Posturing Book: Exploring the Body in Fashion

This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.

Posturing Book

By Shonagh Marshall

Beginning with the exhibition Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion, the duo later commissioned Coco Capitán to respond to the theme, resulting in the film Filming the Body in Fashion, now finally landing on the release of this book: Posturing: Writing the Body in Fashion. Featuring the work of Charlie Engman, Estelle Hanania and Joyce Ng (among many others), the publication features photographs that turn human figures into sculptures to celebrate aesthetic oddness instead of positioning the body at the optimum angle to make the garment desirable.

Split into two, Posturing: Writing the Body in Fashion contains many interviews with photographers, stylists, set designers and commissioning editors. “This project was an incredible opportunity to talk at length with a group of photographers and those they collaborate with,” Holly remarks, “I am so familiar with this work, but this was a chance to learn about their process.” As opposed to a magazine, where images are presented standalone, often without context or background information, Posturing provides real insight. “Isolating images from their stories and presenting them, firstly printed and framed in an exhibition, and then on their book page, really highlights the visual clues in these pictures,” she continues.

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