ENTITY the limitless body

Christiaan de Vries, International Fashion & Design

Number of words: 3.209
Graduation, Amsterdam Fashion Institute
Date: 28th of April, Amsterdam
Supervisor: Maaike Feitsma

Introduction
To define is to limit, Oscar Wilde (1891) once said. By letting the expectations of others define
who you are, you limit yourself to what you could, or maybe even should be. Yet we live in a
society which pressures us to live up to stereotypes. As Professor L. Wallace (2006) states,
heteronormativity is the standard. People who do not live up to this specific gender role, are
looked at as outcast.
When in 1905 the first Russian Revolution took place, it gave lots of freedom to artists in all
disciplines. Right before communism took over, they experienced a few years of artistic freedom
in many ways. The Tsar regime did not leave much room for experimenting and expressing
opinions through art. So it is not surprising that, after the fall of the Tsars, the unleashed Russian
artists adopted a completely new, revolutionary vision (Read, 2015).
Kazimir Malevich was one of these artists, and paved the way for what we now call
modern art. His paintings were the first step towards Suprematism; an art movement which
evolves purely around the essence: shape, colour and composition (Holtham and Moran, 2014).
They abandoned borders and pushed frontiers towards what art could be, rather than should be.
What if, as in art, people would let go of their boundaries, set rules and expectations, and
approach themselves as beings that go beyond anything which can be defined. What if they
depart from the black and white approach that people are either one or the other. Because they
are not. They are so much more. They are hybrid. Constructed to express and take action.
Exploring the freedom as a constructed being and how to develop around the rules and
expectations of the ruling conceptions, evolved into researching into cross-cultural approaches to
sexual orientation, and the freedom that lays within gender in different cultures. The collection
ENTITY explores this new approach through the philosophy and work of conceptual artists of the
first half of the 20th century. This approach is translated into a conceptual menswear collection,
departing from the body as the limit, but approaching it as a starting point. This opens up a broad
spectrum of new possibilities in menswear; ready for a revolution.
This paper explains the theoretical, historical and social underpinning of ENTITY. First the
research into gender roles in different times in different areas in the world is explained, followed
by the western conquest on these areas, and how this changed their approach to gender.
Secondly, the different views on gender are linked to art movements, to answer the question why
the open minded approach to art should also be applied to the approach to gender. Thirdly, an
explanation will be given of how the inspirations from the researched artists will be translated into
a collection. Finally, it is explained why this collection has a link to the contemporary, and how it is
linked to the personal vision of the designer.

Gender roles: the undefined body

In 17th century the Catholic Church was ruling the entire western civilisation, taking a strong stand
against anyone that did not believe in Christianity, or practised rituals that were believed to be
unchristian. There were very strict rules about behaviour and dress behaviour, including the fact
that men were supposed to be with women. Homosexuality was seen as sodomy. This attitude
towards homosexuality is still seen in our time. Even though nowadays people think sodomy, as it
is mentioned in the Bible, only concerns homosexuality. In fact it was a group of people that
practiced acts which would counteract reproduction. So not just homosexuality, but also
beastiality and abortion.
When the Spanish invaded the Americas, they were shocked to find men dressed as
women and women dressed as men. They wrote in their logbooks the outrage they felt, by seeing
how this was normal. Not only were some men dressed as women, they also performed some
women tasks - like cleaning and cooking - and were married to other men. To them, with their
Catholic beliefs, this was obviously wrong. The Spanish used their perception of gender even as a
way to conquer the Americas, by letting the Native Americans believe that homosexuality was
wrong, and that they were there to free them from this sin. It is even believed this caused the Latin
American macho behaviour.
What is interesting to look at, is the openminded approach towards gender in the
Americas before the Spanish conquest. Where the western gender system forces us to be either
male or female, based on the physical gender; Native Americans defined gender by their spiritual
being. Therefore they did not define a child as a boy or a girl, until the age of five, but simply
named it child. Because upon till then the child would not have been able to express what
gender it was meant to be.
This meant the possibility to be not just male or female, but to be both. People that felt
both male or female were seen as Two Spirited people. Because in Native American beliefs their
body contained not just one the spirit of gender, but the spirits of both genders, they were seen as
sacred. They were seen as more whole as a person. Because of this special status they often
became medicine men or women, shamans or chiefs of the tribe. The fact that in another time two
spirited people - whom would probably would be called gay in todays society - would have been
holy, but now can be sentenced to death, makes one think about our approach towards traditional
gender roles and overall expectations by society (Wallace, 2006).
Not only in the Americas have anthropologists found tribes that had a broader view on
gender, but also in Africa there were communities that had a completely different view on gender
and sexuality. In the Americas, two-spirited people were doing both male and female tasks,
dressed as a mix of both genders and could be married to a man or a woman. In Africa the focus
was less on living as the other gender, but merely on sexual desires and rituals that were
essential in order to become a true man.

