What exactly defines Minimalism in fashion? Before I look specific into the minimal fashion, I'll need to look at the origin of Minimalism to understand the whole concept of the term itself.
Minimalism was began as an art movement in New York in the early 1960's. It was born as a self-conscious movement, a reaction against Abstract Expressionism. The Minimalists attempted to remove the suggestion of self-expressionism and appearance of composition from their work. They tried to take out all the signs and thought processes of artists in aesthetic decisions, instead, focusing just on the object itself.
Here is a quote of a Minimalist at that era,
"A shape, a volume, a color, a surface is something itself. It shouldn't be concealed as part of a fairly different whole." - Donald Judd.
The Minimalists' concept is to emphasize on the meaning of the object on its surface rather than laying "inside" it which emerge from the audience's interaction with the object. Using simple, geometric forms, lines, and courting the appearance of industrial objects, it is the way the Minimalists do it. This concept provides a new idea of art with emphasis on the physical space of the artwork.
So does this idea of Minimalism in art movement apply the same in fashion? I'll reveal it in the next post.
Reference:
Wolf, J. (2012) Minimalism. [Online] Available at: <http://www.theartstory.org/movement-minimalism.htm> [Accessed: 15 June 2014]
Just a bit more general background for you.
ReplyDeleteReductionism or simplication is a major characteristic of modern thinking. It's like the way mathematics and physics can reduce complicated calculations to basic formulas. This approach to the world is contrast to the mysterious and subjective manner of more traditional thinking.
Such rationalism influenced movements like Bauhaus with their principle of 'less is more' or 'form follows function'.
Minimalism is the American turn of such ideas and takes it to more extremes.
Anyway, thoughtful posts so far. Do inject some more critical elements to it, for example, see if there are ideas an author did not convince you of, or show how some information was missing and you provided the missing element.
And remember to use the fashion books in the library as well as note that the world is as a whole, wearing less clothes compared to centuries ago :D