Uniform to all movements throughout cultural history, minimalism came as retaliation to the

solidified style of the time. Minimalism, a term commonly applied to the fine arts and architecture, came as an alternative to the instilled practice of abstract expressionism, aiming to remove the element of personal emotion within a piece, refining it to it’s most essential form. Artists like Dan Flavin, Donald Judd and Agnes Martin pioneered a new aesthetic-a rigid adherence the the finest and most true details of a work. This discipline flowed through to numerous other points of culture inquiry, architecture appropriated this idea into the minimizing of materials used in construction, only what was necessary with a ‘truth to materiality’ approach. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s words became the essential ethos of the movement: “Less is More”. I believe this harrowed oxymoron perfectly defines a minimal adherence within fashion, which began in conjunction with the artistic and design movements. Undeniably it has become a rapid success, however it has stood too lose it’s core counteraction in mass consumed fashion.

Minimalism has stood the test of time and trend throughout fashion, with every resurgence of the

high glossed and even higher shouldered 80’s look, there were a slew of designers to counteract the gaud. In contemporary fashion, the definition of minimalism has become somewhat twisted. The refined appreciation has become lost within the populous, anything black white or grey is instantly “minimalist”. Living your life within through mass produced garments and you are suddenly the ideal “reductionist”. The precise and, without any intention of discrimination, intellectual appreciation of a minimalist garment has become lost within mass production. Whilst a neutral colour palette is a reoccurring element within minimalist clothing, it is by no means an element of definition. When looking at some of the most influential contemporary minimal designers, namely Phoebe Philo (at Céline) and Nicholas Ghesquiere (formerly of Balenciaga, who was a pioneer within minimal fashion), colour is fluent within their collections. This misconception can lead to a very bland perception of minimalism, often interpreted as stark, clinical and rather bleak and it would seem that Mies van der Rohe’s war cry has become synonymous with nothing more than a white room a white dress and a black pair of thin-strapped martini glass

heels.

My translation of the “Less is more” ideology within fashion encompasses two parts within the design process-production and appreciation. The production element is the emphasis on the artisanship behind each garment, as though a patient on the surgical table- every slice, every stitch, treated with death defying importance. Every inch of fabric is respected, its composition the spectacle of each garment-this is the “less”. The “more” is an intellectual reward, produced through observation and appreciation. It does not allude to a quantitative gain (that is logically impossible), rather it feeds the conscious, consuming the contributive elements of the aforementioned “less” and allowing them life within your culturally hungry mind. Fashion has also borrowed the modernist architectural idea of “truth to materiality”-the idea that a subsequent product does not deny its origin. My mind always falls to Rick Owens as being the greatest adherent to this method. Although not commonly added to equation of minimal designers, he no doubt unapologetically embodies a core element. Every thread of wool or scale of a wild crocodile embraces its former life, marrying perfectly with his neolithic aesthetic.