Haute couture, haute cuisine: Food and fashion combine

BERLIN:

Move over Lady Gaga and your meat dress. A Berlin museum is coupling haute couture with haute cuisine, spotlighting models draped in octopus tunics, seaweed miniskirts and chocolate dresses.

The creations by Michelin-starred Austrian chef Roland Trettl, captured in 50 sumptuous stills by his compatriot photographer Helge Kirchberger, blur the lines of sensual pleasure in a feast for the eyes and the palate.

The Fashion Food exhibition at the Communication Museum dissects ‘taste’ and flamboyant fashion statements, as well as notions of consumerism and sustainability in a rich society.

“The images are not salacious or pornographic but they are erotic and provocative and raise questions,” said museum director Lieselotte Kugler, following an exhibition opening with two live models. “This is also a celebration of food. When you think of all the food that is thrown away every year in Germany, everyone needs to consider how they approach food and how food is increasingly industrialised in our society.”

One work  ‘Russian Lardo’ features a trouser suit sewn from lean bacon, a delicate black scarf made of squid ink pasta and a resplendent headdress woven from frisee lettuce, red chillies and Daikon cress.

Trettl and Kirchberger have  published a book featuring many of the photographs in the show, complete with recipes and a foreword by the original high-fashion rebel, Vivienne Westwood. “I would love to try them, but I hope someone else will prepare them,” the British designer said of the cooking tips using ingredients from the clothing.She compared the portraits to those of 16th century Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo who incorporated images of fruits and vegetables in his works.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2011.