China: Through the Looking Glass

by Andrew Bolton, Adam Geczy (Contributor), Maxwell K. Hearn (Contributor)

For centuries, China’s export arts—jade, silks, porcelains, and, more recently, cinema—have fueled Western fantasies of an exotic East and served as enduring sources of inspiration for fashion. This stunning publication explores the influence of Chinese aesthetics on designers, including Giorgio Armani, Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Ralph Lauren, Alexander McQueen, and Yves Saint Laurent. Drawing upon Chinese decorative arts, cinema, and costume—notably imperial court robes, the close-fitting cheongsam, and the unisex Mao suit—their designs are fantastical pastiches of anachronistic motifs. As in the game of “telephone”—which the British call “Chinese whispers”—the process of cultural translation transforms the source material into ingeniously original fashions that are products solely of the designers’ imaginations.
 
In a similar way, contemporary Chinese film directors render fanciful, highly stylized evocations of various epochs in China’s history—demonstrating that China’s imagery is equally seductive to artists in the East and further inspiring today’s designers. Juxtaposing modern fashions and film stills with their forebears in fine and decorative arts and historical dress, Chinese Whispers reveals the rich and ongoing creative dialogue between East and West, past and present.

Genres: Art, Fashion, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2015

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visually, this book is stunning. It was designed to accompany a Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute's spring 2015 exhibition. It is particularly strong in the images of western designers such as Yves Saint Laurent who incorporated Chinese influences in their fashion. It also includes some gorgeous historical images and the photography is definitely five star. However, the book is marred by one unforgivable flaw. The filmography does not include the names of the costume designers! The few captions of images from films include the actress wearing the garment, but not the designer who created it. Definitely worth the price but disappointing for a researcher.

[Louloulou · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never went to the "Through the Looking Glass" exhibition and I was not very fond of the idea of showing "fashion" in an "art museum." What is more, at the first glance, it seemed to be a celebration of Western designers' play with decontextualized superficial symbols of China (at Metropolitan, with the collaboration Maxwell K. Hearn? Hmmm.).

However, this catalogue justifies the exhibition to a great extent. Andrew Bolton, the main curator, was quite aware of Orientalism and the danger of that. He was not trying to show the real China, but the China imagined by designers and filmmakers: "Their China is one of their own making: mythical, fictional, and fantastical, it exists only in their minds."

Maybe this is a step forward in the development of exhibitions of non-Western-related themes-- historicizing the exhibits and bearing in mind that a single exhibition cannot represent the fluid and rich reality. What is more, it is quite up to date with the scholarly trend -- many art historians are now studying visual culture and fashion.

[Aurelia Littlepage · Rating 4 out of 5]

The transparent pages in between images were so cool!!

[K. 🦉 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really beautiful book full of photographs, illustrations, and even vellum prints. If you couldn't make it to the exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, then this is a way to catch a glimpse of what was showcased.

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has there ever been a more beautifully designed book?

Nope.