THE PASSING OF NUMEROUS FASHION DESIGNERS

BULETIN TEKSTIL.COM/ Jakarta – Throughout 2022 until the beginning of 2023, the world of international fashion design has experienced many losses and sorrow. During that period, a numerous amount of legendary famous fashion designers, such as Thierry Mugler, Nino Cerruti, Hanae Mori, Issey Miyake, Vivienne Westwood, and Paco Rabanne have passed away. They are recognized as the ground breaker in the world of fashion, and their influences are still felt until today.

Thierry Mugler, or full name Manfred Thierry Mugler, was born in Strasbourg, France, on December 21^st, 1948. Mugler started his career in the fashion world since the 1960s. In 1971 he started to design for Karin fashion house, then experienced huge success in the 1980s. Thierry Mugler revolutionized the world of fashion with his reversed triangle silhouette design. His design was marked with a garment design that has a wide shoulder and his tendency for theatrical designs. Mugler was influenced mainly by designs from the 1940s, especially by its tailoring techniques.

Throughout his career, Thierry Mugler had dressed numerous big names in the entertainment industry, such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Cardi B, Beyonce, Kim Kardashian, and many more. One if his most famous designs is the black dress worn by Demi Moore in the Indecent Proposal movie (1993). In 2002, Mugler stepped down and retire from his brand Thierry Mugler which he built, though he was still actively designing and getting involved in numerous important projects until his passing in January 23^rd, 2022, at the age of 73 years.

Nino Cerruti was born on September 25^th, 1930, in Biella, Italia. He was born into a family who owns a textile factory, Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti, which was founded in 1881 by his grandfather. At the age of 20 years, Cerruti inherited the textile factory after the passing of his father. He was forced to abandon his university education in philosophy and journalism to continue the business left by his father.

Armed with his knowledge of producing the best quality textiles from his family company, Cerruti began his attempt to design garments. He created his first menswear collection called “Hitman” in 1957. Hitman was considered as a revolutionary design at that time as it was the first ready to wear design for male. He recruited Giorgio Armani to work for his label Hitman from 1964 to 1970, before Armani established his own brand. Cerruti established his haute couture line, Cerruti 1881, in 1967, in Paris. In 1970 Nino Cerruti created his first deconstructed jacket. A deconstructed jacket is a jacket that is not layered like traditional tailoring, so it has a more casual appearance.

His designs were worn by many famous public figures, such as actors and actresses, even world renown athletes. Many of his designs were used in numerous Hollywood movies, such as Pretty Woman, Basic Instinct, The Silence of the Lambs, and Bonnie and Clyde. In 1994, Cerruti was even appointed to design the uniform for the Formula 1 Ferrari racing team. Nino Cerruti resigned from his brand Cerruti 1881 in 2002, and focused himself on his family’s textile company, Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti, until his passing on January 2022, at the age of 91 years.

Hanae Mori was born in Muikiachi, Shimane, Japan, on January 8^th, 1926. She is one of the only two female fashion designers from Japan who have their fashion collections featured in the catwalks of Paris Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week, and was the first Asian female designer who was accepted as the member of Fédération Française de la Couture, the haute couture association in France. Hanae Mori opened her design studio in 1951. After several years of designing costumes for Japanese movies, she presented her first collection on the runway of New York fashion week, which was called “East Meets West” in 1965, which successfully integrated Japanese traditional motifs with the cuts and silhouettes from West.

Hanae Mori had a signature in her designs, that is by adding butterfly decorations on her garments. Hence, she was called “Madame Butterfly”. Besides butterflies, Mori used a lot of vegetal  and animal motifs from Japanese kimono textiles which were applied into dresses with modern cuts. Throughout her career, Hanae Mori was selected three times as the designer for Japan Airlines (JAL) uniforms, between 1968 until 1988. She was also appointed to design Japan team’s uniform for the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992, and Lillehammer in 1994. She was Princess Masako’s wedding dress designer when the princess married Prince Naruhito in 1993. Numerous famous names have worn her designs, such as Princess Grace Kelly from Monaco, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Reagan.

In 2004, Hanae Mori decided to retire after she announced that she was closing her fashion house, in the same year, before she passed away on August 11^th, 2022, at the age of 96 years.

Issey Miyake is a fashion designer from Japan. Born as Kazunaru Miyake on April 22^nd, 1938, in Hiroshima, Japan. He was seven years old when the United States dropped the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945, making him one of the survivors of the event.

Miyake found his interest in fashion design when he was pursuing his education in Tama Art University, Tokyo, when he studied fashion magazines owned by his sister. This encouraged him to enter a fashion design competition in Bunka School, though he did not win, due to this lack of knowledge in patternmaking and sewing. After graduating from Tama, Miyake registered himself to Chambre Syndicale de la Couture in Paris. After he graduated, Miyake interned at Guy Laroche as a designer assistant, and also interned at Hubert de Givenchy, where he was required to draw 50-100 sketches every day. In 1969 Miyake had the chance to work at Geoffrey Beene in New York for one year, before he came back to Tokyo and established Miyake Design Studio.

