Förgängligt mode eller varaktig konst?
Mode, konst och förgänglighet i kollektionen Haute Papier av Bea Szenfeld
EphemeralityFleeing momentFashion and artPaper garmentsObject analysisCritique of the age in which we liveBea SzenfeldHaute PapierFörgänglighetFlyktigt ögonblickMode och konstPappersplaggBea SzenfeldHaute Papier
Ephemerality is one of the most essential characteristics of fashion, since fashion by definition is existing in the present, in the fleeing moment. Also, fashion is closely related to art and there is currently no clear theoretical distinction made regarding the boundary between these two domains. In this essay I have explored the concept of transiency and the relationship between fashion and art in relation to fashion in general and to the collection Haute Papier, made by the fashion designer Bea Szenfeld, in specific. The Haute Papier collection is constructed almost entirely out of simple white paper sheets and of this reason it can be regarded as ephemeral. The material also positions the garments in a void between fashion and art, simultaneously existing in both domains and in none of them. I have conducted an object analysis of three of the garments from Haute Papier with the aim of discerning aspects of ephemerality, aspects that criticizes the age in which we live and how the collection positions itself in regard to fashion and art. The theories that I have applied to my material emanates from different aspects of transiency and the fashion and art relationship and includes, among others, theories from Walter Benjamin and Barbara Vinken and extractions from the anthology Fashion and Art by Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas. In the analysis it became visible that transiency can be discerned in many varying aspects of the collection, for example in the material and in the time in which fashion operates. What also became visible was that the definition of the object, as art or as fashion, above all depends on which system it is part of, but that it also can change this definition if the context changes.