But why the Barbican? Why not somewhere more opulent like the
Victoria & Albert Museum, which housed Vivienne Westwood's
retrospective in 2004? "Well, the Barbican called us around two years
ago about it", explains Victor. "And we immediately said yes because
it's easily the coolest arts place in London. We also knew it would be
challenging and fun because we started out in the art world [the pair
met while studying at the Arnhem Art Academy in Amsterdam] and it was a
chance to come back to our roots."
Victor & Rolf have
always had an interesting position in fashion. Everything is
conceptual, with nothing is to be taken at face value. These are the
designers who fly posted the streets of Paris in 1996 to announce their
own strike against fashion in a personal revolt against fashion's
seasonality. They instead opted to design for Haute Couture for a
while. Since then, each catwalk show has featured something weirder and
more surreal than the last (models rigged up to their own scaffolding
and spotlighting system incorporated into the outfits, anyone?), which
of course makes them perfect art museum silage. The exhibition is
totally odd and takes really quite sinister turns in the rooms on each
side of the dolls house installation, where 6ft doubles of the
miniature dolls (dressed in the real collections from over the years)
can be seen, against a backdrop of projections of the original catwalk
shows the clothes appeared in. "I can't stress enough how happy we are
to have been given this opportunity", enthuses Victor, with Rolf
nodding furiously in agreement. "We had to re-think a lot of what we
have done over the years. And it's true what the critics say; we do try
and express something more than a trend with our shows every season.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but that's what we're trying
to do with our career and hopefully convey with this exhibition."
Almost Warholian in their self-created hybrid area between fashion
and art, Victor and Rolf challenge common notions of what really
inspires fashion designers. "People still harbour narrow views of what
a fashion designer is", says Victor. "We want to challenge that".
Combining their love of extreme form, theatre and the sculptural
qualities of their collections, The House of Victor & Rolf at the
Barbican is truly a step into fantasyland.
