Design | Nymphenburg Part II: Top Fashion Designers Dress Up Bustelli’s 18th Century Models

Gareth Pugh, Capitano Spavento, 2008. Figure by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1759/60. Couture edition, limited edition of 25.

Inflatable balloon dresses, bizarre superhero costumes, Cubist armour – Gareth Pugh’s creations are both unsettling and fascinating. They seem to have dropped out of the distant future into the here and now, and have made the young Englishman a shooting star on the London fashion scene overnight. In their radicalism, his surreal fashions are closer to conceptual art than to street fashions. You can easily imagine them in science-fiction films. It is thus no surprise that performers such as Marilyn Manson and Kylie Minogue call on him for their elaborate stage performances. The resulting enfant terrible image, right at the start of his career, has already earned him comparisons with Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood.

Ralph Rucci, Pantalone, 2008. Figure by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1759/60. Couture edition, limited edition of 25.

Richly decorated ball gowns of silk satin, flowing fur tops, sweatshirts with alligator leather appliqués – Ralph Rucci is always finding new ways of reinterpreting familiar forms. He pays particular attention to workmanship and surfaces. He layers patchworks, braids leather and draws patterns with ornamental seams. Pearls, precious stones and sequins are among his other stylistic resources. Rucci’s work has been the subject of several retro­spectives, notably at the Costume Institute of the Kent State University Museum (2005/06), the Fashion Institute of Technology (2007), the Costume Institute of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2007) and Phoenix Art Museum (2008).

Elie Saab, Isabella, 2008. Figure by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1759/60. Couture edition, limited edition of 25.

Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab had been in business only a year when he showed his first collection at the Casino du Liban in 1982, prompting the local press to rave about the “precocious genius.” Soon, the Middle Eastern princesses who mattered were beating a path to his door to have exclusive clothes made for special occasions. Word got around, even beyond the national frontiers, about Elie Saab’s distinctive sense of Eastern romanticism paired with European-inspired chic and uncompromising craft.< br />
In 1997 he presented his first collection in Rome and was immediately admitted to the Camera Nazionale della Moda, the first non-Italian to be so honoured. The land of Versace and Gucci has a highly developed sense for the almost decadent, Late Roman celebration of femininity that is a mark of Elie Saab. His great fashion moment was the Academy Awards in 2002, when Halle Berry accepted an Oscar for Best Actress in a burgundy Elie Saab gown. Christina Aguilera, Charlize Theron, Liz Hurley and Queen Rania of Jordan are among those who love his sumptuously draped, artistically embroi­dered evening wardrobe, so rich in fabrics and colours.

Dominique Sirop, Lalage, 2008. Figure by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1759/60. Couture edition, limited edition of 25.

The turning point in Dominique Sirop’s career came after Hubert de Givenchy retired from the operative side of his business; in 1996 Sirop opened his own fashion business, and within a year was admitted to the exclusive ranks of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris. Critic Susy Menkes was one of the first to recognise his potential: “Any conventional fashion-conscious woman would kill for these clothes. The bosses of couture houses now want wacky, attention-grabbing shows, rather than client-pleasers. But Sirop’s collection was a timely reminder that cut and class are still the high-Cs of haute couture.” Soon many former Givenchy customers were defecting to him, thanks not just to his comparatively realistic prices but also to his ability to redefine classic essentials.

Franck Sorbier, Pierrot, 2008. Figure by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1759/60. Couture edition, limited edition of 25.

Sheet music can be a road-to-Damascus experience even for non-musicians. When he was 16, Franck Sorbier saw a publication by Serge Lutens (then make-up creative director at Dior), and he immediately knew where he was going artistically. Lutens had used sheet music on a woman’s head for a campaign. Sorbier (born 1961) saw the result, and knew that that was how he would work, that that was exactly the kind of thing he’d do in fashion. From then on he had an artistic vision whose roots stretched way back into the dream worlds of Surrealism and fantasy. It is a quality that structures his whole work, from the style of his designs to the way he presents them.

