can be clearly seen, for example, in the tiny, detailed crocodiles, which can be seen clambering up the stem of the Candelabro Coccodrilli

David Gill says: ‘The work of the Campana Brothers never fails to surprise us. Their choice of material, research and use of found and created objects makes their work new and contemporary.’

Using the purest traditions of craft techniques, the Brazilian Baroque limited edition series is a personal allegory celebrating the riches of the Campana Brothers’ style.

This exhibition of Brazilian Baroque by the Campana Brothers will be on show at David Gill St James’s, 2-4 King Street, London SW1Y 6QP until 15 June.

The post Brazilian Baroque by the
Campana Brothers appeared first on Dezeen.

As one of three architect-designed installations for the Urban Stories exhibition of contemporary living, Kengo Kuma's Naturescape was designed as an interpretation of a traditional Japanese Zen garden.

Cascading stone strata formed a series of undulating curves around the room. Pools of water formed at some of the lowest levels, while others contained clusters of bamboo trees planted in gravel.

"The clean and pure Pietra Serena stone is used so as to recreate a topography that, as in real landscapes, moulds the shape of water, guides our walking and gives a context to the objects to better admire them," says Kengo Kuma and Associates.

The installation was located in one of the buildings of the Porta Nuova Varesine complex, a new skyscraper district designed by architects including Cesar Pelli, Stefano Boeri and Nicholas Grimshaw. It was used as a showroom for furniture between 9 and 14 April, alongside spaces designed by Michele de Lucchi and Diego Grandi.

Other recent projects by Kengo Kuma include an experimental house in Japan and a fashion boutique in China. See more architecture by Kengo Kuma.

See more projects from Milan 2013, including offices of the future imagined by Jean Nouvel and a courtyard installation of rotating cork platforms by the Bouroullecs.

Photography is by Giovanni Desandre, apart from otherwise stated.

Here's some more information from the exhibition organisers:

In the spectacular skyline of Porta Nuova Varesine in Milan, on the occasion of the Fuorisalone collateral event, three exceptional architects are 'staging' three extraordinary suggestions of contemporary living.

Michele De Lucchi, Diego Grandi and Kengo Kuma, 'tell' their Urban Stories, through unique and thrilling installations, for an eagerly-awaited event, which supplements the busy schedule of Fuorisalone events.

Urban Stories, organised by MoscaPartners, with the collaboration of Hines, is a spin-off from the extraordinary success of Bologna Water Design 2012, the exclusive event dedicated to water design, which involved the city's most prestigious venues during the Cersaie show in September.

The limelight is therefore cast on Urban Stories and its stars, who thanks to the enthusiastic participation of major leading companies in a variety of industries will give rise to charming captivating set-ups.

The focus of Urban Stories is the Porta Nuova Varesine complex, which is the result of an ambitious urban and architectural replanning project involving large areas of the Isola, Varesine and Garibaldi districts, developed and implemented by famous architects, including Cesar Pelli, Stefano Boeri and Nicholas Grimshaw, under the direction of Hines Italia Sgr, promoter and investor.

The original installations created by Michele De Lucchi, Diego Grandi and Kengo Kuma will transform the important display spaces of the 'new centre of Milan' into an exceptional cultural box, ready to welcome the curious multifarious public who animates the most important and eagerly-awaited international design event every year.

Urban Stories are therefore not just simple installations, but proper 'seductions', resulting from a sensitive way of designing to imagine the landscape within our cities and outside them.

The post Urban Stories: Naturescape
by Kengo Kuma appeared first on Dezeen.

Spanish designer Carbonell hung loops of silicone tubing from metalwork angled at 45 degrees then filled them with blue LED lights, creating a chandelier commissioned by fashion brand Vionnet (top).

He also exhibited a chair with wings of steel cubes and marble sculptures that resemble cat-giraffe hybrids.

Among the 15 other artists and studios that presented work, JamesPlumb contributed a sofa with a cast concrete seat and Maarten Baas showed his purposefully inaccurate time-keeping device for Laikingland.

A cabinet shaped by a mathematical calculation to absorb noises by Dirk Vander Kooij and a yellow mobile prototype lamp from Front's lastest collection were also on display.

Open for Milan's design week earlier this month, the exhibition was located in the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum - a 19th century family house converted into a museum to preserve its interiors and display the family's decorative arts collection.

A small wire-mesh house designed by Italian studio CLS Architetti was constructed underneath the grand staircase to host the museum's shop, also curated by Orlandi.

Elsewhere in Milan, Moooi presented their new collection among giant portraits and Jean Nouvel has set out his vision for the office environments of the future.

See all our coverage of Milan 2013 »
See more architecture and design exhibitions »

Here's the press release from the museum:

2.0 an Exhibition at the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum - Milan

Two Landlords and two Ladies, plus a magnificent Mansion have created an exhibition that opens up a dialogue between past and present trends.

Like one would do with a flower composition, 16 artists display their pieces in an untouched environment of blissful past beauty developed over the centuries by a generous family who later wished to share their home with everyone.

