Fifty shades of fashion

WORDS Nadine Botha

With the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy barely off the bestseller’s list, the design world’s awakening is up next, with Li Edelkoort’s new Fetishism in Fashion book. VISI has five copies of the book, not yet available in SA, up for grabs.

Ranging from the exquisite, abstract and mysterious to the downright weird and not-safe-for-reading-on-the-plane (as VISI discovered), the book offers aesthetic insight into the subconscious, social and psychological factors shaping fashion trends.

South African design geeks will remember that the Dutch-born Paris-based style soothsayer first revealed her interest in future sexual trends at a crack-of-dawn Design Indaba 2010 presentation that shook everyone wide awake. It’s not that sex will become more important, she said, but that the “idea” of sex will become more important than the act.

With this in mind, the book should not be taken too literally – we’re not expecting anyone to appear in public wearing horse-hoof stilts, straightjacket corsets or raw fish scales anytime soon. For instance, the infantilism trend has already manifest in the adult onesies, but Li’s not going to hand that to you in a picture gallery; you actually have to sit with the book and read it to glean that information.

Highly readable, it is. Featuring some 42 essays, articles and interviews, the book has been researched, written and photo­graphed with the attention to detail that is Li and her longtime collaborator Philip Fimmano’s trademark.

Looking for an immersive winter read that will create a striking talking point on your coffee table? Fetishism in Fashion is the one, available for R515 (excluding delivery), from edelkoort.com.

Get the new VISI 67 and enter the competition to win one of five copies of the book.