The concept of our bodies and the way they interact with the garments we wear is a lens into our mental health that the Mode Museum – Antwerp (MOMU) articulates of their newest exhibit, Mirror Mirror – Fashion and the Psyche. The intersection luxury designer fashion, high-quality art, and self-concept, Mirror Mirror presents us with commentary on high-fashion mannequins and the way they will be damaging, using silhouette to disguise and morph your body, how low self-esteem and bad self-image shape twist our perceptions, and the way we seek a certain form of self-perception after we use digital avatars to represent ourselves online. As global trends about our bodies are shaped by KPOP body culture and standards, or the resurgence of heroin chic, and the problematic emphasis on white bodies as the usual, this exhibit pushes us to view everyone in our lives with more nuance. Stay till the top to see an extra segment featuring Caroline Evans, creator of Fashion on the Edge, and Alistair O’Neill, fashion historian and curator, presenting us with one among the good 3D rendering of models in twentieth century clothing of their exhibit and book, Exploding Fashion.
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Previous video for E/MOTION exhibit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CeprvZ-szQ&t=520s
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Milla's Art
12:43 – Magalu ????
Joselin Villa
I'm glad you finally talk about Simone Rocha's work. She's one of my favorites too. Please, please make a video for her.
Leetal Platt
Brilliant video Bliss
Madeline Grudens
You're so interesting and your commentary is smooth ????????????????????
atef
Talk about Balenciaga
Gianni Calderon
LET’S TALK ABOUT BALENCIAGA
Janie
a video that had me immediately trying to think of everybody know remotely interested in fashion so i can force them to watch it 🙂
Vitamin J
Thoughts on the balenciaga scandle?
Kobicho
I thought he was gonna talk about fat people in fashion
Flower Boy
Thumbnail craig mcdean for jil sander wohooo
Elena
This was so incredibly interesting!
Gilbert
I wish the video were more focused on weight, body dysmorphia, etc. Can you make a topic on how fashion and modeling is unhealthy? And advertising effect on public body image? It’s not an innovative topic but could be fun. Great video Bliss!
Tiago Fausto Rosa
Best intro ever❤!
sp_ce
I don't want to be rude or anything but it would be great if you could add designer and season with images you show. I still love your videos and most of the time you mention the designer anyways or its obvious but it still would be great. Critique on a veeeeeery high level so I don't expect it in your next videos if you think it's not worth the effort:)
Mike LeTaurus
The clothes don't feel as "aggressive" to me as much as they feel protective. Noir Kei Ninomiya's brilliant spiked jacket at 4:22 reminds me of the protective spikes on horned lizards, or the armored plates of the pangolin. They don't say "I'm going to hurt you." Rather, they say "Stay away. If you try to hurt me, you will get hurt." It's different. That feels like one theme running through current fashion. Another, related theme is the literal protection that volume provides. It prevents others from entering our personal space. Today's cultural backdrop for fashion is comprised of pandemics, frequent climate disasters, weekly mass shootings, and existential dread caused by the possibility of a global nuclear military catastrophe. As a result, fashion is both reflecting and answering the enormous dose of PTSD sloshing around in the current zeitgeist.
dahMAN
whose the designer at 4:23 i know he said it in the vid but i cant figure out how to spell it.
O.o
Will you talk about the Balenciaga campaign controversy? I would love to hear your opinion on it
Jeremy Grieve
This is incredible! So many next-level ideas being presented here. The thing about women being presented as pieces of attractive things really makes me think. Also your shoes are amazing Bliss!
su Desconcierto
2:25 as someone with a somewhat different experience of life (im a woman, 17) i feel like everyone's experience of oversized clothes is different in what the goal is. It does, essentially, hide the body, yet everyone does that for different reasons. Personally, ive experienced through my life that a big part of the value we have (at least women) is attached to our body. Weather your flat or curvy, skinny or overweight, what your defects are and what your assets are. Over sized clothes eliminates that variable, im no longer my body, i can de-attach from it.
OBEDEAR
large clothes is so comfortable, look effortless yet trendy.
Megan Lily
MOMU. Mode Museum Antwerp, Mirror Mirror fashion and the Psyche
– emphasis on how humans perceive their body
– We are seen by other people but also by ourselves
– Does fashion help with that problem?^
– Volume and unexpected proportions
– How silhouettes can manipulate perceptions of others or yourself, to yourself
– Clouding perception
– Taking up space is such an aggressive proposition
– In oversized there’s no perception of what your body looks like
– The space, or lack of between the clothes and you
– MA, Japanese
– FASHION AT THE EDGE
Pieces that tie in with the reflection theme:
1. Comme des garçons SS/97M ”Body meets dress dress meets body”
2.
marvin raphael monfort
ugh issey! would love to wear one of those under a comme paperdoll coat
marvin raphael monfort
wait, so walter made the giant hat for/with the artist who made the fat car?
