Modernist Studios - Designing for the Future
As a design studio, it is our responsibility to take overt action and seek out new inspiration whenever we have the chance. Considering our name, “Modernist Studios”, and our timeless head designer, “Ron Chereskin”, who designs soley with the future in mind, it is important that we gather as much inspiration and industry news as possible to ensure what we put out into the world is both relevant and timeless.
In spite of these heavily restrictive times, during which most places of inspiration literally boarded off, our studio had the pleasure of attending the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s newest attraction.
The Costume Institute's 2020 exhibition traces a century and a half of fashion—from 1870 to the present—along a disruptive timeline for the occasion of The Met's 150th anniversary. Employing Henri Bergson's concept of la durée (duration), it explores how fashion, clothing in particular, generates temporal associations that conflate past, present, and future. The timeline unfolds into two adjacent galleries, in the shape of enormous clockfaces and organized around the principle of 60 minutes of fashion. Each "minute" features a pair of garments, with the primary work representing the linear nature of fashion and the secondary work its cyclical character.
Amongst the many takeaways, from aesthetic inspiration to eye-opening and delightfully familiar points expressed in each installation, there was a common theme our head designer Ron Chereskin felt was invaluable:
“Some of the simplest designs, means of construction and elements of expression within fashion, are truly some of the hardest to do. Nevertheless, a lot is the same in reference to how things were done in the past compared to how they are done today. Except now we have E-Commerce and digital!!” - Ron (below)
150 years have passed, and we arrive here today in a time of motionless movement—but the oxymoron has more to offer the visionary complex than just a poetic twist in regard to our current industry of fashion such stillness in an isolated world, yet so many moving parts.
Historically, nature has tried abundantly to stop time—and many say it may have succeeded with showrooms, boutiques, and stores left desolate, boarded up, and quiet. Yet, as humans, particularly creatives, we progress and compromise over and over again. And, like the human species, industries evolve. What makes the fashion industry’s evolution so captivating is how it unknowingly becomes the manifesto of expression in our every day lives - From the clothes we wear, to the colors, patterns, and textures that surround us in our homes, vehicles, and places of business.
How is Ron Chereskin and Modernist Studios Designing for the Future
As a design studio, it hasn’t been easy to navigate the massive changes we’ve undertaken in our industry as a result of everything that has happened over the past decade and year alone.
One of our most confident endeavors, however, has been our energizing collaboration between Modernist Studios’ Ron Chereskin and the digital powerhouse of the brand, Gravity. The collaboration has posed equally as many obstacles as triumphs. The super high speed of Gravity’s direct-to-consumer business model has kept our studio in high gear for the past year. As a result—with the help of Ron, as not just head designer but also creative director and pioneer of fashion business development here at the studio - the Modernist X Gravity collaboration has pumped out one of the hottest selling items in fashion this year, the first ever Weighted Robe, in addition to several collections of breathtakingly stylish bedroom adornments.
The success of this collaboration, in addition to the ongoing success of our other client base, is reassuring proof that we are on the right track; that the creative process is a new and even more efficient process altogether; and that, through the fusion of innovation and industry-specific work, the clock of fashion will continue to tick, just as it has for the last 150+ years.