Fashion
Viktor & Rolf exhibition, London
Fashion
In their Paris studio, during the few years between their 1992 graduation from the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design and their rise to fashion fame, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren used to sit and dream. In their heads they’d put together elaborate collections, extreme catwalk shows and even come up with their own perfume. And then they would make their visions a reality, in miniature. Produced on an exact scale of 1:10, the pair created not just several dolls wearing their clothes but model catwalks, a small shop complete with glass windows and even a little perfume bottle, with ad campaign and press release.
Click here to see more of the House of Viktor & Rolf
The making of their dreams in miniature is bizarre enough, but what is even more of a head spin is that it all became true. Starting from 1998, the pair showed Haute Couture catwalk shows every season, in 2004 they launched their fragrance Flowerbomb, and in 2005 they opened their own flagship store in Milan. Luckily the models they made have all been kept and although some featured in Viktor & Rolf’s two previous retrospectives – in Paris and Kyoto – it is only today that they have dared take this eccentric behaviour of theirs and make it the focus of their third retrospective, which opened last night at the Barbican in London.
‘Their last two shows were all about the present, this one looks to the past,’ explains architect and art historian Siebe Tettero who not only designed the show but has also designed Viktor & Rolf’s shops in Milan, Dubai and Moscow and is Rolf’s partner. ‘Named The House of Viktor & Rolf, we wanted to focus on their past collections and this little story of them with the dolls was a great starting point,’ he explains.
Although the real dolls are also on show, Tettero decided to build on this with an even more impressive miniature world. Using the raw, but very large space of the Barbican, he created a doll’s house on three levels. Inside the structure, which people can walk around but not enter, are 50 porcelain dolls on a scale of 1:3 wearing Viktor & Rolf outfits chosen from past collections.
Measuring an impressive 7m wide x 5m high x 6m deep, the doll’s house is made of wood and was put together by professional builders in a warehouse in Kent. The dolls are handmade and imported from China, while the clothes are of course handmade to the right scale by Viktor & Rolf themselves in their studio.
‘The idea is to not only create a fantastic show but to make people aware of the space. I always aim to make people conscious of themselves by looking at something else,’ explains Tettero. Are you ever worried of the space overshadowing the clothes? Tettero laughs. ‘That is one luxury I have working with Viktor & Rolf, whatever I do, however spectacular my space I can’t compete, I will never overpower the clothes.’
INFORMATION
- Event dates
- 18 June 2008 to 21 September 2008
- Website
- http://www.barbican.org.uk/gallery
- Address
- Barbican Art Gallery
London EC2
