ATOPOS Contemporary Visual Culture. Not A Toy: Fashioning Radical Characters.

(Berlin): Pictoplasma Publishing, 2011. First edition. Hardcover, 23 × 33.6 cm, 352 pages.  A landmark volume exploring the impact of “character design” on contemporary fashion and visual culture: from avant-garde couture to costume, performance, and conceptual fashion. Compiled and edited by ATOPOS (Artistic Director: Vassilis Zidianakis), with contributions and essays by leading scholars and critics including Valerie Steele, José Teunissen, Ted Polhemus, Judith Hoos Fox and others. The book traces an international scene of radical designers and artists — from established names such as Issey Miyake, Maison Martin Margiela, Hussein Chalayan and Walter Van Beirendonck, to younger, boundary-pushing creators such as Gareth Pugh, Charlie Le Mindu, Cassette Playa, and others. The project reflects how the visual language of “characters” — abstract, stylized, hybrid bodies — has infiltrated fashion, costume, performance and identity-play, challenging conventional notions of beauty, gender, and form.  Illustrated throughout.  A very good plus copy in glossy boards.