TY - JOUR
T1 - Urban Fitness, Gendered Practices, and Fine Art
T2 - The Significance of Antonio Lopez's Sporty Styling of Fashion
AU - Langkjær, Michael Alexander
N1 - Contribution to a Special Issue of Fashion Practice (Routledge) on Textiles and Sport, guest-edited by Mette Bielefeldt Bruun and Michael A. Langkjær.
PY - 2016/10/28
Y1 - 2016/10/28
N2 - The author re-examines claims in the literature on Antonio Lopez that from the 1970s this fashion illustrator had significantly influenced the sporty styling of fashion. However, Antonio's 1960s swimsuit-, motorcycling- and varsity-themed ads reveal some prior links with sport. Antonio's later Olympics illustrations, and especially his renditions of bodybuilders and athletes, evoked the urban fitness and hedonism of 1970s and 1980s New York. This went along with inspiration derived from the 1930s' so-called "American Scene" artists Benton, Marsh and Hopper. Antonio was also influenced by Warhol's portrayals of masculine exhibitionism and homoeroticism. For Antonio, the appeal of sport can be explained by an envious appropriation of the athletic physique as well as a personal re-imaging along sporty lines. The "horsetails" and "centaurs" which figure in Antonio's work hint at his spirited sexuality. It is concluded that from the mid-1960s Antonio had already been illustrating sportswear, that he was inspired by depictions of sport and corporeal physicality by fine artists, and that his true significance for the sporty styling of fashion consisted in a "Warholian" edginess in choice of themes and treatment of motifs at a time of much hedonism and shading of gender.
AB - The author re-examines claims in the literature on Antonio Lopez that from the 1970s this fashion illustrator had significantly influenced the sporty styling of fashion. However, Antonio's 1960s swimsuit-, motorcycling- and varsity-themed ads reveal some prior links with sport. Antonio's later Olympics illustrations, and especially his renditions of bodybuilders and athletes, evoked the urban fitness and hedonism of 1970s and 1980s New York. This went along with inspiration derived from the 1930s' so-called "American Scene" artists Benton, Marsh and Hopper. Antonio was also influenced by Warhol's portrayals of masculine exhibitionism and homoeroticism. For Antonio, the appeal of sport can be explained by an envious appropriation of the athletic physique as well as a personal re-imaging along sporty lines. The "horsetails" and "centaurs" which figure in Antonio's work hint at his spirited sexuality. It is concluded that from the mid-1960s Antonio had already been illustrating sportswear, that he was inspired by depictions of sport and corporeal physicality by fine artists, and that his true significance for the sporty styling of fashion consisted in a "Warholian" edginess in choice of themes and treatment of motifs at a time of much hedonism and shading of gender.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - Antonio Lopez (fashion illustrator)
KW - Andy Warhol
KW - Thomas H. Benton (painter)
KW - Reginald Marsh (painter)
KW - Edward Hopper (painter)
KW - Fashion advertising
KW - Fashion illustration
KW - Styling
KW - Sportswear
KW - Fine art
KW - Fitness and fashion
KW - Masculinity
KW - Homoeroticism
KW - Centaurs
KW - Sports and fashion
KW - Gendered practices
KW - Fashion influencers
KW - Body-building and art
UR - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17569370.2016.1215127
U2 - 10.1080/17569370.2016.1215127
DO - 10.1080/17569370.2016.1215127
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1756-9370
VL - 8
SP - 189
EP - 211
JO - Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry
JF - Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry
IS - 2
ER -