A take on fashion

Pamela Golbin est une figure de renommée internationale dans l’industrie de la mode, avec une connaissance historique approfondie des questions culturelles et du design.  Elle est une experte de premier plan dans le domaine de la mode contemporaine et a organisé des expositions qui ont fait date dans le monde entier. Mme Golbin est également un auteur à succès et est régulièrement invitée à donner des conférences et à enseigner dans le monde entier. De 1993 à 2018, Mme Golbin a été conservateur en chef de la mode et du textile au Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris. En 2019, elle a été nommée directrice artistique de la résidence d’artiste Jacquard x Google Arts & Culture.

How does the current crisis impact the relationship to clothing and fashion?
The entire value chain has been severely hit by the Pandemic from the creative design to its production and distribution. But, disruption is part of fashion’s DNA and has been for several centuries fueling its constant evolution and profound transformations to align with our contemporary needs and desires.

How does/can fashion play its individual expression and liberation role in our changing societies?
Vivienne Westwood points out, “Fashion design is almost like mathematics. You have a glossary of ideas that you can add or subtract from to get the right equation that sticks at a given time.” A visual language, Fashion has skillfully and patiently developed over time its own vocabulary, grammar and codes through designers’ creative visions to obtain a highly divers and sophisticated repertory that provides the ultimate tool to express our intimate aspirations.

Can you mention a piece of clothing, a collection, or an image that would embody fashion special role in 2020 for you?
Fashion relays multiple voices and messages to different audiences with one foot firmly anchored in reality while the other in the stuff of dreams. Two images from 2020 with two facets of Fashion’s role: function and fantasy.
Public Health, Justice and Politics are addressed and brought together in what has become the ubiquitous accessory of 2020, the face mask. The example pictured allows the wearer to clearly express their stance on currently politicised issues by referencing the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s values through her signature use of fashion collars.
Chaneling the Théâtre de la Mode (a touring fashion exhibition initiative in 1945 by the French Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to revive the industry after the War), Jeremy Scott imagined for Moschino’s lastest collection a Hollywood version fashion show with small-scale marionettes made by the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Looking to create magic, whimsy and fantasy, Scott feels: “Now more than ever we need escapism. If the marionette can be an avatar for your own fantasy…I love that. My role in fashion is to inspire, to hopefully lift people’s spirits and put a smile on their face.”
A smile that until further notice will be hidden under … the face mask.