The Tufts Daily

After controversy surrounding her work “Open Casket” (2016) led to heated protests at the Whitney Biennial last March, Dana Schutz became one of the most conspicuous figures in the contemporary art world. The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) of Boston has also drawn support and protest from local artists and activists since unveiling a retrospective of […]

Blockbuster horror movies in recent years have been undeniably political. This is the case with “Get Out” (2016), in which Jordan Peele explores a swath of current sociopolitical issues including anti-black racism and police brutality in the US. Both “The Purge: Election Year” (2016) and “The Handmaid’s Tale” (2017-present), the Hulu series based on the Margaret Atwood novel, […]

In light of the recent gala at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, I thought that it would be great to end this semester with a celebration of designer Rei Kawakubo. After all, “dulcis in fundo.” The Japanese designer started one of the most recognizable brands in the industry to this day, Comme des Garcons. […]

Few designers have incorporated technology in their work like Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake, especially famous for his “Pleats Please” line and his “BaoBao” geometric bags. He is a firm believer in the importance of art and museums as inexhaustible sources of inspiration for the fashion industry. Although he ‘retired’ from design in 1997, he still oversees […]

For my column this week, I decided to throw it back to the 1930s, when Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel were the two rivals contending for the title of queen of the fashion industry. Schiaparelli eventually lost that ‘rivalité,’ as her name today is clearly not omnipresent as Chanel. The innovations she brought to designing are nonetheless invaluable, […]

American fashion designer Jeremy Scott, since first entering the fashion world with his eponymous line in 1997, has been redefining flamboyancy and glamour with his frequent use of floral prints, bold colors and sparkles in his designs. He has even been likened to Andy Warhol for the way he “likes to embrace the garish banality of […]

In the fashion world, few designers have been able to constantly draw inspiration from their national and cultural heritage and remain relevant for a long time like Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Dolce, who is originally from a town near Palermo, never fails to incorporate visual motifs from the Sicilian tradition in his designs, […]

As our attention spans are getting shorter and as social media is becoming an increasingly vital resource for fashion brands to stay relevant, it is key for designers to possess the ability to surprise their audiences. Hussein Chalayan, a British/Turkish Cypriot designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins, can arguably do this better than anyone […]

In his “Aesthetics of Ugliness” (1853), German philosopher Karl Rosenkranz wrote about the essentiality of repulsiveness to “keep our appetites alive” and to comprehend beauty. It truly seems that this could be the lifelong motto of Italian fashion designer Miuccia Prada. One of the few women to ever lead a major ‘maison,’ she based her accomplishments […]

For a very long time, almost nobody in the fashion world knew the true age of the legendary German designer, Karl Lagerfeld. This halo of timelessness surrounding his persona easily translated to his designs, whether these were Chanel suits, Fendi fur coats, Chloé gowns or accessories for his eponymous brand. Part of the reason Lagerfeld has […]