Dell Plummer
Ma is the one thing I head Rei talk about in english, years ago.
Harlequeen Studio
You know what I heard about Halston, he would just throw a piece of fabric on the floor and start cutting it, without even drawing anything. Like he was able to imagine what the finished dress would look like. I had an aunt who was a seamstress and had the same ability.
bonniekweenie
With ‘ma’ I assume it’s 間 in Japanese. It’s a typical character and concept derived from ancient Chinese. In transformation between languages, it lost 2 aspects in meaning: it could also refer to the secrecy of a gap, as an unexpected little area between two gates, or the gap in communication. This part of the meaning came from the earliest form of this character on the oracle bones inscriptions, in the hieroglyphs it means a piece of moon shining through two panels of doors.
Michelle McBride
Are your pants Jan-Jan? They have a great cut!
Lee Yi
WVB had a cool store in Antwerp. The entrance was a garage door. LOVE Antwerp!
Janet Antene
Adjectives, adjectives… ????
And ooooh, timely!
Joy L
I have unusual proportions due to a medical condition I have, so I spent a lot of time trying to either wear things that didn't fit right, or wearing things that were too big so it didn't matter if it fit right. It's always interesting to see how clothes will fit, and what works, especially when I make it, but also just comparing mannequins to people, you never know what it will fit like. Initially I didn't understand why some stores catered more to petite or plus sizes, but it's because of those proportions being different from standard sizing where you can't just size up a pattern and have it fit. It seems to be a challenge for quite a few men I know as most men's clothes in stores are made for that slim straight body shape, and not everyone fits that. And where women will often have a curvy or plus option, I've never seen that with men's clothes.
RacheL Morra
I am 76 years old…..so glad I found you
Steve Zytveld
I am slowly coming around to oversized clothing. As a teenager in the 80's, dress was all about revealing your form. And about that form being judged – usually as something not acceptable. In my graduating class about 12 people were diagnosed and in treatment for eating disorders (worst. trend. ever.). The idea of women taking up space hasn't really been seen in modern fashion since the Dior fit'n'flairs of the 1950's. In the 1800's and earlier – women took up a significant amount of space. Between the paniers and the bustles there was literal space between the person and anyone else in the environment. Optical illusion and silhouette trumped your natural body lines and fashion became about form. It became about the proportion of your waistline to hip flair and bust line. On the whole, the fashion was fit to your body, as opposed to the present day where your body is dictated and any deviation viewed as a personal failure. The question that arises for me is 'when did taking up space in a room become almost revolutionary in its aggressiveness (& why is that perceived as aggressive)'.
In the 1940's, as America entered the war, the War Department took measurements of fighter piolets (plenty of different plot points) to try and design a 'standardized' flight cockpit. Only problem? Humans don't standardize. Just because you have long legs doesn't necessarily dictate a long arm reach… In other words – mannequins lie. They are an idealized representation of the human body that only loosely relates to reality. And mannequins are so ubiquitous in society that they are hardly ever examined to suss out what message they are speaking. Who is left out of that three dimensional representation – and why.
In the 1700's 'fashion dolls' were used as a way to convey the latest fashions from France & Europe. Just like a 3/4 mannequin for dress design it's a way to experiment and communicate ideas in a smaller, more affordable form.
The 3D motion capture representation of clothing is astounding. One of the 'fall down, go boom' moments in fashion history is trying to recreate what these delicate articles would have looked like when they were in movement on a human body. Fashion isn't static – it's interactive with its environment.
Thanks Mr. Bliss. Good talk. Have a good week.
– Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
Nero
Ironically just had started to feel shit because of my size, and clothing sizes, and then bliss blesses me with this <3
Meg Fletcher
My graduate collection concept surrounds this! The curated self vs your true self ❤️ great video x
P. G. Gutiérrez
Best intro
umyum
Also I forgot about the margiela doll clothes. So that's why I thought moral oral had a clean fit.
Tina Rieck
“Girly” is a very problematic adjective, please reconsider your use of it.
umyum
Someone give fat car the EpiPen please
flan
just get swole
Owen Tate
I'm just finishing my first semester in fashion school and have been watching your videos since I was preparing for my application. Love your work!
Ash Ahms
I think a good and relatable analogy (for those curious) for Ma is the moment of suspense right before a jumpscare, or the pause before the dramatic swell of a musical ensemble – they just aren't what they are without the 'emptiness' in between. A similar tangent to that in western culture/psychology would be negative space in Gestalt Theory, a relationship between the presence and absence of a 'thing'.