14 DAY TRIAL // Lady Gaga made a fashion statement with her now infamous meat dress, but one chef and a museum in Berlin are making a statement on art, culture, fashion and food. They're doing that with the Fashion Food exhibit, which is open until January 29, 2012.
Chef Roland Trettl created what he believes is the perfect combination of food and fashion: items made of food, that look good and, at the same time, can be broken down into ingredients afterwards and cooked.
The collection he helped create features skirts and dresses made of seaweed, collars of octopuses or caul fat, and tops made of chocolate – all photographed by Helge Kirchberger.
It's not just food being used to create art, he says, but also a statement on our society and how much of our dwindling resources we are simply throwing away, as the Daily Mail also notes.
Museum director Lieselotte Kugler says Kirchberger's photos are “erotic and provocative and raise questions,” while also a tribute to the ingredients they're made of.
“This is also a celebration of food. When you think of all the food that is thrown away every year in Germany – including 5,000 tonnes of bread – everyone needs to consider how they approach food and how food is increasingly industrialized in our society,” Kugler says, as cited by the Mail.
To prove that the odd “collection” is a warning signal for the way food is being thrown away daily, to the detriment of our planet, all the items photographed were cooked after the the shooting session was over, with only a few minor exceptions.
“Most of the food was not simply thrown away. The octopus is cooked three to four hours until it's tender and the pasta can be boiled. Then everyone sits down and has a feast,” the museum director says.
The only exception was the chocolate dress: it couldn't be reused, so the model had to just wash it off. It was also the item most difficult to photograph in the entire collection.
“You only have about two minutes to photograph it, with a crew of 20 people. After that, it starts drying up and flaking off. It is a unique work of art comprised of the food and the model, the material and the form,” Ms. Kugler explains.