Viktor & Rolf Exhibit, London
In their Paris studio, during the few years between their 1992 graduation from the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design and their rise to fashion fame, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren used to sit and dream. In their heads they’d put together elaborate collections, extreme catwalk shows and even come up with their own perfume. And then they would make their visions a reality, in miniature. Produced on an exact scale of 1:10, the pair created not just several dolls wearing their clothes but model catwalks, a small shop complete with glass windows and even a little perfume bottle, with ad campaign and press release.
The making of their dreams in miniature is bizarre enough, but what is even more of a head spin is that it all became true. Starting from 1998, the pair showed Haute Couture catwalk shows every season, in 2004 they launched their fragrance Flowerbomb, and in 2005 they opened their own flagship store in Milan. Luckily the models they made have all been kept and although some featured in Viktor & Rolf’s two previous retrospectives – in Paris and Kyoto – it is only today that they have dared take this eccentric behaviour of theirs and make it the focus of their third retrospective, which opened recently at the Barbican in London. …MORE…
I love Viktor and Rolf! The clothes are crazy! The doll heads are a little creepy- but that’s usually what they go for!