S P I N E T I M E

Lately, I've been dying to wear v-necks and scoop necks back to front.
it's a little more modest than all the chest bearing that seems to be going on for a little while now too.
I'm just a little worried how many people would feel the urge to ask if I knew my shirt was back to front.

I think the real attraction to the idea is drawing attention to the spine. I really love it when you can see someones spine poking through, and there have been a lot of designs over recent years that seem to emphasise skeletal systems. It tends to lend a kind of alien deconstruction, that is at once organic and harsh.

This type of exoskeletal construction has been prevalent in the works of many post modern architects over the decades too, where the structural system evolves into a (dare i say it) decorative feature, lending the building it's most visually attractive features and dominating over its character.
Perhaps the master of exoskeletal architecture is Richard Rogers, Who played a key role in the creation of the design of Centre Pomidou, the fabulously disgusting functionalist museum in Paris. This aesthetic is visible in many of his designs in differing degrees, even London's Millennium Dome with it's towering supports that extend out of the dome they support and elevate the structural system to monumental status.

Centre Pompidou


Millenium Dome

Lloyds of London, however, is the building in which we see the most literal, and in my opinion beautiful, references to the spine, with services clearly stretching up the facade, and each landing of the stairwells, clad in stainless steel, are strikingly reminiscent of vertebrae.


Lloyds of London.

Possibly the most romantic expression of the spine in a piece of clothing i have ever lusted over, is Marjan Pejoski's spine bow shirt, from his F/W 07/08 collection, where the fabric of a simple white t-shirt miraculously crumples into bows down the spine. I never ever actually bought one, but i think about it so often that I really think i should.