Ménage à trois - Threesome 2 4 MÉNAGE À TROIS - THREESOME
Walter Pfeiffer Fashion Words by Holger Homann Photo by Claude Gasser Models: Walter Pfeiffer, Roman & Julian Zigerli An artistic collaboration Yves Saint Laurent’s love of painting culminated in 1965 in a kind of tribute to the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, whose geometric paintings became the pattern of his autumn winter collection shown in Paris. The fashion show was a triumph. The dresses, cleverly designed and tailored with all the finesse of haute couture, were dubbed “the best collection” by Diana Vreeland in The New York Times. The Mondrian line was an international success and a personal triumph for Yves Saint Laurent, who became the “King of Paris”. In the same year, the Mondrian dress also made it to the front page of ELLE, followed by Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Originals from this iconic collection—the blueprint for any future collaboration of art and fashion—can now be seen in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the V & A Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 2 In retrospect however, at least from my perspective, the most striking collaboration in 2017 was The Artist Series by Helmut Lang: a project that continues the 5 over two-decade-long tradition of the brand’s collaboration with artists. The diverse collection features works by Peter Hujar, Carrie Mae Weems, Martine Syms, Andrew Miksys and Mark Morrisroe in the form of limited edition posters, t-shirts and other products. The series was launched with a collaboration with Walter Pfeiffer, whose shown works dates back to the period of his career in Zurich in the 1980s. Those “golden years,” as Walter describes them, are also the subject of the documentary “Chasing Beauty” by Iwan Schumacher, which premiered in autumn 2017. Towards the later part of the 1980s, Walter Pfeiffer retired from photography, again focusing on drawing and painting, disciplines in which he finally began his artistic career. A long overdue showcase of Pfeiffer’s graphic work, which weaves a rich dialogue with his photographic works, is scheduled to be published in October this year, in an artist’s book by the Edition Patrick Frey with the title ‘Bildrausch. Drawings 1966 - 2018.’ It was also the Swiss publisher Patrick Frey who introduced Pfeiffer to a wider audience in the early 2000s. The two published the book “Welcome Aboard” featuring his most beautiful photographic works. Walter, almost 60, having spent the last three decades as a photographer, suddenly found that his photos were more popular than ever. For his 15th collection, Julian Zigerli—an eponymous brand renowned for unique collaborations with artists, taking inspiration from their evocative work to inspire his own bold aesthetic—celebrates its history by turning to its archives for key shapes for A/W18. Julian approached Walter Pfeiffer, whose portraits of friends, lovers, still life and scenery are always taken with a large dose of fun, to artistically translate his colourful vision of the male form into a collection for both men and women. Known for exploring the fluidity of gender and sexuality in relation to the male body, this collaboration with Julian Zigerli exudes a sense of liberation that you would expect. MÉNAGE À TROIS - THREESOME
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