Claudia Skoda

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Claudia Skoda (* 1943 in Berlin-Steglitz ) is a German knit designer and icon of the Berlin underground scene since the 1970s. She is known for her spectacular, avant-garde fashion shows as well as for her collaboration with artist and musician friends.

Claudia Skoda during rehearsal for the photo shoot for the "On Top" collection, Polaroid, 1985

biography

Beginnings in the factory new in Kreuzberg

Claudia Skoda first worked as a publishing clerk and on the side sold her knitwear to friends and relatives. In 1975 she founded her own fashion label and became known for her new knitting technique, which broke with the then common understanding of knitting: For example, Skoda used unusual lurex and elastane yarns as well as materials such as raffia, straws and cassette tape. She is known for her unusual, often skin-tight and often see-through designs. Her most significant designs include the body-hugging, colorful leggings and sweaters from the “Jazz” collection from 1978. Claudia Skoda held her first fashion shows in her living and working community, Fabrikneu in Zossener Strasse in Kreuzberg, which quickly became a scene event. The shows received a lot of attention in the local Berlin press; the models were compared with "pop characters from Andy Warhol films" and the new factory with Warhol's Factory . In 1976, the then unknown artist Martin Kippenberger created a floor for Claudia Skoda from around 1,300 photographs by Ulrike Ottinger , Esther Friedman and himself, which from then on served as a catwalk in the new factory. Music also played a central role in Claudia Skoda's productions: from 1976 Manuel Göttsching repeatedly accompanied the shows with his electro sounds, in 1977 the punk band The Vibrators played as the opening act for the “Pablo Picasso” fashion show . The spectators included u. a. Iggy Pop , David Bowie and Gudrun Gut .

Fashion shows as total works of art

Since the fashion shows in the Factory New were always overcrowded, Claudia Skoda went public for the first time in 1978 with the “Catwalk” show with a multidisciplinary fashion show in the then Egyptian Museum (today: Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection ). Skoda saw her fashion shows as theater performances: the body language of the models, unusual settings and carefully selected music were supposed to create magical, surrealistic atmospheres. One of Claudia Skoda's most famous fashion shows is “Big Birds” in the Old Congress Hall (today: House of World Cultures ) in 1979. For this event, Claudia Skoda had previously sent her models to the zoological garden to study the behavior of birds and to imitate. The performers were separated from the audience by a fence. Under the blanket, Luciano Castelli and Salomé did gymnastics almost naked and painted all over their bodies like birds on a high trapeze. Perhaps the loud pounding of Manuel Göttsching's beats for hours led to the roof of the congress hall collapsing a few months later. The shows “Drum Fire” (1982 in the Martin-Gropius-Bau ) and “Veits Fights” (1983 in the main building of the Technical University ) turned out to be expressive events of total art.

Store in SoHo, New York

After David Bowie advised Claudia Skoda to also sell her fashion internationally - "You have to go out, Claudia, your fashion is a bit more than Berlin!" - she opened her first shop in SoHo, New York, not far from Vivienne Westwood , Comme des Garçons and other trendy designers. However, production continued in Berlin. Claudia Skoda also organized two fashion shows in New York: The “Berlin Nights of Industrial Decadence” in 1983 in the Danceteria and “Masterpieces” in 1986 in the Palladium. The “Masterpieces” were designs by the artists Salomé , Anne Jud , Luciano Castelli and Rainer Fetting , all of which Claudia Skoda implemented in knitted sweaters and (in the case of Anne Jud) as dresses.

Return to Berlin

When West Berlin became the European City of Culture in 1988, Claudia Skoda was commissioned by the Senate to organize the opening gala. To this end, she invited seven designers from seven countries to Berlin for her show “Dressater”. Under the motto “dressed to thrill”, the travesty artist [Joey Arias] hosted an evening full of “music, film, video, dance, painting, opera, performance”. In interviews, Claudia Skoda emphasized that when the Berlin Wall fell a year later, she decided to stay in Berlin: “If the turning point had not come, I would have gone back to New York. But since I was from Berlin, I thought, in a situation like this, I can't leave and opened a shop on Ku'damm. ”Claudia Skoda had this shop on Kurfürstendamm designed by star designer Marc Newson . Shops on Linienstraße, Alten Schönhauser Straße and Mulackstraße followed. To this day, Claudia Skoda's clientele includes many celebrities, such as Cate Blanchett , Milla Jovovich and Ridley Scott . For December 2020, the art library at the Kulturforum in Berlin has a large exhibition on Claudia Skoda called “Claudia Skoda. Dressed to Thrill ”announced.

further activities

music

As Die Dominas, Rosie Müller and Claudia Skoda recorded the EP I bin a Domina in 1981 . For this purpose, Skoda founded its own label, FABRIKNEU. The piece was mixed by Manuel Göttsching ; Ralf Hütter and Karl Bartos from the band Kraftwerk designed the cover.

