Wearing the Vision: Experiments in Form at the Chicago Bauhaus

The celebration of 100 years of the Bauhaus is an appreciation of the unique design education originating in Germany, which migrated during WWII to become the New Bauhaus in Chicago. The original idea was to provide an integrated education in the arts and crafts, to train design professionals whose creative thinking would serve socially useful purposes and education. Beginning projects were experiments in form emerging from manipulation of diverse materials for non-specific purposes. Advanced workshops trained designers in projects for industrial production. The Chicago Bauhaus legacy has proven to be a continuously viable and valuable inspiration for creative practices and teaching methods. SAIC’s faculty includes teachers who studied art, architecture, design or art education at IIT or UIC, schools whose faculty included students of the original Bauhaus teachers. Fashion teaching experience and research have lead Carrara and Adams to fashion-relevant material in Bauhaus documents and in images from the Chicago Bauhaus Foundation archives. Bauhaus curricula and course descriptions included workshops in weaving, textiles, and fashion, as well as training in dress design, jewelry making and fashion illustration. Handmade costumes were created and worn by students for performances and art and design balls. We propose a visually-provocative and pedagogically-informative Lightning Round duet as a conversation between two fashion design historians and educators inspired by the Chicago Bauhaus.