In several tribes, like the Baje and Pangwespeaking tribes, it was normal for boys to fulfil their
sexual desires with each other upon till the age they were allowed to have sexual relationships
with women. These boys would collect flowers and give them to a friend they fancied. If the friend
felt the same, it would accept the flowers. If not, he would throw the flowers on the ground.
In the Ndembu tribe it was normal for boys who entered adolescence to be circumsised.
After this was done, they went into a little shack, away from the village they lived in, together with
the male tribal elder, and while they were healing from circumsision they were supposed to act
upon the sexual desires of the tribal elder, and any that would come visit the shack. Pleasuring the
tribal elder would help the boys become real man.
Another tribe, in which sexual contact between two males was seen as normal, was the
Tsonga tribe. After a man would have asked a woman to marry him, he was not allowed yet to
have sex with her. Therefore it was normal that the brother of the fianc would take her place,
upon till they were married. After the marriage ceremony it was allowed for man and woman to
have sex, but this did not mean that the sexual encounters between the husband and the brother
of the bride stopped. Sometimes they went on for several years.
Fact is that in African culture it was alright to have desires towards other men, yet this did
not mean you were released from sexual and social responsibilities of patriarchal marriage and
parenthood. For example at the Hause-tribe, effeminate men marry women and have children, but
at the same time maintain sexual relationships with other men. This view on sexuality and gender
goes beyond our gender system, letting homosexuality and heterosexuality co-exist in one culture
(Wallace, 2006).
The open approach towards gender in both American and African culture is completely
different from the ideas about gender of our ruling society nowadays, which is heavily influenced
by the Christian approach towards gender, relationships and family. The question arrises why
people need to be defined so much. What would our society look like when people would get rid
of the parochialist approach we have towards gender and sexuality, and would focus on the
essence of being, and everything that comes with it?
This focus on freedom in being, translates in the collection into an experimental approach
towards shape. Classical menswear silhouettes are abandoned, and replaced by experimental
shapes on a body, which will ultimately translate into garments, but not like traditional ones.
Because freedom is the starting point, these shapes on the body are undefined and could be
anything. This way possibilities in shape and in silhouette are enormous, and lead to a completely
new way of designing menswear.

