Gianfranco Ferrè was an architect before he was a fashion designer, and “The White Shirt According to Me,” which was on view at the Phoenix Art Museum until March 6th, is a testament to the fusion of his various fields of expertise. It is not just a retrospective fashion exhibit but an art installation in itself--a series of 27 hovering, white canvases suspended on mannequins wired in geometric patterns through an atypical, black gallery space lined with mirrors, which infinitely enlarges the space and enhances the visual effect. The white shirts provide organic curves and fluidity in stark contrast to the conical patterns of the wire. The shirts stand uniformly in formation, but each one reveals unique and subtle hints of individuality often coupled with an homage to white shirts from various ages and cultures. One resembles a Victorian nightgown, another a plume of peacock feathers.
Photo by Sydney Lines.
Along the perimeter of the exhibit, a series of long, glass cases hold ephemera that correspond to each of the shirts, like a reimagined wall label. This includes Ferrè’s illustrations and conceptual drawings, which are also quite geometric and mathematical, rendering the shirts as architectural products in their own right. Beside the drawings are professional photographs of models wearing the shirts from high fashion magazines like Vogue and Elle. This detail provides a multiplicity of viewpoints for each of the white shirts and challenges any notion that the white shirt cannot be a focal fashion piece on its own, without accessory, or that the fashion designer is not also an artist.
Upon leaving the exhibition, one enters into a small room where a video of archival footage from the Ferrè foundation plays. Models pose in the white shirts, adding another three-dimensional visual experience that connects concept to cloth. The corridor leading from this room to the exit is perhaps one of the most striking pieces. Enlarged, flat, white shirts are printed on the dark walls, floating like ethereal, wispy ghosts, calling to mind the timelessness of Ferrè’s designs.
Photo by Sydney Lines.