LE BALLON

How Junya Watanabe’s Spring 2003 catwalk, or rather landing strip in this case, debuted modernized 18th-century milkmaids wearing deconstructed parachute-like polonaise gowns resembling the hot air balloons depicted in Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf’s 1784 toile de Jouy… “The girls seemed to have floated down from the sky under huge, airy umbrella hats, wearing drifty, white, flower-dotted prints suspended on webbing tape…” wrote Sarah Mower. This collection “…expresses Japanese designer Junya Watanabe’s keen interest in sculpting new creations that are replete with historical references… (such as) polonaise gowns, a poufed style popular in 1770s and 1780s Europe…” wrote RISD.

Oberkampf was known for his toiles de Jouy, the typically monotone printed cottons manufactured in the town of Jouy-en-Josas, just south of Versailles. “…Themes and motifs for this style of printed cotton covered diverse subject matter, from florals and fables to Greek mythology and scientific advancements… Oberkampf commissioned the best artists of the day to design scenes that reflected contemporary interests, such as the first hot air balloon flight…” says antique textiles dealer Katharine Pole. ‘Le Ballon de Gonesse’ was designed by Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet shortly after the factory received the title of ‘royal manufacturer’ from King Louis XVI of France, whose wife, Marie Antoinette, notably commissioned her gowns to be made from the celebrated textiles. Antoinette and the royal family were also transfixed by the ‘Balloonomania’ sweeping across France and their own backyard at Versailles, inspiring one of the balloons to be named in the Queen’s honor. “…The invention of the balloon struck the men and women of the late 18th century like a thunderbolt. Enormous crowds gathered in Paris to watch one balloon after another rise above the city rooftops, carrying the first human beings into the air in the closing months of 1783… In an age when men and women could fly, what other wonders might they achieve…” wrote the Smithsonian… And centuries later, crowds gather again in Paris, now wondering instead, what the visionary Watanabe will create next… • All Collages by Moi