“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision,” said the prominent artists Salvador Dalí, who took great pride in parading a dinner jacket adorned with real wine glasses on one occasion.
The women who fled their homes in the 1920s to escape a dull life in favor of a more bohemian lifestyle would, at times, spice up their wardrobe by cutting two dresses into half and splice the sections into four sections. The rearranging if the panels would create an entirely fresh ensemble they would later show off in the terraces of La Rotunde in Paris, France.
These surreal garments resembled a rule-free collage meant for experimenting and provoking imagination – and now, it seems to be back greater than ever.
Glorious jumbles of such kind were renaissance meets urban hybrids and grew in number on recent runways, as was observed in the latest Paris Fashion Week. Vogue magazine’s Lynn Yaeger put it best by saying, “Let’s call these latest versions Frankenstein dresses—born of an impulse to cut and combine, like that sacred monster, made of parts that were never intended to end up together.”
This stylish cry for attention was a favorite one of many designers, as was evident by the amount of Frankenstein dresses found strutting the catwalk. All seemed to be cut horizontally and sewed in the middle to create a completely different composition only the bravest would dare to wear.
And although many garments were far from usual in this week of appealing unorthodox cuts and designs, this particular trend was jotted as one to watch for the next big break. Personally, we can’t wait to see what comes out of this frock, and hope designers will continue to dare to be different.
