For Artist Isabelle de Borchgrave, the Future of Fashion Is in Paper

Isabelle de Borchgrave, the self-taught Belgian artist noted for her painted paper dresses—they are truly objects to marvel at—always seems to have an exhibition up somewhere in the world. Most recently, her work has landed at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Fashioning Art From Paper is a 500-year survey of historical fashion through the artist’s interpretations of pieces in costume institutes around the world; its timing coincides with a big turn of the wheel, a new decade. As such it invites the viewer to take time to reflect on the past in order to better approach the new age. “It’s very important to have knowledge about the history of fashion. We need to know the past to better understand the present. Everything exists, but is recycled with some evolution and another view,” the artist tells Vogue.

Though she’s been painting since before she could talk, De Borchgrave’s sartorial time traveling dates to about 1994 when she visited the Met’s Costume Institute, where an exhibition of 18th-century garments was on display. “It gave me a shock—particularly a yellow dress, which would become my first paper creation,” the artist relates. Fashion wasn’t new to De Borchgrave; she had much success making hand-painted dresses (the Queen of Belgium wore one), but felt she was “losing [her] artistic soul” to commerce. “I then decided that I wanted to tell a story about fashion,” she says, “so I started creating prints and patterns on paper to create dresses that were unwearable.” It’s a continuing mission that’s personally fulfilling, but which also serves to bring history to life—after a fashion.

In De Borchgrave’s hand, paper takes on the suppleness and malleability of fabric. “I was, and still am, surprised every day by what paper can give you,” she states. “Paper gives you freedom: You can paint on it, shrink it, iron it, and mimic fabrics such as linen, velvet, brocade, taffeta, and satin by playing with trompe l’oeil and illusion. It’s much more resistant than fabric. It endures better against light and time, with the only issue being humidity.”

Organized chronologically, the exhibition takes the viewer from the renaissance to the early 1900s. The artist has a particular fondness for turn-of-the-century designers like Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin, and Mariano Fortuny. Included in the journey are “side trips” to more subjects De Borchgrave has explored in depth, namely the costumes designed by artists like Pablo Picasso and Giorgio de Chirico for the Ballets Russes; there are also a series of kaftans that depict the extraordinary textiles of central Asia.

Historical fashions inspire De Borchgrave’s art, but the artist isn’t stuck in the past; rather the artist is engaged in the fast-moving present. She’s thinking about the future too. Asked what she expects of the 2020s, De Borchgrave responds: “I think this new decade will be one of intelligent consumption. We are consciously trying to not use plastic and are going back to the simplicity of paper again. I’m lucky to have chosen using paper long ago.”