Metal Couture
“The triptych of Metal couture challenges issues of feminism and its interpreted role within fashion.”
Metal Couture
The work challenges and seeks to question the old adage of whether in fact fashion is an ideological societally constructed trap in which to snare, objectify and conform women … or can it be used as a catalyst for identity and female cultural significance.
As with medieval armour, can the dress be fashioned from the same metal and be born again into the role of a semiotically contemporary battle dress?
With this question in mind Nic Gaunt set to creating three images which posed more questions than answers, but which, in turn, would ignite debate surrounding the subject.
Is the presence of the generically suited male a testimony to the construction and perpetuation of the idiom of female fashion?
Are the male figures constructing the metal dress as a cage around women or are they the merely a representation of the empowerment of the female form and its ability to employ her powers to force the deconstruction of the metaphor?
Is the female figure using the traditionally male led construct to adapt and alter her appearance and to formulate a new identity from which to forge her battle dress?
Concept, Art Direction and Photography - Nic Gaunt
Shoot Production - Bex Gaunt. Clothes Styling - Paul Gerrard and Bex Gaunt. Assistant Photographer - Jazis Wong. Make up - Daniel Cuellar Minakata. Latex - Murray and Vern.