dimensions variable
The project Banga (Wave) has been titled after the fashion magazine of the Vilnius Fashion House (VFH) popular in the second half of the 20th century. The exhibition focuses on fashion tendencies of the 1970s, and of polka dot and bubble ornaments that have been reappearing in recent fashion. The VFH which has been in business for decades might be called the veteran of Lithuanian fashion. Upon my request, the art director of the VFH Jolanta Talaikyte created new sketches of casual and evening dresses and suits according to the descriptions of former models from the VFH magazine (without being shown the photos of actual models). Later two dressmakers of different ages working privately in Vilnius, Natalya and Olya, made silk dresses and suits for the artist according to the old and new models. The garments have been tailored for my figure. In the exhibition, both the former models and the new models are hung in juxtaposition.
I am questioning what makes the dress models of various eras different, and what makes them similar? What is the relation between the understanding and assessment of aesthetics in the past and the present, between what has been forgotten and what is being made today? In my opinion, the phenomena similar to those that existed in the past can be found today as well. I represent the world of the Lithuanian woman through a comparison of the designs of dresses and costumes of the Vilnius Fashion House produced in the 1970s and those produced in the present day.
In the Soviet period Lithuanian fashion was ideologically limited – its simplicity, practicality and universality, rather than individuality, was emphasized. In contemporary life however, despite its liberal forms and the features of the free market, the world is affected by globalization, which uses controlling instruments thus limiting the individual almost as if appropriating the rhetoric of the Soviet system. An obvious example is the fixed dress codes widespread in the contemporary fashion industry, which offer a fashion show with particularly strict rules of the game. I would dare to assert that the contemporary dress code system not only subjugates the person, but also eliminates those who do not yield to the dress code – those persons are publicly criticized. "Even the new fashion tendencies introduced at the beginning of each season are basically speculated only for the purpose of increasing the sales, while fashion itself does not change so rapidly as it may seem at first sight" (the art director of the Vilnius Fashion House J. Talaikyte).
Image: from the project Banga – Collection, 2006, series of dresses and costumes