Friday, June 29, 2007 Functional Revivalism By Clint Holton P. Potestas
GEORGE Canning, British Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, could have been speaking for modern fashion designers when, in 1824, he declared: “I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.”
Hope against hope. Thirties couturier Elsa Schiaparelli, however, cautioned about the risk of revivalism: it can become pastiche (a straight copy of another period or another creator) or caricature--a version exaggerating its strongest points and weakening both the original and the copy.
For Cebuano young designer Humberto Villegas, there’s nothing to argue about. The convergence of something old and new always inspires the execution. “A design that you could wear today… then tomorrow,” he explains. “The style is classic going to the present, concluding to the future.”
To old clothes, don’t say goodbye. According to Humberto, reviving fashion must be functional; it must live through different style genre. “When you have an ‘emergency’ party, you could just open the cabinet—pak! I could wear this,” the designer stressed. “Let’s face the fact nga… It’s really expensive to have a dress made—and you’ll just wear it once.
As his clothes evolve, they must stand the test of time, washing machine, and series of house help shifts. He’s meticulous of the style construction. The survival of his creations measures his styling and designing taste.
How such changes have taken place in the last 50 years is as important as looking at what they are. In a continuous line, fashion travels; the present can only be illuminated by an understanding of the past. What happened to the ‘60s or 50’, or even earlier, links directly with the preoccupations and fashion in the early ages.
