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FASHION
AND DESIGN
Op Art Explosion
As Op Art and the artists at the movements forefront gained
recognition; the youth culture explosion of the sixties was gaining
momentum. Mod bands such as The Who crossed over to the
U.S. and everyone wanted a piece of The London Look.
The mod style, which was already waning in the U.K., reached the
other side of the Atlantic at around the same time as the 1965
exhibition The Responsive Eye in New York, which showcased
the work of Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely.
Suddenly Op Art patterns started appearing on everything from
clothes to advertisements, stationery, furnishing fabrics and that
useful garment peculiar to the 1960s: the paper dress.
Op Art Exploitation?
Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely had polar opposite
views on the commercialisation of their work. While
Vasarely thought that art should be for everyone and
even collaborated with textile firms, Riley was
dismayed at seeing her original work co-opted for
commercial use without her permission.
In February 1965, Riley was being driven from the airport to the Museum of Modern Art in New
York. Travelling up Madison Avenue she saw in the shop windows row upon row of dresses with
designs lifted from her paintings. Riley denounced the way her art was being vulgarized in the rag
trade and publicly expressed her deep anger at the commercialisation of one of her paintings by
a New York dress firm. The firm was producing dresses with a design based on one of her
paintings which was owned by the director of the firm. She tried to sue for copyright infringement
but was unsuccessful.
Quant contacted suppliers of theatrical costumes who, thanks to advances in synthetic fibres and
manufacturing techniques, could make opaque woven tights in the same colours as the skirts she
designed. This meant skirt lengths could rise and rise while still protecting the modesty of the
wearer to a certain extent.
Op Art Textiles
Textile companies Heals, Hull Traders & Edinburgh
Weavers led the way in developing Op Art prints into
furnishing fabrics; though usually the colours and patterns
were more muted than the eye straining patterns used
for clothing.
Edinburgh Weavers was the experimental arm of
Scottish textile firm Morton Sundour, which
commissioned leading artists, including Victor Vasarely,
to create patterns.
Barbara Brown's 'Expansion' fabric for Heals
Eduardo Paolozzi designed prints for Hull Traders and Barbara Brown designed for Heals. Barbara
Brown in particular was probably the most prolific designer of Op Art influenced furnishing fabrics.
Op Art Lives On
The resurgence of fabrics by Finnish company
Marimekko has led to a new generation of fans
inspired by their bright prints, loved the first time
around in the sixties. Missonis stripes and zigzags
owe something to Op Art but they are woven,
rather than printed.
UK textile artist Helen Owen has created some
fascinating Op Art textile designs over the past few
years and continues to work in this style.
Eley Kishimotos op-art flame print has been used on
everything from cars to backpacks to motorbike
helmets in the past few years.
Op Art Helmet - Eley Kishimoto
Collaboration with Ruby Helmets (2008)
Bridget Riley
Op Art was a term coined in 1964. Optically distorted geometric patterns in
black and white produced a whole range of movements on a surface. When
applied to fabric it created a new bold look in fashion and accessories. Op
Arts primary goal was to fool the eye. Bridget Rileys dazzling black-and-white
paintings triggered an op art fashion craze in the 1960's. Victor Vasarely was
also an influence. Op's greatest moment was the "The Responsive Eye"
exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965.
Pop Art was an art movement and style that had its
origins in England in the 1950's and made its way to the
United States during the 1960's. Pop artists have focused
attention upon familiar images of the popular culture such
as billboards, comic strips, magazine advertisements, and
supermarket products.
The original Pop art fashion movement was both political,
in that it challenged the domination of couture and
bourgeois status dressing, and an artistic reaction to
abstract art and design, with the satirical and ironic use of
advertising and of representational everyday objects.