Author(s): Filep Motwary

Fashion

How connected are fashion designers to the body they design for today? Is there truly a way for the body to be trained in order to serve fashion? How can you manoeuvre emotion through your work? Each era has its dominant themes and fashion readily reflects them. Fashion as a reflection of society is also a privileged lens to see things more consciously. The necessity to sharpen the focus on the interlinked trilogy of the body, the mind, and politics is what has seamlessly been questioned in this provocative series of interviews. Curator, author, journalist, photographer and costume designer Filep Motwary releases his latest book ideated by Polimoda, THEOREM[A]: The Body, Emotion + Politics in Fashion. Formatted as a series of interviews with select contemporary fashion key figures, the book investigates the dressed body as a political statement, focusing on the linked trilogy of the mind, body and politics. In his provocative series of interviews, Motwary spoke with participants chosen for their professional integrity, their body of work and vast knowledge of historical and contemporary fashion, among other factors. Interviews were conducted with Hussein Chalayan, Jean Paul Gaultier, Pamela Golbin, Iris van Herpen, Harold Koda, Michèle Lamy, Thierry-Maxime Loriot, Antonio Mancinelli, Suzy Menkes, Violeta Sanchez, Valerie Steele, Jun Takahashi, Olivier Theyskens, Viktor & Rolf and Nick Knight. The interviews each explore the essence and perception of the body, poetic emotion and politics, touching specifically on the issues and controversies surrounding the current state of fashion.