(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-02 11:43

From Inigo Jones and the Classical revival to Bauhaus and Kraftwerk's ties, fashion and architecture have always gone hand in hand - or rather hand in kidskin glove.

But the latest exhibition at London's Embankment Galleries does more than just catalogue the trends that each discipline has tapped into.

It investigates - in detail - the techniques and practices that modern technology has allowed both art forms to develop and manipulate to great aesthetic effect.

'Skin and Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture' runs until 10th August, and features work from some of the greats of 20th (and 21st) century design - Zaha Hadid and Yohji Yamamoto, to name but two.

Using video installations, portraits and costumes, it guides visitors through the intricacies of designing a modern 'shelter' - be it for the body, or for a community.

A large-scale video of Viktor and Rolf's 'Bluescreen' collection of 2003, in which moving images of urban landscapes were projected onto models pockets, collars and cuffs, is the jumping-off point.

This is compared to Herzog and de Meuron's Prada Aoyama Epicenter building in Tokyo, where concave and convex panes of glass mean views and perspectives are constantly warped and shifting.

The exhibition neatly captures the reworking of artisan traditions by latter-day Japanese designers, such as Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons, who engineer their runway looks with pleats, cantilevers and stratified balancing acts between texture and volume.

But it also features some home-grown talent, with pieces from Alexander McQueen and the successful, fledgling couture duo Boudicca, whose pieces resemble buildings in themselves, with their cathedral-esque crinoline dresses, topped off with a pair of flying buttress shoulder pads.

The pieces brought together in this exhibition are universally beautiful in their complexities, and careful curation inspires links and divergences between the two disciplines.

The exhibition is perhaps best summed up by Hussein Chalayan's autumn 2000 collection 'Afterwords', in which chairs and tables morph into dresses and skirts. The fluidity between the designer's function and the function of his very designs are at the heart of this fascinating exhibition.