Movie

Claudia Skoda designed costumes for Ulrike Ottinger and also starred in Ottinger's film Madame X. An absolute ruler (1977). In 1984 Claudia Skoda also starred in Tabea Blumenschein's film Zagarbata .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefanie Dörre: "Experimental since 1975: the fashion designer Claudia Skoda". In http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lp/prj/mtg/men/mod/sko/de6846078.htm (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  2. ^ Anton Waldt: "Claudia Skoda: The bitchy elegance of the 70s". In: https://de-bug.de/mode/archives/712.html (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  3. ↑ See Wolfgang Farkas et al. (Ed.): Berlin night life. 1974 until today . Metrolit: Berlin 2013.
  4. ↑ Vera de Saram: "It sparkles in the Kreuzberg fashion sky." Der Tagesspiegel , October 24, 1976, quoted in: Felix Zdenek, Kippenberger's rediscovered performance. In Petra Wenzel (ed.): Martin Kippenberger: A floor collage for Claudia Skoda 1976 . NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft Düsseldorf, 2005. p. 34.
  5. ^ See VICE Youtube: "Berlin's Legendary Fashion Icon on the Explosion of Culture in 1989". In: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnlvOEbU7tA (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  6. ↑ Hans Georg Näder (Ed.): Kippenberger Catwalk . Exhibition cat., Duderstadt: Kunsthalle HGN, 2013.
  7. ↑ Nina Apin: "We were free and wild." In: https://taz.de/!452969/ (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  8. ↑ Danielle de Picciotto & Friends in Conversation, in: https://kaput-mag.com/stories-de/danielle-de-picciotto-friends-in-conversation_claudia-skoda-mode-war-noch-nie-so-billig -and-inflationary-like-today-and-at the same time-so-absurdly-expensive / (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  9. ↑ Petra Wenzel (ed.): Martin Kippenberger: A floor collage for Claudia Skoda 1976. NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft Düsseldorf , 2005. P. 9.
  10. ↑ Holger Schulze: "Focusing and Historizing". In: https://www.textezurkunst.de/articles/holger-schulze-transmediale-2012-gansing/ (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  11. ^ Sassan Niasseri: "From David Bowie to Ben Watt: ROLLING STONE-Talk with Claudia Skoda". In: https://www.rollingstone.de/von-david-bowie-bis-ben-watt-rolling-stone-talk-mit-claudia-skoda-363590/ (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  12. ↑ < palladium
  13. ↑ Hannelore Hünnebeck: "Galactic fashion in kühnem Strick". In: Der Tagesspiegel , September 21, 1986, p. 51.
  14. ↑ program booklet ". Dressater A new medium Organized by Claudia Skoda Published opening of Berlin -.. European Capital of Culture 1988", April 1988.
  15. ↑ Stefanie Dörre: "Experimental since 1975: the fashion designer Claudia Skoda". In http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lp/prj/mtg/men/mod/sko/de6846078.htm (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  16. ↑ Petra Wenzel (Ed.): Martin Kippenberger: A floor collage for Claudia Skoda 1976 . NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft Düsseldorf, 2005. p. 15.
  17. ↑ Danielle de Picciotto & Friends in Conversation, in: https://kaput-mag.com/stories-de/danielle-de-picciotto-friends-in-conversation_claudia-skoda-mode-war-noch-nie-so-billig -and-inflationary-like-today-and-at the same time-so-absurdly-expensive / (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  18. ↑ Art Library, Staatliche Museen Berlin: https://www.smb.museum/ausstellungen/detail/claudia-skoda/ (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  19. ↑ DEBUG: "The Dominas. Our record of the day." In: https://de-bug.de/musik/die-dominas/ (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  20. ↑ Homepage of Ulrike Ottinger: https://www.ulrikeottinger.com/de/filmdetails/madame-x-eine-absolute-herrscherin (accessed on July 9, 2020).
  21. ↑ Filmlexikon "Zagarbata". In: https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/3013 (accessed on July 9, 2020).
personal data
SURNAME Skoda, Claudia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German knit designer
DATE OF BIRTH 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Steglitz