The House of Viktor and Rolf. Courtesy Barbican Art Gallery. Photo Lyndon Douglas

Exhibition Review - Esther Poole, Culture24's Year 10 intern takes a look round the Viktor and Rolf exhibtion at the Barbican, which runs until September 21 2008.

This month at the Barbican Gallery, London, maverick fashion designers Viktor and Rolf are showcasing their entire careers’ work, and most prominent pieces, in an unusual exhibition.

Over the last 15 years, these Dutch designers have taken the fashion industry by storm by creating garments intended to make a statement and cause discussion by anyone who sees them.

Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren have been working together since they graduated from the Academy of Arts, Arnhem, in 1992. Their first haute couture catwalk show was shown in January 1998. They followed this with four more sensational collections, securing their reputation in the couture fashion world.

In March 2000, they presented their first ready-to-wear collection, based on the American flag, which signalled their aspirations to produce clothes globally. In 2004, the fashion duo became household names through a number of collaborations, one for a perfume, Flowerbomb, launched by L’Oreal and another, a collection for the high-street giant, H&M.

The House of Viktor and Rolf. Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery. Photo Lyndon Douglas

In their new exhibition, they have placed all their signature pieces on small 60cm tall dolls and positioned them into an expansive 3-floored dollhouse, designed by Seibe Tettero, who also designed their upside-down shop in Milan.

Around the rest of the exhibition space are the actual items of clothing with videos in the background playing footage of the original catwalk show.

Victor and Rolf evidently love playing around with common factors of fashion. For instance, all the dolls in the exhibition have very chubby cheeks, which is contrary to the real models that would have worn the clothes.

It’s interesting that V&R seem to be making a direct comment on the fashion industry of which they are a part. Perhaps models are like dolls to fashion designers, which they just dress up and are only there to look pretty?

Viktor and Rolf. Courtesy Barbican Art Gallery. Photo Lyndon Douglas

They also make a statement in one of their latest collections, No, in which the clothes had words like No and Dream On shown on them. This signifies that they wanted to say to the fast, ever-changing world of fashion ‘No’.

Similar messages were portrayed in their collection, Silver, where some of the clothes were electroplated so that the fabric went hard and metallic.

They borrowed this method from the Dutch tradition of silver-plating a childs' first shoe to save as a keepsake. Doing this to the clothes gives the impression they wanted their fashion pieces to have a more permanent edge to them, and the things they created, to be remembered.

Highlights of the exhibition include a full video of their collection, Russian doll, in which the designers, in front of a catwalk audience, painstakingly dressed one model, Maggie Rizer, in 10 independent layers encrusted with jewels.

The House of Viktor and Rolf. Courtesy Barbican Art Gallery. Photo Lyndon Douglas

Also included is the atomic bomb collection, featuring dramatic cloud-like, cushioned necklines shaped like an atomic bomb explosion.

Fashionistas may also be interested to know the wedding dress Viktor and Rolf designed for HRH Princess Mabel van Oranje-Nassau in 2004 is on display for the first time. It is smothered in 248 bows and has a 2.75 metre long train made of snow-white, double-faced satin.

Overall, when looking at the work of these men over the last 15 years, you cannot help but think that they are extremely passionate about the work they do and they really take refuge in creating wonderful masterpieces of art in the form of fashion.