Manus x Machina

When in New York recently, I was lucky enough to see the Manus x Machina (hand x machine) exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was an exhibition that looked at fashion in an age of technology and it really was a fabulous show.

Traditionally, haute couture was classified as being hand made, whereas ready-to-wear was all about the machine and mass-production.  However, as technology develops this line is blurring and the show explored how the top designers are embracing machines and technology in new and wonderful creations.

However, I think it did more than that. It showed the enormous creativity, imagination, dare I say the genius of the top designers of the 20th and 21st centuries. But also the exquisite craftsmanship of the people they work with who seem to be the unsung heroes of their time. Not that it was always the case. Apparently, in the mid-1700s the crafts were placed on the same footing as the arts and sciences, being listed in the Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts (1751-72) and this exhibition demonstrated, to me at least, that this should still be the case in 2016.

The crafts showcased in the Manus x Machina exhibition were embroidery, featherwork, artificial flowers, pleating, lacework and leatherwork. Excuse the poor photographs but here's a small snapshot of what these master craftsmen and women can do (as well as the creativity of the designers that employ them).

1950's Dior & 2010's McQueen

...and again

Feathers? No, plastic drinking straws!

White plastic drinking straws

Artificial flower dresses, 1920s to current

My favourite piece: Raf Simons (Dior) 2015

Over-dress embroidered by Broderies Vermont

Under-dress embroidered by Atelier Montes

Pleating from the traditional to the 3D-printed

The pleating and folding genius, Issey Miyake

The above dress when not worn

Issey Miyake: this becomes...

...this.

And this...

...becomes this.

Doesn't Issey Miyake make you think about construction and shape in a whole new way?

Exquisite, hand-made lace

3D-printed 'lace'

The exhibition has made me think a lot about the value we place on the hand-made and the machine-made:

Is one better than the other or should we better value creativity, imagination, and the ability to use the tools of your trade - be that pencil and paper, needle and thread, or computer software and robot-controlled machine?

Is the sub-heading of my blog 'handmade stuff in a manufactured world' redundant?

Shouldn't crafts be reinstated on an equal footing to arts and science?