This is the second time we witness the conceptual performance art which is the mysterious designs of Henrik Vibskov – the last time a Nutcracker themed talking heads performance – and there seems to be a continuum in social critique present on the runway if you look carefully enough, the nutcrackers tackling all the mindless chatter that goes on over tech communications today, whereas Vib’s Salami Shop of Paris FW SS17 is now going for the jugular by equating each individual, and perhaps all forms of style, as the moral equivalent of, well, vulgar meat, baloney no less – moral baloney – , and of course everyone’s favorite sausage called Salami. Just how swag can you get?
‘Id mihi farcimentum esset’ Henrik Vibskov seems to be saying, as big male butchers in butchers garb hack away at the sausages filling up the mindless meat into the grinder and onto the machine only to hang the finished product up, on, and over the runway for everyone to see, and he calls the project ‘the Salami Kitchen of the Non Existent’, probably pointing toward the moral void that lies behind the veneer of our stylish, luxurious, and fast-living societies where everyone is constantly in full-selfie mode so as to snatch up the latest high-interest content – in the form of well-filled sausages – so that we can put it on Facebook or Instagram to be eaten instantaneously by an ever hungry public. Indeed, we, and our style perhaps, are only meat and CONTENT after all. We are not even CODE as techies would have it. Nah, according to our visionary stylists perhaps, we are just plain content, to be processed, and only to be consumed. A social critique of modern life worthy of a thesis.
That’s not to say of course that mr Vibskov’s sartorial creations are not absolutely outstanding – because they are, and that they belong as a show in an old grand hotel on the place Vendôme in Paris, which is the global nexus of luxury, so that everyone in this wide world of ours can have a good taste of vulgar baloney served up as a delicacy of quite mysterious proportions.
And so the Kitchen of the Non Existent (Morality & Emotions) will never stop and grind on and on and on, butchers chopping away, perhaps not even despite ourselves, but because we love to throw ourselves into it headlong. Yup, Vib’s Soul Kitchen is an unmitigated success and one can only marvel at the power of style to mark and identify, if not explain or transcend, the signs of our times.
As for the creations themselves (there is a martial arts theme in there) here is an excerpt:
‘materials as a two faced salami dotted jacquard, where both sides have been applied and exposed, crispy poplin shirting and strong structured twill in a lining-viscose quality among others. Details on garments are topstitched cuffs and hems, which are afterwards dyed to create a puckering effect. Other centerpieces in the collection are the jacquard knitted sweaters with applied fringes and embroidery made in Denmark.’
Posted by Sandro and photos from the Henrik Vibskov press office.