Kazimir Malevich: the abstracted body

Kazimir Malevich (1878) is the founder of what we call now abstract, or maybe undefined, art.
When Malevich moved to Kursk in 1896, he started to develop his love for painting. He studied at
the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and started to exhibit his work in
Moscow and St. Petersburg right after his graduation. (Kiblitsky et al., 2014).
The development of his career was heavily influenced by the political developments taking
place in Russia. After years of suppression and limited freedom in art by the Tsars, in 1905 the
first Russian Revolution took place. This opened up a whole lot of new possibilities in expressing
views through art. This was not possible during the regime of the Tsars. This freedom allowed
artists to move away from the figuratism, and adapt a new and revolutionary style, abstracted
from reality (Read, 2015).
Malevich developed from a figurative painter, to a Futurist painter, inspired by Mikhail
Larionov and Natalia Goncharova. He named his way of painting Cubo-Futurism. In 1911 he
participated in an exhibition organised by the Union of Youth, a collective of Russian Avant
Garde artists from different disciplines. (Kiblitsky et al., 2014) Together with other artists from this
Union of Youth he worked on a Cubo-Futurist opera, named Victory over the Sun (1913).
The Opera was much criticised; with its out-of-this-world costumes, designed by Malevich
(Appendix 1), musical compositions by Michail Matjoesjin and text in Zaum by Alexei
Kroetsjonych. The Zaum language was the abstraction of language, because expression of
emotion goes beyond the words as we know it. It were mere sounds, produced by the actors. The
production was something unheard of in that time. For Malevich the Opera was a strong base to
develop further from (Kovtoen, 2014).
His Cubo-Futurist style continued to be more and more abstract, upon till the point that his
works lost the entire touch with reality and were mere collages of geometric shapes (Appendix 2)
on a canvas. This is when he published the manifesto, From Cubism to Suprematism. In this
manifesto Malevich states that Suprematism is an art based upon the supremacy of pure artistic
feeling, rather than the mere visualisation of objects. This translated into the use of only the
essential: colour, shape and composition (Petrova, 2014).
His most famous work is the Black Square, painted for the first time in 1915. The titles of
his works were also completely disconnected with what it was inspired by. It was purely about the
artistic feeling. Later on he started to give his paintings names that were more descriptive, like
Red Square: Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions(Petrova, 2014). Even
though this was only a red square, it depicted something figurative.
In his paintings, as well as in Victory over the Sun artistic expression is vital. Reality is
being abstracted until the point it looses all ties to what the original inspiration was, and with that it
opens up a whole spectrum of possibilities of what it could be. This freedom of interpretation is

something that allows artists to make artworks that expresses their view, without forcing their view
onto the viewer. It can be anything.
This approach shows comparison to the approach of gender as it was in the Americas and
Africa: both focus on the concept of essence, without being limited by parochial thinking. Both
views are not limited by whatsoever is constructed by mankind. One could even state that
Malevich opposes the social system, with its set rules and boundaries, and protests for freedom
of interpretation of his artworks.
This protest finds its way in ENTITY through the use of prints. The graphic stripes and dots
in alarming red, link back to the Russian Revolution; the revolution which gave Malevich the
freedom to artistically express himself, without boundaries.
Besides the prints, also the abstract composition of shapes are an important aspect which
is taken into the collection. By losing the traditional menswear silhouette, and working with shapes
on a body, it is important to have the freedom to play around with the shapes and see which
composition works best without necessarily baring in mind the body on which it is placed.

Oskar Schlemmer: the extended body

Around the same time that Malevich started developing the Suprematism, in Germany Oskar
Schlemmer started painting as one of Adolf Holzels master pupils (1912). In the group of pupils
were not only painters, but also architect students and a ballet dancer. (Troy, 1986). The works
Schlemmer painted under his influence were in the impressionist style.
In 1914 Schlemmer was called to serve his country on the Western Front in World War I.
There he got wound, and returned to his home, continuing as a pupil under Holzel (Lidtke, 1986).
During his time as in military service, he got intrigued by the body in an entirely new way. He
approached the body as a mechanical being, working with it as a starting point, without limits
(Troy, 1986).
Schlemmers most famous work is the Triadic Ballet. This abstract adaption of the
Courtship, consists of 3 parts, each with 3 dancers. The costumes were all adaptions from
conventional ballerina costumes, with a very strong abstraction and mechanisation shown in the
design (Troy, 1986).
Rather then letting the body define what the costume could look like, Schlemmer worked
with the body as a mechanical starting point; a blank canvas to construct from (Appendix 3). In a
way the dancers were only puppets carrying the costumes. Schlemmer extended from the body,
not letting it limit his ability to create outrageous costumes (Appendix 4). In comparison to
Malevich and the research into gender-roles, Schlemmer applied the freedom found in returning
to the essential, to costumes - going beyond the inabilities of the body.
Schlemmers vision on silhouette and shape gives an extra dimension to the approach of
Malevich. By placing the shapes on a body the shapes immediately become three-dimensional,

and get a stronger connection to the body, still without being limited. This extra dimension creates
a freedom in form, which is also seen in ENTITY.

