AESTHETICS OF MONOCHROME

I happen to read an article about the dialog between Tadao Ando(Architect) and Rei Kawakubo(Fashion Designer), which theme is about Aesthetics of Monochrome. Ando began his talk with the description of The Wittgenstein House which designed by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein himself. He said the house expressed the ultimate pursuit of logic in architecture and created a kind of beaut with simplicity and serenity as the precise attitude Wittfenstein made to himself. However, Ando also pointed out that this kind of pursuit of logic in architecture as a space to live in could create a danger of losing sight of humanity. The much more attenion paid on the function made architecture remain a cold and tired shell. The buidings of Ando in a certain extend, still have a determination to bring people back to natural environment and no intentional avoidence of the influence of modernity on architecture. Undoubtly to say, the moderninty conception generated in the end of 19 century was the rebellion to the conventional aesthetics, it was the progress in the history of society but also conducted the fate of human being to a radical privatism age. If it can be said that the original intention of Ando is to break this conflict and to create a new law of balance, 20 years past, we can strongly feel this introspective potence in the works of Tadao Ando. Or to myself, it is dead certain.

Then Rei Kawakubo assured Ando’s worry about function of design from the view of her own conception of clothing design. These two Japanese architect and fashion designer born in 1941 and 1942. The same age of them results in a similar environment of growing, living and the receiving of western aesthetics, which makes their philosophy have quite similarity. Kawakubo’s former collections which astonished the Europe broke the pursuit of wearable philosophy in the mainstream fashion design group. Differing from Vivienne Westwood’s rebellion to social ideology, Kawakubo adopted the law of monochrome and decontructed the traditional cutting of clothing, which can be said she challenged the clothing industry beginning in the interior of clothing, the spiritual core of clothing. It isn’t so much that her works are the representation of her personality as that through her works she questiones if traditional esthetics value restricts the more possibilities of design. What Rei Kawakubo did is to return the soul to clothing, the soul once constrained under the functional shackles. In the way of Deconstrucionism, the contribution of Kawakubo is not only this, also can be seen on the influence on the later designers, including Ann Demeulemeester, Martin Margiela, Hussien Chalayan. They insist on the design of monochrome and make a lot of porgresses in the way of demonstrating the delicateness of the clothing itself.

Church On the Water

Tadao Ando

1988/Tomamu

Sweater and skirt,

Autumn/Winter 1995,

by Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons Noir.