The element of water in fashion history

In astrology, the water signs - Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces - are marked by a fine sensitivity and strong intuition. Guided by their own feelings, the people born under the constellation of one of these three signs are very loyal and compassionate, have a profound imagination, but manage to retain, despite their fluctuating emotional state, an element of enigma. Perhaps because it is adaptable and elusive, perhaps because it is linked to the mysteries of the underwater world, the inherent fluidity of water has inspired countless catwalk looks and real works of art, such as the creative project "Salt Years" by Sigalit Landau, the artist who immersed heels and clothes in the Dead Sea for twenty years to cover them with crystallised salt, signifying an analogy of transmutative love and a future peaceful coexistence between peoples. Let's see together who, besides Landau, are the creatives who have succeeded in combining the world of fashion with the strong sense of sensuality and mystery that envelops the element of water, from prints to experimental exhibitions.

Submerged walkways, almost

Balenciaga FW20

Balenciaga FW20

Saint Laurent SS19

Saint Laurent SS19

Chanel SS19

Chanel SS19

Although the beach is renown as a place to relax, meditate, and calm down, the fashion industry has managed to portray it in a dark and gloomy way on the catwalk. «It's the darkest show I've ever done,» Balenciaga's creative director Demna Gvasalia explained to Vogue backstage, at his FW2020 show. Dimly lit rooms were flooded with water up to the second row of seats for a collection that took inspiration from the designer's Georgian origins, clerical clothing and the distinctive codes of the Catholic religion. The presence of water on the catwalk reflected the fiery red ceiling, portraying the apocalyptic atmosphere that has always fascinated Gvasalia. This scenic trick had also been used by Anthony Vaccarello the previous year, for Saint Laurent's SS19 show, but in that case it served as a backdrop for 60s and 70s dresses evoking the years of sexual liberation and the power of sensuality, and before that, it was Karl Lagerfeld who was immersing the glamour crowd in water, devising - together with none other than Zaha Hadid -  for Chanel's SS12 show a set inspired by an underwater reality, adorning the Grand Palais with large white and transparent sculptures, and hosting Florence Welch on the notes of "What the Water Gave Me" in a half-shell, Botticelli's Venus-style.

Pearls, stars and sharks

Versace SS92

Versace SS92

Versace SS21

Versace SS21

Burberry SS21

Burberry SS21

Inspired by the painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, in 1992 Gianni Versace revisited the printed silks that his customers had loved so much in the 1980s, nostalgically reintroducing "Trésors de la mer," the blue and gold motif that Donatella Versace also took inspiration from for her collections, as the code is firmly imprinted in the minds of those who love the Maison. The SS1992 looks created by Gianni Versace combined haute couture with the innocent simplicity of textiles such as denim, causing a stir - to describe the collection, Vogue wrote «Versace calls it 'romantic rock' or 'chic and shock'»- later taken up by his sister for SS21 in voluminous silhouettes and pop hues.

Similarly, British designer Simone Rocha took inspiration from the elements of the sea, albeit in a more romantic sense, using pearls as a metaphorical image to the point turning them into one of her brand's distinctive items. For the FW20 line, Rocha decided to base her designs on situations in which water plays a central role, such as birth and baptism. Looking at the play about life on the Irish Aran Islands Riders to the Sea, written by J.M. Synge, the looks thus combined the cream colour of wool with the reflectiveness of mother-of-pearl. A year after Rocha's presentation, driven by the dream of the freedom lost to the pandemic, Riccardo Tisci portrayed Burberry's SS21 collection as «a love story between a shark and a mermaid.»  The shark in question, an animal much loved by the designer, however, represented something ominous: the terror of loneliness felt by the whole world during the lockdown, translated, in Tisci's language, into the colour blue.

McQueen, Chalayan and Van Herpen  

Alexander McQueen SS10

Alexander McQueen SS10

Alexander McQueen SS10

Iris Van Herpen FW11

Iris Van Herpen SS11

Hussein Chalayan SS16

Hussein Chalayan SS16

Perhaps one of the most memorable fashion shows in fashion history, Plato's Atlantis, Alexander McQueen's SS10, portrayed a surreal atmosphere directly inspired by an alien, underwater universe. The clothes reflected the vibrant colours on the catwalk in an almost blinding way, the hairstyles looked like tall, fearsome fins, the make-up mimicked the gills of fish with prosthetic limbs, and the vertiginous heels - famously worn by Lady Gaga for the video clip of Bad Romance - echoed the rounded shape of the animal they were named after, Armadillo. With imagery related to natural landscapes and wildlife, McQueen invented an apocalyptic landscape, showing the future of a new civilisation born after the ecological destruction of the modern world. 

Two years later, the world discovered the aquaticity of Iris Van Herpen's textiles during the SS11 show, organised by the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture to unite the minds of architects and designers. Together with Benthem Crouwel Architects, Van Herpen designed a look that realistically replicated the appearance of water, inaugurating at that moment what makes the designer's work still stand out in the field; the Splash dress, together with the rest of the Crystallization collection, was the designer's first 3D printed dress, a work of technological and textile avant-garde that challenges the limits of sartorial possibilities. Just this year saw the launch of Carte Blanche, the film created in collaboration with artist Julie Gautier that explores the idea of femininity, beauty, and the courage of women by choreographically immersing models and voluminous dresses in deep pools of water. 

One could not finish this article without mentioning another of the most innovative designers of this time, Hussein Chalayan. In his case, water was used for the SS16 presentation more as a medium than an inspiration: two showers built in the middle of the catwalk lit up during the show and soaked two models and their clothes, made entirely of paper. When the water came into contact with the paper, the looks melted, revealing white evening dresses embroidered with black Swarovski crystals.  «It was about representing the transformation of a militant type situation [in Cuba] into a more playful one,» Chalayan explained backstage, «I liked the idea of using water. Because, of course, in Cuba there is the sea.»