The title One-to-One, a project by Elisa van Joolen, refers to the working method in which items of clothing are covered in black and blue ink and accordingly pressed on other pieces of clothing. Each item serves as a stamp, and is simultaneously being stamped on, thus creating a chain reaction making every One-To-One item both an original and a copy. As such the project One-to-One offers new perspectives on (re)production in fashion; it allows the viewer to look beyond the status conveyed by the label and see the actual, material properties of clothing.
One-to-One, as method, gives way to a new entity: it is both a fashionable wearable and a two-dimensional work. Besides the garments, the work also consists of paper sheets used in the process of pressing to block the ink from soaking the fabric. Together with the garments, this by-product of the pressing process subtly lays bare the essence of fashion: the weaving textures of the fabric, details such as zippers, seams and buttons, and brand logos.
At Onomatopee, the visitor is invited to wear the One-to-One garments. The printing sheets of the recently published One-to-One Reader are made into a fitting room. As such, Elisa van Joolen encourages the viewer to move beyond the static process of looking at fashion towards embodying it as well.
Exploring these dualities within fashion – the material versus the immaterial and fashion as an artefact versus fashion as an embodied experience – Van Joolen aims to open up perspectives on the role of (re)production within the fashion system and value creation in relation to the material and immaterial properties of our garments.
These threads are explored in a publication, released and available through Onomatopee – by diverse experts in the international field.
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One-To-One is part in 11''x 17'', an ongoing project that examines and challenges the fashion industry’s prevailing value systems and proposes new methods of production.
