Fashion
Explorations of fashion
as a medium
By: Bradley Quinn With their sleek silhouettes, futuristic motifs, technological interfaces and interactive surfaces, the garments designed by Pia Myrvold are some of the most visionary expressions of fashion today. Her designs often defy typical fashion terminology as they reference abstractions such as identity, philosophy and expression, and cite tangibles such as architecture, art, technology and urban cityscapes. Myrvold’s fashion collections evoke new systems of communication and fresh forums for interaction; ideas that seem to deconstruct traditional concepts of fashion rather than legitimise them. Myrvold first learned to sew and then taught herself how to design and make patterns. Her unique position as an artist and craftsperson has enabled her to refute the conventions imposed by fashion experts and the industry in general. Myrvold’s point of departure was the decision to integrate fashion with other disciplines in order to create connections between the visual, the ideological and the technological, which she then bridged with the human body. At the end of the 1990’s, Myrvold’s work contributed to the emerging genre known as ‘techno fashion’, and her vision for ‘Cyber- couture’ launched a web-based fashion platform eight years before the industry grasped the potential that interactive fashion has. Since launching the Cocoon collection in March 1993, Myrvold has regarded clothing as a site of exploration. Cocoon was immediately bought by Charivari, once regarded as the most avant-garde fashion boutique in New York. Barbara Weiser, the boutique’s owner, was drawn to the collection’s billowing shapes and intricately structured fabrics, and displayed the garments in the Madison Avenue storefront windows. The collection alluded to a more intense interpretation of clothing than is found within the narrow constraints of mainstream fashion, and introduced something fresh to the New York scene. ‘She’s in her own world’, said Manhattan- based fashion designer Yeohlee of Myrvold’s work, ‘and once you get into her world you understand how profound her work really is.’
