Creative Process Journal: The Viktor & Rolf Dolls

Viktor & Rolf doll for 2008 retrospective

The dolls used in the Viktor and Rolf retrospective at the Barbican Gallery in 2008 were based on a nineteenth-century bebe type doll intended as a plaything and produced by the Maison Jurneau in Paris. A Belgian doll maker used real human hair, bisque porcelain faces and paper-mache bodies for the Viktor and Rolf dolls.

Bedtime Story Autumn/Winter 2005-6 Viktor & Rolf

There were two sizes of dolls used in the exhibition at the Barbican: 70 cm tall dolls dressed in miniature versions of the designer's collections and life-size dolls dressed in the actual garments. The shift in scale created an Alice in Wonderland illusion and it was somewhat surreal.

Cover of the exhibition catalogue

The cold perfection and the haunting gaze of the Viktor and Rolf dolls at the Barbicon – both large and small – depicted what Freud has defined as uncanny (and which will be the subject of an upcoming post). Caroline Evans referenced Freud’s essay in the exhibition catalogue and she also pointed out that “the double poses a challenge to the idea of individuality and the doll straddles an uncomfortable boundary between the living and the dead.” (Evans 19).

References:

Evans, Caroline and Frankel, Susannah. The House of Viktor and Rolf. London: Merrell. 2008.
Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny. London: Penguin Books, 2005

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The House of Viktor and Rolf at the Barbican Art Gallery

Viktor and Rolf are a Dutch design duo that create technically exquisite, artistically breathtaking fashion. I attended the retrospective of their work at the Barbican Art Gallery in London (June 18 - September 21, 2008).

The exhibition presents looks from the past fifteen seasons on custom-made life-size porcelain dolls with the features painted and the hair styled to resemble the model that initially wore that garment. The other-worldly beauty of these dolls is surreal and somewhat unsettling.

My favourite garments were from Flowerbomb 2005 where bows and ribbons decorated the outfits like an exquisite partly unwrapped gift.

Flowerbomb Collection Spring/Summer 2005
Photo by Ingrid Mida 2008

I also loved the dove-white duchess satin wedding dress of Her Royal Highness Princess Mabel von Orange-Nassua from the White collection of 2002.

Viktor & Rolf White collection 2002
Photo by Ingrid Mida 2008

Viktor & Rolf White Collection 2002
Photo by Ingrid Mida

The highlight of the show is a spectacular 6 metre high doll's house containing 54 custom-made dolls, wearing a perfect miniature version of a Victor and Rolf garment. Sadly I was not able to photograph this. I walked around the doll's house several times trying to absorb and remember all the details.

One of the most meaningful parts of the exhibition for me was seeing the evolution of Viktor and Rolf's artistic vision and success. They are true artists as much as they are fashion designers. A dress is more than a dress; it has to express a vision and conform to the theme for the season. A key part of their development seemed to be the 1996 collection which presented their collection in miniature. The designers said that "we created a series of miniature installations visualizing our strongest ambitions: a doll on a catwalk, a doll in a photo studio, a miniature boutique and so forth. The dolls were an abstraction of people and the scenes they enacted showed a life we desired but only dared to dream of."

House of Viktor and Rolf June 18-September 21, 2008
Barbican Art Gallery
Silk Street, London, England EC2Y 8DS
www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery