'Dystopian Utopia' In The World of Fashion

Dystopian utopia, a contradiction in itself, is an up and coming style in the fashion world. From whimsical dresses to sultry heeled boots, we take a look at the contrast between dystopia and utopia.

Vivienne Westwood

Westwood will always be known for her part in the creation of punk. But in the 30-plus years since her split from partner and collaborator Malcolm McLaren, she has forged a rebel aesthetic that is truly her own. throughout the 1980s, Vivienne Westwood's designs underwent prolific change. At the beginning, her work explored post-punk androgyny and, influenced by 18th century men's clothing she created her iconic "Pirates" collection in 1981. As the decade progressed her silhouettes because more feminine and tailored. Westwood's designs today are still full of bizarre and expressive silhouettes such as this dress she designed for mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato for her performance in Alcina. The exaggerated shoulder pads throughout designs, and the flamboyant skirts carefully conducted for the etching dresses, Vivienne Westwood is very much a designer that that continues to thrive through going against norms. The perfect combination of masculinity and femininity.

Susan Fang

Utopian thinking challenges our perception of reality and it is fuelled by desire - desire for a better life, desire for a world where our dreams come true. Fashion, like utopia, is also permeated by desire, fashion inspires and has the power to transform the way we feel about ourselves and the world around us.

The vision of SUSAN FANG is to not be led by trend or style or even an aesthetic, but to surpass the realm of design to express a mirage of artistic illusions. FANG is inspired by concepts relating to the perception of beauty and the instinctive allure of nature-the-ever-present fractals. These precise mathematical formulas of repetition and rhythm create the most beautiful chaos with understandable geometrics. For W/A 2018 Susan developed an entirely new weave of techniques she named as "Air-weave", which allows the fabric itself to float between two and three- dimensional realms, allowing the silhouette to capture the designs' unusual and whimsical look accompanied by imagination through its fluid movements.