What is the meaning of ‘spawning copies like Gremlins upon contact with water.’
Does it mean others copied her work like Gremlins upon contact with water?
and ‘The rest, as they don’t normally say’
Does it means 'After that, which the critics don’t normally mention?
The city of light wasn’t so much as thrilled than horrified by Kawakubo’s hard-edged, solemn and monochromatic vision. (She single-handedly invented black as the new black, spawning copies like Gremlins upon contact with water.) Hard-pressed to come up with an apt label, critics called that seminal collection, “Hiroshima Chic”. The rest, as they don’t normally say, became the future of modern 20th century fashion.
What is the meaning of 'weren’t so much as envelope-pushing as dispensing with the envelope altogether?
Does it mean ''She moves beyond the limit of what has usually been done or was the accepted standard and delete the limitation altogether?
And it is this experimental yearning that has informed her collections, many of which weren’t so much as envelope-pushing as dispensing with the envelope altogether. (Kawakubo is like the Christopher Columbus of fashion: She discovers the unknown, the uncharted, the new.)
‘spawning copies like Gremlins upon contact with water.’
Probably means other artists copied her style. To increase the dramatic tension the writer has used the metaphore of Gremlins reproducing - which they do effortlessly (by coming into contact with water) and frighteningly fast.
The rest, as they don’t normally say[/COLOR], became the future of modern 20th century fashion.
here the writer is taking a common phrase (“The rest, as they say, is history”) and turning it around in a playful way to emphasise the uniqueness of this story. In other words, “The rest (of the story), which is not something very common, is that it became the future of modern fashion!”
Do you know the phrase “Pushing the envelope”? It’s a very common metaphore and it means, that the envelope represents the container/box that we exist in, and the walls of the envelope stop us from moving beyond what we are and what we know. So someone who “pushes the envelope”, is pushing against the limits of what holds everyone else back. They are pioneers. Advancers of technology and art.
So if someone dispenses (throws away) the very idea of an envelope, then they have no restrictions, no borders, no limits and nothing to hold them back.