Fausto and Giuseppe Bagatti Valsecchi, together with patroness Goga Ashkenazi and Rossana Orlandi who provided the creative inspiration for it, are celebrating a new interpretation of a red thread bridging the Past with the Contemporary spirit.

From Home to Home, the endless and timeless journey of artworks and exquisite pieces that are made to last is marked by a softly inspirational beginning, as Rossana Orlandi did it, almost silently and cosily placing 14 chairs into the rooms of the Museum for the watchmen to rest and proving that beautiful objects never clash but rather nurture each other. Nacho Carbonell's magnificent Chandelier inspired by Maison Vionnet is one of the multi-faceted interpretations of the concept of mixing forty-five degrees and blue.

The rooms host artworks from Front Design, Studio Deform, Paul Heijnen, Niels Hoebers, Tomas Libertiny, Yukiko Nagai, Frederique Morrel, Dirk Vander Kooij, Maarten Baas, Martin Smith, President Von Pelt, Enrico Marone Cinzano, Massimiliano Locatelli Cls Architetti, Manuela Crotti and Giampiero Milella.

A rejuvenating feeling around a family museum and the beginning of a passionate endeavour.

The post Bagatti Valsecchi 2.0 exhibition
by Rossana Orlandi appeared first on Dezeen.

Considered a pioneer of 3D printing in the fashion industry, Van Herpen utilises both new technologies and hand crafting techniques to create intricate sculptural designs, as seen in the Skeleton dress (above) designed in collaboration with Belgium-based artist Isaie Bloch.

A 3D-printed piece modelled on the transformation of liquid into crystal (above) and a voluminous handmade dress that references billowing smoke (top) are among the items to be shown.

Thirty pieces designed since she began her own label in 2008 will be exhibited in total, along with photographs and footage from her catwalk shows.

The Iris van Herpen exhibition will be open from 15 June to 31 December at the International Centre for Lace and Fashion in Calais.

A design from Van Herpen's Crystallize collection features on the front cover of our one-off 3D printing magazine Print Shift. We also interviewed her for a feature in the magazine.

She recently created a dress modelled on splashing water during a live week-long web broadcast. Photography is by Bart Oomes.

See more designs by Iris van Herpen »
See more stories about architecture and design exhibitions »
See more stories about fashion »

Read on for further details from the museum:

The International Centre for Lace and Fashion of Calais consecrates a new exhibition to Iris van Herpen. At 29, this young Dutch fashion designer has largely impressed the fashion world with her futuristic sculptural costumes. Through the presentation of thirty pieces created between 2008 and 2012, the International Centre for Lace and Fashion invites the spectator to plunge into the avant-garde universe of this prodigious creator!

Iris van Herpen

Iris van Herpen is a young Dutch designer (born Wamel, 1984) who has made a considerable impact in the world of Haute-Couture in recent years. Following in the footsteps of Martin Margiela, Hussein Chalayan and Rei Kawakubo, her innovative, sculptural dresses represent a major contribution to the conceptual end of high fashion, deconstructing and examining the creative process and the relationship between clothes and the human form.

After training at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem (Netherlands) and a passage with Alexander McQueen, Iris van Herpen set out to develop and explore her unique combination of traditional craftsmanship and technological innovation. Invited by the prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Haute-Couture to show her first Parisian collection in July 2011, Iris van Herpen creates clothes of subtle, poetic, unsettling beauty. Their sculptural forms, enriched by the play of light, place them somewhere between Haute-Couture and contemporary art. And yet the designer does seem intent on creating designs which can be worn by everyone, capturing and reflecting the wearer’s personality and aspirations: she launched her first ready-to-wear line in March 2013.

Exhibition Layout

The International Centre for Lace and Fashion of Calais highlights the recent collections of Iris van Herpen through the presentation of thirty dresses and numerous photographs. The exhibition gallery is a large, minimalist plateau some seven metres tall and sixty metres in length, a majestic backdrop against which to appreciate the creations of this celebrated Dutch fashion designer, unique pieces which blur the boundaries between art, design and fashion. The gallery’s light walls and polished concrete floor will be plunged into twilight, with lights carefully placed to ensure that all eyes are drawn to the dresses on display.

These creations are arranged by date and by collection, displayed on stands so that they can be seen from all angles. These original Iris van Herpen dresses are placed in confrontation and conversation with the photographs displayed immediately opposite them. Visitors can also see the dresses in motion, with footage of van Herpen’s catwalk shows projected on the big screen in the auditorium.

The radically original forms and materials used in Iris van Herpen’s works qualify them as “wearable sculptures”. The pieces displayed here demonstrate her ability to craft complex designs which draw on a wide variety of techniques, with interweaving elements, intricate lacing and fluting. Certain parts of the body, notably the shoulders and hips, are accentuated with voluminous extensions. Some materials make recurring appearances: leather in various forms and styles, acrylics subjected to various manipulations, metal chains and plastic straps. The colour palette is deliberately muted, offset with occasional metallic effects and flashes of iridescence.

The post Iris van Herpen exhibition at the International
Centre for Lace and Fashion appeared first on Dezeen.