Audrey Hepburn & visionary Constructivist 60's Paco Rabanne

October 31, 11:51 PMEuropean Fashion ExaminerJoel Nikolaou

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Audrey Hepburn in black polyvinyl(PVC) Paco Rabanne-1967
www.clothesonfilm.com

• Audrey Hepburn at the height of 60's vanguard fashion. Paco Rabanne motorcycle jacket with single button cuffs, matching tapered leg center crease trousers, both in black PVC. Black and pink silk butcher’s stripe shirt with button down collar. Black leather boots with low heel.
• Audrey Hepburn in jersey mini-dress with thick red and yellow stripes. Contrast white cuffs and pointed collar buttoning from the chest, three-quarter length sleeves. White leather shoes and handbag to match. Yellow brim visor sunglasses with amber lenses.

Needless to say both of these ensembles represent the ultimate in 60's vanguard Euro fashion. The clothes worn by Audrey Hepburn in this movie "Two for the Road", are rarely even mentioned today. These clothes are Audrey Hepburn at the height of her fashion, yet somehow they have been completely ignored. When people talk about her, its referencing  "Breakfast at Tiffany's". 

 www.clothesonfilm.com.

Paco Rabanne was heavily influenced by The Futurist Art movement ,especially the Russian Futurists with their sharp clean designs, and even more so by the Russian Constructivists.  Varvara Stepanova's and Liubov Popova's cutting edge designs from 1923 are Revolutionary, in more ways the one. Russian Constructivist fashion design in the 1920's was the leading avant-garde fashion/design movement in the world. They were the shock troops of the avant-garde.

See my previous article on Pierre Cardin and the Italian Futurists

• The Russian Constructivists use of geometric patterns/designs and industrial materials were very influential, as well. Paco Rabanne referenced this aesthetic 40 years later in using plastics and other synthetics. Early Russian Constructivist fashion ideas included throw away paper clothing, others called for asexual or 'universal' clothing. Some extremists demanded "Away with shame"! and advocated nudity as the only possible outcome of the technological, new Democratic state.  Very radical anti-Bourgeois early progressive Bolshevik ideas.

Paco Rabanne curiously revived this Constructivist paper clothing idea. His paper clothes could be cut in form out of Vilbond and color cellophane tape without stitching. The dresses really took off in 1967, a year in which Rabanne also designed a line of Pacojamas (paper PJs) for Hilton hotels. The advantage of the new materials was that new clothes held their shape rather than being draped over the body. These were clothes for people on the go. Just like the Constructivists whose clothes were for the new worker, on the go to work in the new industrial state. Synthetics, bright colors, black and white, and silver with geometric and zipper accents offered an architectural, sculptural silhouette of angular lines. Again the Russian Constructivits theory of clothing advanced the concept that clothing should be functional, practical( in the Russian Constructivists mind it was for service to the new Revolutionary Bolshevik State). "The Machine tool depots of the factories and plants await you. Let's get industry moving." Let's go! Workers on the go. "Art is finished! It has no place in the human labor apparatus. Labor, technology, organization...that is the ideology of our time."

Paco Rabanne cut-out paper fashion. (www.spyvibeblogspot.com)

 For questions or comments please email joenikolaou@comast.net.