Issey Miyake is known to be a designer who loves technology. He tried to integrate technology in all of his garment designs or productions. He began experimenting pleats technique at the end of 1980s. For Miyake’s pleated garment designs, he cut and sew his garments, then applied the permanent pleats afterwards. This technique was uncommon, as most people would cut the fabric and applied the pleats, then sew the garment. This new pleating technique was then copyrighted, and he used it for many of his designs, hence Miyake is known as Prince of Pleats. His design constructions were also often uncommon. He tried to play with silhouettes and human body proportions, making him as one of the avant garde designers, yet still wearable. One of his innovative designs s the A-POC concept (A Piece of Cloth), that is to use computer programming to cut the entire garment without any seams.

From many of his designs which are worn by famous public figures, Steve Jobs, founder of the Apple company is the most prominent. Their friendship encouraged Steve Jobs to ask Issey Miyake to design a garment for him. Miyake then designed a turtleneck top that was always worn by Steve Jobs. In an interview, Jobs admitted that he owned 100 similar turtleneck tops designed by Issey Miyake.

Issey Miyake passed away on August 5^th, 2022, at the age of 84, due to cancer, after pronounced his retirement in 1998.

Vivienne Westwood, or Dame Vivian Isabel Westwood was born in Tintwistle, Cheshire, England, on April 8^th, 1941. Without having a background in fashion, Westwood achieved her skills and knowledge in fashion by self-taught.

Vivienne Westwood started to gain fame in the 1970s when she and her husband at that time, Malcolm McLaren, opened a clothing store that sold punk garments designed by them. Garments that were sold in the store were specifically designed for the punk communities which evolved at that time. Their controversial and unusual designs are meant as means of rebellion from stability and social issues at that time. Malcolm Mc Laren was also the band manager of Sex Pistols, a famous punk group band at that time. Their androgyny designs used a lot of unusual materials, worn by the group band members, so much that it skyrocketed Westwood’s popularity in the punk communities. Hence, Vivienne Westwood is considered as one of the architects of punk fashion.

Aside from defining and designing punk fashion, Vivienne Westwood also created several unique designs, such as mini-crini, which is a modern interpretation of crinoline dresses from the Victorian period, which was made into a mini skirt version. At the beginning of 1980s, the New Romantic style started to gain popularity. Again, Westwood was one of the designers who early adopted this style and interpreted this style to her designs. She was the designer who was responsible for the stage costumes of one of the New Romantic bands at that time, Adam and the Ants.

In the following years, Vivienne Westwood continued to produce creations that really influenced the world of fashion, so much, that the United Kingdom awarded knighthood to her, not only once but twice, in 1992 and 2006, so that she is entitled to use Dame in front of her name. Between the many awards she achieved in her lifetime, Westwood had three times received award as British Fashion Designer of the Year in 1990, 1991, and 2006.

Since 2013, Vivienne Westwood was appointed by Richard Branson, proprietor of an English airline company, Virgin Atlantis, to design uniforms for their whole employees, including pilots and airline crews. The uniforms were designed using high technology and considering sustainability, among others are recycled polyester, and was made using stainproof materials that can retain colors longer, so that the uniforms can be used longer. Westwood was also long known as an environment activist and observer of social political issues.

Vivienne Westwood passed away on December 29^th, 2022, at the age of 81, at her home in Clapham, South of London, surrounded by her family and close friends.

Paco Rabanne was born Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo on February 18^th, 1934, in Pasaia, Gipuzkoa, Spain. He started his career by making jewelleries for numerous famous fashion houses such as Givenchy, Dior, and Balenciaga, before he finally established his own fashion house in 1966.

Paco Rabanne’s name started to gain its name in the fashion world since the 1960s as one of the “enfant terrible”, a French term for creative genius people who are able to produce jaw dropping creations that were unthinkable before, sometimes even provocative. Rabanne used many unusual materials at that time, such as metal, paper, and plastic, for his “metal couture” garments, often considered bizarre and flamboyant. He also incorporated many futuristic elements in his designs, hence Rabanne became famous for his space age style. For his first collection which was released in 1966, Rabanne released “Manifesto: 12 unwearable dresses in contemporary materials”. This space age collection was considered revolutionary at that time, so that Rabanne is often considered as a futurist.

Paco Rabanne did many collaborations with numerous iconic fashion houses and designed costumes for various movies, such as Barbarella starring Jane Fonda, also Two for the road starring Audrey Hepburn.

Aside from being a fashion designer, Paco Rabanne’s name became increasingly worldwide for his perfume creations. He started collaborating with Puig company in 1968, that resulted in the release of their first perfume, Calandre, in 1969. Afterwards he created several other world renown perfumes, such as XS, 1 Million, and Lady Million.

Paco Rabanne passed way on February 3^rd, 2023 in Portsall, Ploudalmézeau, France, at the age of 88 years.

(Red B-Teks/Shinta Djiwatampu)

Fashion Design Program Director

LaSalle College Jakarta

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