What inspiration can aspiring fashion designers draw from past fashions? In workshops, students at Atelier Chardon Savard, Macromedia University Berlin, addressed this question, drawing on a dress by Hubert de Givenchy from 1986 and its 1989 interpretation by Uli Richter. After studying the two designers along with the dress, its pattern and material, they created their own outfits inspired by their findings. The results can now be viewed in a special exhibition at the Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts.

Twenty textile designs by young students in their 2nd to 5th semesters at Atelier Chardon Savard, Macromedia University Berlin, are on display at the Kunstgewerbemuseum fashion gallery. The presentation is centred around the paper pattern from the 1986 fall/winter collection of the Givenchy haute couture house. The focused presentation makes it possible to trace in detail the sometimes direct, sometimes indirect paths of inspiration between student works and the first interpretation by Uli Richter in 1989.

In addition, 3rd to 5th semester bachelor’s degree students of fashion design and fashion illustration have worked intensively to implement this topic virtually. In the Kunstgewerbemuseum’s fashion studio, they are presenting AI-generated artworks created with the New Arc AI app that reinterpret and visualise historical designs. Exciting cross-references can be discovered between the finished model and analogue and digital photography, as demonstrated, for example, by student Franka Dehmal with her textile, analogue and digital designs.

A Workshop Is Being Planned

In conjunction with the exhibition, planning is ongoing for the workshop I’m Sewing My Own Givenchy Dress, in which participants have the opportunity to replicate the Givenchy dress according to the original pattern. Fashion design students Atelier Chardon Savard will supervise the workshop.

The Curators

The exhibition is curated by Katrin Lindemann, curator for fashion, textiles and jewellery at the Kunstgewerbemuseum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, together with Karolin Violante, professor of fashion design at Atelier Chardon Savard Berlin, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences.

A special exhibition of the Kunstgewerbemuseum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in collaboration with Atelier Chardon Savard of Macromedia University Berlin.