Fashioning the body: architecture and clothing

Abstract

"The dwelling is however only the wider dress that surrounds us, our clothing the narrower dwelling..." H Muthesius H Muthesius, "Kultur und Kunst", cited M Wigley, "While out: Fashioning the Modern", 1994, pl9 Both architecture and clothing are body packaging and as such both a theoretical and physical link can be found between them. According to Semper, architecture and clothing both find their origins in the woven cloth: a three dimensional structure to be fitted to the body beneath. The architect and the tailor are therefore the same. "Architecture is the masterly correct and magnificent play of mass brought together in light, the task of the architect is to vitalise the surfaces which clothe these masses." Le Corbusier, "Towards a new Architecture", 1927, p9 A contemporary comparison of clothing with architecture can be looked at in three dimensions: the temporal, the spatial and the meaningful.