Look 12, jumpsuit
2016 {18th Century Punk collection, autumn-winter 2016-17}
Medium
silk polyester (brocade), polyester rayon (brocade), polyester acetate (brocade), polyester rayon nylon acrlyic (brocde), cotton polyester triacetate (brocade), metal (fastenings)
Measurements
138.0 cm (centre back) 35.0 cm (inner leg)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist, 2025
Gallery location
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International
About this work
In eighteenth-century France, luxurious silks woven by artisans in Tours and Lyon formed the foundation of aristocratic women’s dress. Naturalistic and stylised floral designs, typical of Rococo taste, were highly fashionable and also inspired the embroidery on men’s frock coats and waistcoats. Drawing on these traditions, Kawakubo worked with Italian, French and Swiss makers to recreate archival dress and furnishing fabrics, which she uses here in deliberately anachronistic ways.