There are clear patterns that we can see when looking into art’s history and analyzing the evolution of artistic minds and their ideas throughout time. From the Roman era to the renaissance period, to the twentieth century and finally our present time, it is almost clear that whenever the development of art reaches great levels of creativity, complexity, and colourfulness, a breathing space is needed, giving birth to a more simplistic representations of art, referred to as minimalism.
The term minimalism was coined in the USA in the 1960s when extreme forms of abstract art were being developed, artists like Robert Morris, and Donald Judd (sculptors), Frank Stella and Sol Le Witt (painters), La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Philip Glass and Steve Reich (musicians), and others began to favour formal stripping, reductionism, and neutrality, following the same principles put forward by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) – who’s behind the famous phrase ‘’Less is More’’-, one of the founders of modern architecture and a proponent of the simplicity and clarity of style, who believed that the improvement of art work can only be done by subtraction, using the least to express the most, this is what minimalism fundamentally is.
It is a style that relies on simplicity, stripping art to its core, leaving us with an impersonal and neutral piece, with no trace of emotion or intuitive decision making, little about the artist is shown through the art. Minimalist artists rejected the notion of the artwork as a unique creation reflecting the personal expression of the artist, seeing this as a distraction from the real subject (the art itself). Therefore, they tried creating objects that were as impersonal and neutral as possible, not referring to anything beyond its literal presence. The materials used are not worked to suggest an idea; colours are also non-referential, which means using the black colour does not mean the artist is trying to suggest a sombre mood.
By the late 1980s and While other forms of art like painting, architecture, and sculpture had already embraced minimalism, artistic clothing, also known as art wear was at the beginning of its path, starting by suppression of what some fashion designers consider useless, like ornamentations, details or colors. Therefore, leaning towards the simplification of clothing so that it fulfils with discretion its primary function ‘’to dress’’. Then followed the mainstream fashion scene with many famous American designers like Calvin Klein installing new design ideas and focusing more and more on comfort and practicality.
Minimalism seems to be a sustainable and timeless philosophy that puts ‘’being’’ ahead of the ‘’having’’, which explains why in current times, minimalism having a big clash against the current of consumerism.
in terms of style, rigorous and symmetrical cuts, noble materials, radical silhouettes going to the essentials and favouring quality over quantity will be preferred. On the colour side, we will rather turn to neutral tones like black, white, shades of gray, nude, or blue. The most important thing is to have the sleekest silhouette and avoid overload. checkout our minimalist collection.
here in MaisonFemalien, we believe minimalism helps us focus on what we need. It also helps us figure out that we do not need much to be appreciated. Each artistic clothing piece has been designed to make you feel beautiful, strong, and well in your body, but most of all, to remind you that your greatest asset is you.
