Two multidisciplinary artists and educators are joining forces in an effort to juxtapose fashion and cityscapes as a means to explore urban culture and its many forms of expression.
Together Drs Tassia Joannides and Tarryn Handcock have curated a live fashion event and exhibition featuring works by a selection of third year honours RMIT fashion design students.
The event, titled Urban Flâneur: Fashion Reimagines the City is an initiative of The Exchange at Knowledge Market, a year long living lab curated by RMIT University exploring ideas around community living in urban environments and runs as part of Melbourne Fashion Week.
The exhibition runs from 4 to 17 September, documenting a live fashion happening that responds to the culture and environment of Victoria Harbour, Docklands. Both the Opening Night event and exhibition are free and open to the public. Urban Flâneur: Fashion Reimagines the City shows us how, by becoming flâneurs, French for ‘observer of society’, we can all experience and appreciate the city in a different way.
The exhibition Runway footage will be accompanied by fashion photography, a selection of innovative garments, soundscapes, and images of the places that inspired the work while exhibition attendees are encouraged to follow in these designers’ footsteps using a map of key sites around Victoria Harbour and instructions for a dérive.
Fashion is, for us, about being open to new ways of dressing the body and the world around us, and how these practices enable us to connect to other people.
The site-responsive fashion design aims to highlight relationships between fashion and flâneurie in urban memory and imagination; “By walking the city and studying its inhabitants, the designers celebrate the vibrancy and flux of this area and its community,” the curators tell Neos Kosmos explaining what drew them to fashion initially and how they choose to interpret it.
“Our understanding of fashion is informed by our cross-disciplinary backgrounds,” Joannides and Handcock agree.
“We’re both converts to this field, having come from contemporary jewellery and object design, but what drew us both together was an interest in the relationship between what we wear, how we wear it, and why. Fashion is, for us, about being open to new ways of dressing the body and the world around us, and how these practices enable us to connect to other people.”
How did you come up with this idea?
We were approached to run a project in Victoria Harbour by The Exchange at Knowledge Market, which is an innovative cross-disciplinary research project curated by RMIT University in collaboration with Lendlease. Embedded within the Victoria Harbour precinct of Docklands, researchers are exploring the concept of community and new ways of understanding the shared urban environment through a series of workshops, exhibitions, forums and community events. It was a natural fit because we’ve run a number of projects and studios that take fashion into public places where you wouldn’t normally encounter it. Previously we’ve worked on the RMIT floral fashion displays at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, and on more conceptual fashion projects with the Testing Grounds outdoor gallery space. Working across various sites across the city got us thinking about the idea of the flâneur – someone who wanders and observes the city and its participants. In this exhibition we explore the ways that flâneurie can become part of the design process that leads to the creation of unique and innovative garments. We were also excited about how designers walking the city could be a way to unpack relationships between different parts of Melbourne and its fashion culture.
How many designers and creatives have participated?
The exhibition we’ve curated for Melbourne Fashion Week features work from 20 emerging fashion designers and three sound designers. Some of this work is displayed at sites in Victoria Harbour, including Knowledge Market, and some will be shown as a part of a live presentation on the opening night of the exhibition.
There are also many other people who work behind the scenes on an event like this, including our colleagues at The Exchange, the models, the hair and make-up team, and the Lendlease team.
What were the challenges in the realisation this project?
It’s always a challenge bringing so many elements together for an event, but we are quite lucky as we work together regularly on public fashion events and have a fantastic working relationship. We are both meticulously organised, so it’s a lot of spreadsheets, emails and afternoon tea meetings!
How does the attendee truly become immersed in this process? Can you give us some more information?
We are both really interested in how fashion can create immersive site specific experiences for the audience, so for Urban Flâneur: Fashion Reimagines the City we have considered multiple options for how audiences can engage with the work and Victoria Harbour. The opening night event is where you can see a selection of the garments worn by models, who will do a salon style performance accompanied by a specially designed soundtrack inspired by the fashion collections. There are shopfronts on Collins Street that will show a curated collection of garments and accessories as well as video and photographs for the duration of the exhibition. These are visible 24 hours a day from the street and tram windows for regular commuters and MFW audiences alike. Here, you will also find a list of dérive instructions – suggestions on ways to encounter the space around you by walking the city as the designers have done. In addition, we have designed a self-guided walking tour (maps available from Knowledge Market), so that the audience can become flâneurs, and experience and appreciate Victoria Harbour in a different way.
THE CURATORS:
Dr Tarryn Handcock (L): is a cross-disciplinary designer, artist and academic lecturing in RMIT University’s School of Fashion and Textiles. She holds a PhD exploring the phenomenology of body, skin, and dress as sites for design innovation. Tarryn’s practice integrates techniques including body casting and moulding, and explores the human form and surface as a ‘body-site’ for conceptualising, designing and engaging with ‘wearable artefacts’ and dress. Her work has been presented and exhibited at conferences, panels, and workshops locally and internationally. She has published papers, articles, and book chapters on topics including the body and skin in design, ethics in practice, literature, and dust.<br />
Dr Tassia Joannides (R): is an interdisciplinary artist and educator working across RMIT’s School of Fashion and Textiles, and School of Art. Her research interests include contemporary investigations of the body, materials, gender, sexuality and feminism. She is a founding member of Triple F collective (a culturally diverse group of female artists based in Melbourne) who organise exhibitions and conversations about intersectional art and design. Tassia has exhibited broadly both nationally and overseas including Australia, USA, Japan and Germany, and completed residencies at JamFactory Contemporary Art & Design in South Australia, and the Rhode Island School of Design in the USA.
‘Urban Flâneur: Fashion Reimagines the City’ is a free, but RSVP via Eventbrite is essential to secure participation. Visit https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/urban-flaneur-fashion-reimagines-the-city-tickets-48545331393