Alessandra Vaccari: Wig Wag [2007] paperback

Flags are everywhere, even in our wardrobes. Why are these brightly coloured cloth rectangles so fascinating? Are they fetishistic cult objects, fascinating stereotypes of identity or unsettling signs of power? And how do they fit into the omnivorous iconography of fashion and the anarchy of the creative processes of style? The book, "Wig Wag, The Flags of Fashion" rides along in the midst of that dense stream of visions and references - sporty, ethnic, patriotic or nostalgic - triggered by flags as a theme and by their relationship with fashion. It tears them away from the immediate association with the concept of nations and follows them through their visual metamorphoses that were created and guided by historic names such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior and Emilio Pucci; designers and brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood, Franco Moschino, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Antonio Marras, Alexander McQueen and Viktor & Rolf; and street-style brands, including Mambo, Vans, Eastpak, Gsus, Nigo, Stussy and Ipath.
Irony and identity are the driving forces behind the multiple ways in which the flags of the United States, Great Britain and Italy have been appropriated. Fashion also has a place for the colors of Brazil, Jamaica and Japan, red flags, rainbow flags and flags that have no country. The book traverses this explosion of colourful symbols to present the creative processes of a fashion in close contact with cinema, art, design and music. "Mode" is a series edited by Maria Luisa Frisa which studies fashion as creative system of the contemporary world and analyzes its ability to generate products, images and ideas that have a determining influence on daily life, guiding and directing tastes and trends. It is a series that uses today's perspectives to look behind significant people and events to reconstruct the birth and evolution of a system that is constantly in motion. "Mode's" aim is to be a quick and versatile tool, featuring essays on a single topic and critical monographs on the new protagonists of the fashion system, with black-and-white and full colour illustrations that coexist in harmony in a format that is almost pocketsize, at a reasonable price, in Italian and English.
It will be the ideal tool for the ever-growing number of students pursuing degrees in fashion and fashion-related subjects, for scholars, for members of the trades as well as for all those who want to know more about a topic which, along with architecture, art, cinema, design and photography contributes to defining today's landscapes. Maria Luisa Frisa is the fashion curator of The Fondazione Pitti Discovery, and chair of the new degree course in Fashion Design at the Faculty of Arts and Design, IUAV Venice.