plastination and fashion.

mixed bodyworlds (see previous post) and 1920′s/30′s designer elsa schiaparelli and this is what you get:a feminized reminder of our own mortality.or a comment on anorexia? hm… 

plastination and turkey day: what they have in common

so on wednesday, the day before thanksgiving, my pals (robert, jordan, candra) and i drove to san jose (stopped at in-n-out for milkshakes and burgers), and went to the tech to see the bodyworlds exhibit. if you have not heard of bodyworlds, it is an exhibit of (dead) human bodies preserved through a process called plastination. it looks just like it sounds- plastic.

  

the exhibit had people posed, individual body parts in glass cases, and breakdown of the nerve systems, etc.  it was pretty cool to see these things, and not too gross. my favorite was the slices of human pressed between fiberglass: 

but i did have some MAJOR problems with the exhibit.  firstly, there were 5 or 6 rooms and we did not see a female body until the third room, and she was, or course, pregnant.besides this being offensive or disturbing to some people, she is in a sexualized position.fucked up right? also, the other women (about 5 outta 24ish bodies) were in yoga, ballet, or ice skating positions. FUCKED UP. we saw plenty of male bodies (with their stringy skinless testes) with explanations of their makeup. how can we hypersexualize the female body so ruthlessly?also, there was a huge picture of reagan in the alzheimer’s section. and non smoking, and anti-”obesity” campaigns both in and-outside of the exhibit, with quit now pamplets and body mass index scales.bodyworlds is an overly priced republican commentary on human health. i felt used and pissed off.and i still do. obviously.so what does this have to do with turkey day? because i cooked my very first turkey- and it was 20 lbs. of raw nasty flesh. i am never doing it again.  we did have a great day though. about 9 of us just ate, drank, watched football, and chilled. it was really great to have my best pals together and happily stuffed! no pun intended- really.

Vivienne Westwood at de Young

this weekend is the last that Vivienne Westwood’s “36 years in fashion” collection will be on exhibit at the de young museum in san francisco’s golden gate park. vivienne westwood

popularized the iconic “punk” fashion of the late 70′s and early 80′s. she incorporated the DIY look into her chicken bone t-shirts,

in her rubber bondage suits and in the incorporation of the scottish tartan:

my favorite (of course) had to be the “siouxsie shoe”
(sorry i couldn’t find a picture, but i swear they fuckin rocked! buckles and rubber. hot).
Vivienne created architecture for the body; with dips and peaks of fabric consistent through her pirate, scottish, corset, and ballgown collections. westwood takes a traditional style and totally fucks it up….but not completely. for instance, she makes a mockery of turn-of-the-century british fashion, by recreating the styles with original tweeds and wools, but she makes the jackets bright and over-sized, and adds crinoline to shorter and shorter skirts, and uses rubber penis buttons to close her shrugs. also, in her ballgown collection she twists tradition just enough- the gowns are gorgeous in their superfluity and not exactly typical- a border westwood enjoys teetering on

while clinging to her ideals of androgyny.

i couldn’t help but think desperately of the music popular during each of her creative explosions, which also lead me to seeing some of my favorite literature characters in some of her outfits . for instance dominique francon from ayn rand’s “the fountainhead” is (hard to describe) a demure woman with an unavoidable attractive casing and passive aggressive sexuality who enjoys emotionally torturing the man she obsesses over and loves. ok, that was the best description i could do for now. but she would wear this:

note the huge darts over each breast. i suddenly found myself in love with dominique, and then with vivienne westwood after walking and reading throughout her exhibit- it’s only stop in the US. i really enjoyed the show because it was different. it was kooky. it was beautifully executed and effortless. i like an experience that evokes thought and brow crinkles.