I recently came across a Vogue article titled, The Ballet Is Always in Fashion: The 10 Best Designer Collaborations. While the beauty of the movement is obviously the focus, the beauty of the costuming can play such a powerful role. And as a lover of collaboration, well, it’s just such an inspiring pairing, I had to share a few favorite images from the article!
*Top photo:
Hussein Chalayan, Gravity Fatigue, Sadler’s Wells, 2015
Never one to do things by half measures, Chalayan has the distinction of not just creating costumes, but helming his own dance. Choreographed by Damien Jalet, of Belgian dance collective Les Ballets, Gravity Fatigue isn’t a straightforward narrative, but centers on concepts of freedom, displacement, and movement. Veering into performance-art territory, Chalayan utilizes a variety of elastic fabrics dancers move with, making the costuming a part of the story itself.
Riccardo Tisci, Boléro, Paris Opera Ballet, 2015
The Paris Opera Ballet’s adaptation of Maurice Ravel’s Boléro found its creative match in Riccardo Tisci. Working with choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, as well as longtime collaborator Marina Abramovic, who designed the show’s sets, Tisci crafted a series of transparent looks embroidered with rib bones and spinal cords in an effort to highlight dancers’ bodies, as well as the sensual nature of Ravel’s composition.
Photo: Courtesy of Paris Opera Ballet
Olivier Theyskens, Spectral Evidence, New York City Ballet, 2014
To capture the accusatory environment of Salem, Massachusetts, during the witch trials, Theyskens leaned on electrifying visual cues, such as when he covered dancers’ bodies in glossy red marks meant to represent social stigma.
Photo: Courtesy of New York City Ballet