Naoki Takizawa, Scaramuz, 2008. Figure by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1759/60.

Naoki Takizawa was born in Tokyo in 1960. A year after graduating from the Kuwasawa Design School in 1981, he got his first job at Issey Miyake. From 1993, he was responsible for the men’s line of Issey Miyake, and from 1999 he became chief designer for the whole Issey Miyake collection. Besides the brand’s collection, he has energetically been collaborating with creators and artists such as Daido Moriyama, Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami et al. In 1999 Takizawa received The New York Dance and Performance Award for the costume design of William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet. He also designed the interior curtain of the Musée du quai Branly, for which he received the French honour of “Chevalier des arts et des lettres” in 2007. Naoki Takizawa’s great tailoring skills are never an end in themselves. They are driven by a deep belief in everyday serviceability and wearability. After he established his studio his realm of creation extended to uniforms, such as the clothes for working staff at a rehabilitation centre, museums, and restaurants.

Valentino Garavani, Corine, 2007. Figure by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1759/60.

When he was seventeen, Valentino Garavani, better known as Valentino, was awarded an haute couture scholarship and moved to Paris. The Italian’s fashion creations quickly became known. In the sixties he rose to become the favourite designer of the international jet set, with personalities such as the Begum Aga Khan, Farah Diba, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Liz Taylor and Marella Agnelli wearing his elegant creations. In recognition, he was crowned with the fashion industry’s equivalent of the Oscar, the Neiman Marcus Award and with the Lifetime Award of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Valentino brought one thing above all to fashion: glamour. To this day, you will find the maestro’s flattering silhouettes present at any gathering of stars, crowned heads or high-ranking personalities.

The fashion designer also made his favourite colour famous: Valentino red. A red so vibrant and flattering that it never comes across as ostentatious. That is the very colour that the Corine figurine was also to wear when Valentino created a new dress for the 2007 annual Book Award trophy.

Viktor & Rolf, Colombine, 2008. Figure by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1759/60. Couture edition, limited edition of 25.

Viktor & Rolf love the Commedia dell’Arte figures, especially Pierrot. They drew upon these characters for their Atomic Bomb collection in autumn/winter 1999–2000: Harlequin was made around the silhouette of the mushroom cloud produced by an atomic bomb. For their spring 2008 collection they took their inspiration from Marcel Marceau and Commedia dell’Arte. They used Pierrot-style collars and harlequin prints, but this time with another intention – Pierrot was now a symbol of melancholy romance and naiveté.

Once they flooded the whole show with dry-ice fog, until only the sound of little bells could be heard, hundreds of which adorned the garments. On another occasion, they dressed Maggie Rizer on stage in the whole collection, adding couture dresses one by one – each heavily embroidered with crystals and lace, and each referred to by the designers as a “preparation” for the next layer – and so creating a Russian doll in reverse. For Viktor & Rolf, fashion is more than a seasonal show of the latest trends; it is an aura, with a soul of its own.

Vivienne Westwood, Mezzetino, 2008. Figure by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1759/60. Couture edition, limited edition of 25.

Westwood’s rise to become Britain’s most important fashion designer had to wait until she broke up with McLaren in 1983, though her first collection in Paris came the year before. She was the first Briton to do so since Mary Quant. With her eccentric and erotic fashions, in which historical references now featured more strongly, she anticipated what designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier or Gianni Versace would later popularise – the ambivalent elegance of what is sexually scandalous. Whether in the form of courtesans, wild amazons or royal mistresses, the archetypes of female eroticism became one of her leitmotifs. The Queen of Punk steadily mutated into a successful fashion label and high-fashion eclectic. She is now part of Britain’s cultural legacy, as well-known as tartan (which she constantly uses) or the Queen (whom she met twice to collect her Order of the British Empire and Dame of the British Empire medals).