Experimental Fashion

Shortlisted for the Millia Davenport Publication Award. Experimental Fashion traces the proliferation of the grotesque and carnivalesque within contemporary fashion and the close relation between fashion and performance art, from Lady Gaga's raw meat dress to Leigh Bowery's performance style. The book examines the designers and performance artists at the turn of the 21st century whose work challenges established codes of what represents the fashionable body. These innovative people, the book argues, make their challenges through dynamic strategies of parody, humour and inversion. It explores the experimental work of modern designers such as Georgina Godley, Bernhard Willhelm, Rei Kawakubo and fashion designer, performance artist, and club figure Leigh Bowery. It also discusses the increased centrality of experimental fashion through the pop phenomenon, Lady Gaga.

Francesca Granata is Associate Professor of Fashion Studies at Parsons School of Design. She is the author of Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body, and editor of the non-profit journal Fashion Projects.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Against Power Dressing: Georgina Godley Chapter 2 Fashioning the Maternal Body: Rei Kawakubo Chapter 3 Performing Pregnancy: Leigh Bowery Chapter 4 Deconstruction and the Grotesque: Martin Margiela Chapter 5 Carnivalized Time: Martin Margiela Chapter 6 Carnival Iconography: Bernhard Willhelm Chapter 7 Fashion and Performance: Lady Gaga Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Index