ATOPOS cvc has announced the latest presentation of the exhibition ‘ARRRGH! Monsters in Fashion’, the first international fashion exhibition of monstrous and radical creations, inspired by the phenomenon of ‘character design’, at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, from October 19th 2013, until January 19th 2014.

‘ARRRGH! Monsters in Fashion’ comprised of more than 70 costumes by 40 established and emerging fashion designers and artists, that were recently presented on the catwalk. In contemporary fashion the human body is constantly mutated and transformed into an unknown, bizarre and sometimes monstrous figure. Designers and artists experimented, creating strange forms and extreme volumes and covering and masking the face; they also dressed the human body to create hybrid creatures with supernatural bodies, vibrant colours and surprising abstract elements.
There was no archetypal beauty to be found in ‘ARRRGH! Monsters in Fashion’. We accepted every type of monster no matter how ugly, repulsive, challenging or different from us it may be. The exhibition explored the fantasies we may have of ourselves and those we do not accept in others; it offers us the opportunity of redefining beauty, which, at the end of the day, is in the eye of the beholder.
‘ARRRGH ! Monsters in Fashion’ has been based on the original idea and research of the ATOPOS cvc collective. After three years of research on character design in fashion, the collective published in 2011 the book Not a Toy: Fashioning Radical Characters (Pictoplasma Publishing, Berlin), the first comprehensive investigation into the growing influence of today’s character culture in fashion. Following this, ‘ARRRGH! Monsters in Fashion’ was created and was first shown in Athens (2011, Benaki Museum) and then in Paris (2013, La Gaîté lyrique).

Participating designers and artists:
Alex Mattsson (SE), Alexis Themistocleous (CY), Andrea Ayala Closa (ES), Bart Hess (NL), Bas Kosters (NL), Bernhard Willhelm (DE), Boris Hoppek (DE), Bronwen Marshall (UK), Cassette Playa/Gary Card (UK), Charlie Le Mindu (FR), Chi He (UK), Clo’e Floirat (FR), Craig Green (UK), David Curtis-Ring (UK), Digitaria (GR), Filep Motwary (CY)/Maria Mastori (GR), George Tourlas (GR), Helen Price (UK), Henrik Vibskov (DK), HEYNIEK (NL), Hideki Seo (JP), Issey Miyake/Dai Fujiwara (JP), Jean-Paul Lespagnard (BE), Kim Traeger (DK), Leutton Postle (UK), Luis Lopez Smith (UK), Mads Dinesen (DK), Maison Martin Margiela (FR), Manon Kundig (CH), Mareunrol’s (LV), Nasir Mazhar (UK), Pictoplasma (DE), Pierre-Antoine Vettorello (FR), Piers Atkinson (UK), Rejina Pyo (KR), Rick Owens (US), Stefan Galt (And in Passing) (IR), Toma Stenko (RU), Viktor & Rolf (NL), Walter Van Beirendonck (BE)

With additional loans:
Centraal Museum (NL), MoMu – ModeMuseum Provincie Antwerpen (BE), The Miyake Issey Foundation (JP)

Download:
Centraal Museum Press Release en