The boundaries “between skin and clothing” are fluid – as they are between art and fashion. Both meet in the space where new visual discoveries are made, where materials are tried out and current concepts of beauty are critiqued. Fashion designers use extreme hyperbole and fantastical exaggeration to re-interpret traditional ideas about clothing, or even the entire fashion system, and so change our understanding of these. The exhibition and catalogue explore this intriguing border region and demonstrate how these disciplines are interlinked in a constant process of investigation and inspiration: for example, in Rees’ leather skins, Le Mindu’s hair sculptures or the wax child’s shoe by Gober.

artists/designers
Sandra Backlund, Walter Van Beirendonck, BLESS, Louise Bourgeois, Nick Cave, Helen Chadwick, Hussein Chalayan, Comme des Garçons / Rei Kawakubo, Christophe Coppens,
Salvador Dalí, Naomi Filmer, Robert Gober, Maison Martin Margiela, Charlie Le Mindu, Dai Rees, Freddie Robins, Elsa Schiaparelli, ManfreDu Schu, Jana Sterbak, Francesco Vezzoli, Viktor & Rolf and Anna-Nicole Ziesche