8/17/2019 27847835

1/1

The other day, Mr Lionel Yeo, thechief executive of the SingaporeTourism Board, mentionedhome-grown fashion labelsHansel and Ong Shunmugam

when referring to Singapore’sattractions.

I took this as a heartening indicationthat people in power are starting toregard fashion not as a frivolity, but assomething worth championing.

His encouraging referenceacknowledges the changing localfashion landscape, which has largelyflown under the radar of the generalpublic.

After all, local fashion does not get asmuch air time or column inches as, say,the arts.

Also, in terms of governmentfunding, what is pumped into fashion,through initiatives such as the annualAsia Fashion Exchange, for example,cannot come close to the $270 millionthat has been committed by theGovernment over the next five years tobring cultural events to the heartlandand boost arts education.

That funding pie, as well as aninitiative where the Governmentmatches each dollar of donations fromthe private sector towards the arts, waspart of the recommendations of theArts and Culture Strategic Reviewcommittee, which was convenedespecially to look into cultural policy.

Perhaps, Mr Yeo’s high-profileendorsement of local fashion assomething real and organic toSingapore can spur more people tothink of it not purely as something lofty

and expensive to beindulged in only by therich and the privileged,but as part of the DNA of everyday life.

And while fashionoften draws inspirationfrom art, it can also havea profound impact on it.

In fact, the currentexhibition at theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New Yorkillustrates that verynotion, offering thepublic a delightful newperspective on someclassic and iconicartworks.

Called Impressionism,Fashion And Modernity,the exhibition, whichruns till May 27, hasbeen receiving ravereviews for placing familiar loved worksin a completely new context.

Masterpieces by Claude Monet,Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir,Edgar Degas and Georges Seurat areseen through a fashion-tinged loupe,with the emphasis on the period gownsand accessories depicted in the art.

The Impressionist mastersfunctioned almost like street-stylephotographers today, chronicling thefashions of the day in their paintings.

In fact, The Sartorialist, ScottSchuman, in a YouTube video aboutthe exhibition, even compares theyoung woman in Degas’ The MillineryShop to a young woman today makingironic T-shirts in a little shop in theLower East Side of Manhattan.

The paintings also fill out thehistorical details in Parisian society inthe mid-19th century. In particular,they chart the rise of not onlycommercial fashion in the form of

department stores, illustrated fashionmagazines and ready-to-wear clothing;but also of the couture fashion house.

Fashion was so fascinating andalluring that poet Stephane Mallarmeeven created a fashion magazine, calledLa Derniere Mode, in 1847, which hewrote, edited and designed. The eightissues that he produced containedfashion news, book and theatre essays,notes on food and even dress designs,all under flamboyant pseudonyms,including Marguerite de Ponty andMiss Satin.

All this is quite a refreshingeye-opener, considering the acceptednorm is for fashion designers to beinfluenced by art, rather than for artiststo be inspired by fashion.

But artists have been inspired byfashion for a long time. And the fashionmedium has offered many artists analternative means of expression.

In another ongoing exhibition, this

one at London’s National PortraitGallery, also until May 27, therevolutionary photographic techniquesof Man Ray, one of the leading artists of the Surrealist movement, are showcasedthrough more than 150 vintage printsfrom 1916 to 1968.

The exhibition, titled Man RayPortraits, features his famous shots of icons such as Marcel Duchamp andCoco Chanel, as well as his fashionphotography for publications such asVanity Fair. In one of his lastassignments, for London’s The SundayTimes, he photographed a youngCatherine Deneuve, wearing hugegold-plated earrings that eventually soldat Sotheby’s for US$20,000.

Man Ray never felt that lines had tobe drawn between fashion, art and life.Neither did the Impressionists. But,sadly, many people still do.

It is interesting to note that both TheNew York Times and the New Yorkerbegan their glowing reviews of the Metexhibition by first apologising for itstitle.

The New York Times said thejuxtapostion of fashion withImpressionism sounds like a “doubledose of pandering”; while the NewYorker said it suggests “box officecandy”.

Their qualifiers are clearly meant toallay any suspicions that the curatorsare scraping the bottom of the barrel bythrowing fashion in as a sugary creampuff of an excuse to lure the shallowand the weak.

Similarly, in Singapore, fashion isregarded with some disdain as a trifle,or as the dangerous siren call of aconsumerist culture. It is time wetreated it with some respect. If it wasgood enough for Manet and Man Ray,it’s certainly good enough for you.

sohchin@sph.com.sg

Fashion is not a trifle but a way of life as well as an inspiration for art

PHOTOS: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Offering new perspectives on masterpieces, the Impressionism, Fashion And Modernity exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art features Claude Monet’s Luncheon On Th

FASHION AS ART’S MUSE

A photo of a young Catherine Deneuve, wearing hugeearrings, is displayed at the Man Ray Portraits exhibition.

ONGSOH CHINONGSOH CHIN

8