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Mechanical Couture – Fashioning a New Order

The exhibition was displayed between November 14, 2010 – August 8, 2011

Editor: Mia Dvash

Design: Shual studio

Haute Couture, by definition, is made-to-order, high-quality and hand-executed, and for centuries has signified the ultimate in luxury and exclusivity. Conversely, machines typify the antithesis of couture, implying mass-production and decreased standards. Currently, however, we are witnessing a fascinating phenomenon of mechanical luxury – designers are reinterpreting couture as a hybrid of both mechanized process and customized craftsmanship.

The installations in the exhibition were divided to four groups: These divisions were designed to highlight the specific role played by the machine through a simplified equation.

Designer + Machine = Product featured designers who directly incorporate a new machine or technology into their design processes in order to create new products.

Concept = Machine = Product exemplified work that was both inspired by machinery and incorporate machinery in the finished product.

Product = Machine presented products that become, as a result of the process, machines.

Designer through Machine = Product highlighted products that were created as a result of a machine-mediated process, not completely removing the designer from the design process, but giving over a substantial piece of the design phase to the machine.

Printed: Israel, 2010
Bilingual catalogue: English, Hebrew
Size: 16×22.2 cm
Pages: 146, paperback

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