Alongside Paris Fashion Week, Palais de Tokyo presents videos and performances by engaged and emerging creators in a series of hybrid, poetic and offbeat events. 

 

 

ioannes FW18 ‘Orlando’ plays witness to a unique dialogue between past and present by combining the iconic excess of the 1980’s with the timeless minimalism of 1990’s. Here, three main reference points are observed: the common grocery store plastic bag, the infamous 1980’s puff sleeve ensemble, and the blazer worn by the designer’s mother at her wedding in 1994. Various forms of emotional attachment bring these themes together to create a distinctive point of view, one that cites nostalgia as a driving aesthetic force.

            Garments vary from practical to playful, effortlessly oscillating between the masculine and the feminine. Taking cues from each of these worlds, the result is an offering fit for a modern day version of Virginia Woolf’s eponymous protagonist Orlando. Here, the ordinary is treasured and given a new beginning. Beauty is found in the familiar and placed into the present. The ambiguous poet transitions; evolving into a redefined, contemporary heroine.

ioannes places his FW 18 collection ‘Orlando’ within the monumental structure of Palais de Tokyo in a series of three stages: ‘Archive’, ‘Experiment’ and ‘Spectacle’. Each segment, diverse in length and intensity, strikes a total experience of ritual sequences throughout the day – breaking the confines of the traditional fashion show. Johannes Boehl Cronau aims to present an ever-changing yet consistent body of work, shaped by an intuitive approach. The German-born, Central Saint Martins Womenswear graduate defines his aesthetic through an unwavering affinity for the emotional nature of dressing.

 

« Archive » presents the garments in between the inanimate state; eventually worn and styled on the body and documented by photographer Marius Uhlig.

 

« Expérimentation » sees models painted and turned into living sculptures.

 

« Spectacle » deconstructs the collection against stylised bodies with the lines between stage and backstage blurred, breaking the confines of the traditional fashion show.

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