Ring of fire clothing1/17/2024 In 1998 Alexander McQueen paid eerie homage in a collection titled ‘Joan’. In 1994, Jean-Paul Gaultier placed her in embellished armour and peasant-style corseting. In the last thirty years or so, she has been referenced frequently in catwalks and editorials. What’s hotter than a woman in armour? One can read echoes of her in Paco Rabanne’s 1960s space-age soldiers and Thierry Mugler’s 1990s metal femme-bots. Her youth is part of the attraction, as is her attire. In the imagination of the fashion world, the teenager who led a French army to victory has come to symbolise untouchability – Amazonian, androgynous, by turns transgressive and erotic. John Galliano, Autumn/Winter 2006-2007 couture runway show She was canonised by the Catholic church as the patron saint of France in 1920. In 1431, she was burned at the stake in a public square in Rouen. However, the following year she was captured by the English-allied Burgundians and put on trial for witchcraft, heresy and wearing men’s clothing. Joan’s reputation became legendary, bolstered by the fearsome image of a teenage girl in armour leading the attack. Other victories followed, precipitating the king’s coronation in 1429. Such was the strength of her fervour, she met and convinced the future King Charles VII to allow her to successfully lead the charge at the siege of Orléans when she was still only seventeen. Aged thirteen she began having divine visions that she would lead France to victory. Born in the fifteenth century to a farming family, she grew up during the bloody hundred years’ war between England and France. She has long been a figure of intense interest in the fashion industry, an unlikely icon given her ascetic air. We can hazard a guess that he was passing comment, albeit clumsily, on the punishment she faced for wearing men’s clothing, with this gown offered as a subversive alternative: conforming to a feminine silhouette without losing those all-important connotations of valour and protection.ĭemna is not the first designer to call on Joan. ‘I thought maybe if Joan of Arc had worn this kind of armour,’ creative director Demna Gvasalia (known mononymously as Demna) said after the presentation, ‘they would’ve not burned her at the stake.’ If we are being charitable, we can assume that Demna’s intention was not to imply that the only thing standing between a nineteen-year-old girl and her torturous execution was a Balenciaga dress. Her rigid skirt tilted back and forth, shiny as a silver saltshaker. The mood of the show was sombre, with models walking at a glacial pace, but Douglas moved with deliberate stiffness. Artist Eliza Douglas appeared as the saint in a 3D-printed, 36kg armoured dress made from galvanised resin and finished in polished chrome. Joan of Arc closed Balenciaga’s couture presentation in Paris this July. Why can’t the fashion world get enough of the teenage martyr who led her country to victory?
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