Form & Function Exhibition

The Art Nouveau movement was a domination of the cultural scene during the brilliant period at the end of the 19th century. It was a movement that influenced furnishings to decorative art to architecture and advertising, by its curvilinear elegance and organic forms inspired by nature. Until about 1908 or 1909, art nouveau style was energetically appropriated for seasonal, high-fashion use. 

In this exhibition – Form and Function, it is going to be a showcase of fashion inspired from the graphics of the art nouveau period and how the essence of the graphical style of art nouveau is translated into fashion. Through the encapsulation of the essence of art nouveau, the art style has morphed and brought in a new perspective of the movement itself and breaking out of the old context. This exhibition is to mainly focus on obtaining the purest of the forms of nature and the three dimensional effect, interpreting into a realistic and modern inspiration in fashion that can be realized on the masses.  

There are three parts in this exhibition, the first part, which is known as gaze into the past, showcases works of artists in comparison with the designed fashion pieces to show how inspiration is drew from the graphical forms and styles of artists like Alphonse Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley etc. It helps the audience gain an initial insight into the exhibition and also be inspired by the fusion of the styles adopted in graphic designs (form) and fashion (function), into what we know as prints on fashion nowadays.  

The second part, known as the eye of the era, showcases the evolution of art nouveau inspired patterns in fashion, from the early times. In the eye of the era, we are going to identify the traits of early art nouveau fashion and segmenting into different styles, such as silk brocade and lace, layered exotic style and even the hipless garconne look. It is to let the audience capture the essence of the graphical style of the past and how they were significantly translated onto the design of the piece itself.

The third part, which is known as nature’s studio, will be a very different part of the exhibition from the eye of the era. This part of the exhibition showcases the future works and shows artist experimentations with natural materials and techniques to create three dimensional forms and patterns created by nature. It highlights the essence of nature itself, stripped to its bare minimum which brings out the greater meaning of the exhibition; creating the new but preserving the essence of the past (art nouveau).