Panamarenko: the mechanical body

Another artist working with the idea of going beyond the bodys inabilities is Henri Van Herwegen,
a.k.a. Panamarenko. Panamarenko studied at the Academy of Antwerp, where he was mainly
inspired by the pop-art movement, but soon discovered his love for aviation objects, and the
desire of mankind to fly. Therefore his works are inspired by airplanes, zeppelins, helicopters etc
(Thompson, 2004).
Most of the artworks are constructed in an almost industrial way; an assembly of materials
and shapes, brought together in a mechanical approach which brings up the question wether the
created object would be able to fly or not (Appendix 5).
His love for aviation came from the ancient Greek myth Icarus, which tells the story of a
man who tries to construct wings from wax and feathers, but flies to closely to the sun. The
feathers melt and Icarus falls down. Icarus challenged his body into doing something unearthly.
He did not let his incapabilities limit him, but he built around it; becoming more then he actually
was.
The idea of being more than what you actually are according to nowadays society, is
exactly what ENTITY is about. Panamarenkos industrial use of materials and mechanical
approach towards construction adds a new layer to the freedom in form and silhouette, and how
to construct this. For example the three-dimensional shapes in the collection are created by the
use of kite sticks, Detailing is inspired by functional wear, like army wear, combined with functional
detailing inspired by army wear.
Even though Panamarenkos creations are very refined, they also feel a bit worn out. This is
translated into washed materials and brushed surfaces. Also the colour palette has a used, or old,
feeling with for example off-white or even yellowish cottons, but contrasted by the alarming red
and a bold blue.

Conclusion
What would menswear look like if it was not defined by and subjected to gender roles? The
research to answer this question has lead through various fields of research. Starting off with the
research into gender in different parts of the world in different moments in time, resulting in the
conclusion gender is set in stone for western civilisation, where in America and Africa it evolved
around the essence of being, until the westerns took over.
The freedom towards gender in the native tribes lead to a vision that one does not have to
be defined so much, and that society could even let go of its set rules. This translates in the
collection into the freedom of shape on the body, while abandoning the traditional references and
silhouettes.
Taking this freedom towards another discipline, lead to research into Kazimir Malevich, the
founder suprematism; an art movement which purely evolves around shape, colour and
composition. Developed right after the Russian Revolution, this art movement focussed on the
essence of expression with room for interpretation.
The focus on shape and composition lead to the idea of collaging shapes on a body in
order to create new silhouettes. The prints of ENTITY are inspired by the revolutionary feeling from
which Malevich artworks developed; the stripes and dots represent the rebellion against the
ruling system.
The costumes designed by Oskar Schlemmer let the shapes on a body develop threedimensional forms, not limited, but supported by the body and therefore letting the body be more
than it is. This connection to the body gives the shapes an extra dimension, which support the
freedom in form on a body.
Another artist that goes beyond the bodys inabilities is Panamarenko. His mechanical
approach towards construction gives the ability to construct the three-dimensional shapes in a
new way and for new silhouettes to arise.
So, the visual answer to the question what menswear would look like if it was not defined
by gender roles, would be ENTITY. The collection explores new possibilities for menswear, and
brings a new vision for fashion in general; it does not have to be defined by what is knows as
clothing. It is limitless.

Sourcelist
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Appendix 1

Malevich, 1913

Appendix 2

Malevich, 1915

Appendix 3

Troy, 1986

Appendix 4

Richardson, 1986

Appendix 5

Thompson, 2001