BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS DECEMBER 2019

18 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS December 2019
Fashion + Art + Technology
- couture adventures
ARTS AND CULTURE
> BY ALICE HUTCHISON
Alice Hutchison is the director of the Tauranga Art Gallery.
She can be reached on director@artgallery.org.nz.
The World of WearableArt draws an audience of more than
50,000 to Wellington each year. There is a consistent appetite for
avant-garde, creative and unique expressions in wearable design,
to adorn the body. They can be seen on the streets of Melbourne,
Tokyo and New York, and are collected by avid aficionados of
great couture.
Local couturier Shona
Tawhiao presented an
installation of her dramatic
wearable artworks at the
Tauranga Art Gallery five years
ago and has shown her work at
the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York. I am looking
forward to working with her in
the near future.
I visited Melbourne
recently for the opening of Jess
Johnson and Simon Ward’s
Terminus at Heide Museum of
Modern Art, expanded upon
the wondrous virtual world we
developed for the exhibition in
Tauranga. The current exhibition
in Heide features couture
from Johnson’s elaborate and
1
spectacular collaboration in
2016 with Australian fashion
label Romance Was Born, on
the label’s Spring - Summer
collection “Mysteria Wisteria”.
“Her hypnotic tessellations
and daunting perspectives
were translated into textiles,
fusing fantasy and popular
culture, ancient and futuristic
elements from Johnson’s intricate
drawings.” (from Heide
Museum of Modern Art’s
exhibition wall texts)
The lavishly beaded and
sequined gowns, where Gilgamesh
reappears alongside
videogame Platform Masters,
are imagined by the designers
for the ultimate wearer
or avatar as, “the ultimate
gamer descending from an
ancient bloodline of teleports
or space-jumpers…you’ll discover
enlightenment travelling
to infinite parallel Universes
and distant kingdoms.”
Also opening recently
in Melbourne, is Collecting
Comme at the National Gallery
of Victoria (NGV). A
landmark exhibition surveying
ground-breaking Japanese
designer Rei Kawakubo (born
Japan 1942) who has led a
revolution in fashion design,
creating a whole new aesthetic
of deconstruction and conceptual
dressing, gender neutral /
genderless style and creating
a passionate international following
for five decades.
After 50 years
in fashion, Rei
Kawakubo remains
one of the most
radical and visionary
designers working
today.” - National
Gallery of Victoria
exhibition wall text
Kawakubo’s conceptual
approach to design was radical
when she launched her
line Comme des Garçons.
After 50 years in fashion,
Rei Kawakubo remains
one of the most radical and
visionary designers working
today, interested in the
idea of breaking ‘the idea of
clothes’ with increasingly
abstract and inventive forms.
Rei Kawakubo established
Comme des Garçons in 1969
and began showing in Tokyo
in 1975.
She debuted in Paris in
1981 and the following year
presented one of her legendary
collections, Holes, shocking
audiences with oversized and
intentionally distressed black
garments. Some critics called
the look apocalyptic, while
others admired Kawakubo’s
inventiveness.
Intricate construction and
deconstruction, often non-uniform
- and the use of monochrome
- created a huge shift
in the style of the 70s and early
80s. Consistently defying convention,
she has redefined
fashion.
Challenging social constraints,
her designs have subverted
the norms of garment
shape and function, reframed
ideas of beauty, and proposed
a new relationship between
body and dress. In her endeavour
to make clothes that, as she
says, “did not exist before”.
Kawakubo deconstructs clothing
and creates it afresh.
Collecting Comme examines
the radical concepts and
design methods that have
informed Kawakubo’s practice
since 1981.
More than 65 examples
are on display drawn from
the NGV’s significant holdings
of designs by Comme
des Garçons, gifted by collector
Takamasa Takahashi with
additional loans from the collector’s
archive.
2
The expansive display features
projected runway video
footage from major collections
within multiple galleries.
While the exhibition is not a
retrospective, and I am told the
designer does not wish to see
her older work, it is a shame
not to see some of her greatest
pieces on view.
As a teenager I made my
very first major investment in
a Comme couture jacket - the
most exquisite geometric cut
construction in the back, purchased
on my first trip to Sydney,
which I have always treasured.
It has stood the test of
time - I even wore it in a recent
photo shoot.
1) Tauranga-born artist Jess Johnson’s couture
collaboration with Australian designers Romance Was
Born, currently on view at Heide Museum of Modern Art,
Melbourne. Photo/Supplied.
2) Couture from a landmark exhibition surveying groundbreaking
Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo the National
Gallery of Victoria. Photo/Supplied.
2degrees appoints new Chief Business Officer
2degrees has appointed industry expert Andrew Fairgray to the
role of Chief Business Officer, on its senior leadership team.
An industry veteran,
Andrew was the former
head of corporate and
government sales at Vodafone,
leading that company through
a period of growth.
2degrees’ CEO Mark Aue
said that Andrew was appointed
to the role as he brings a unique
combination of skills, especially
having been a business owner
himself:
“Andrew is hugely passionate
about helping businesses
succeed, and the role technology
plays in that. It’s a real coup to
have him on our team. 2degrees
has been a full-service provider
in business and government
since 2015, and the opportunity
to accelerate our growth in this
area is significant. There’s no
reason we shouldn’t be as successful
in business as we’ve
shown we can be in consumer,”
said Mark.
Andrew says the role is one
that he’s had his eye on for a
while. “It’s great to be joining
2degrees in its 10th year, and
at a time when the brand is so
strong, and increasingly relevant
to Kiwi business owners.
2degrees has a history of driving
the market with pricing,
innovation and customer experience
- a proud legacy we will
continue” said Andrew.
He has held a range of executive
roles in New Zealand
and overseas with multi-national
operators such as Alcatel
Lucent, Nokia and IBM.
Andrew Fairgray, Chief Business Officer