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Thoughts around an uplifting point

Y's by Yohji Yamamoto

Oversized short-sleeved button up shirt in white cotton. High-low hemline. Oxford collar. 
Single box pleat at back yoke.

photo from TotoKaelo

"I think clothes should be made from the back, and not the front.
The back supports the clothes,
and so if it is not properly made,
the front cannot exist."

Yohji Yamamoto
Yohji Yamamoto: Talking to Myself
2002

Ballet professor Wayne Byars, when talking to dancers about how to hold one's body, describes two imaginary lines:
- a horizontal line going from shoulder to shoulder
- a vertical line going from head to lower back, following the spine
The intersection of these 2 lines is an imaginary point.
Wayne directs students towards the mental representation and lifting of this point upward, to carry the body in the best manner - freeing it for dance, and by extension, for life.

Photo from a Philippe Genty puppeteering workshop

cropped from an original by Elena Mesa Alonso of the company Micro-Troupe

Puppeteer Philippe Genty and his company use, for teaching the basics of puppetry, a half-scale puppet which is held with two hands:
- one handle located in the higher back, roughly at the intersection of shoulder line and spine
- the other handle located at the back of the head, at mid-height.
The resulting movement of these puppets is extremely realistic and graceful, mimicking humans in a disturbingly accurate way.

 

Stay pattern, full, back view

based on an engraving from The Art of the Tailor

by François-Alexandre-Pierre de Garsault, Paris, 1769

 

Stay-makers of 18th century France did not measure the human body the way we do now. Instead of taking into account basic orthogonal lines such as bust-waist-hips-torso & back length, they used a set of diagonal dimensions, obtained by wrapping strips of paper around the upper body. A striking feature of this technique is the resulting pattern on the back, showing a clear intersection of several lines roughly in the same imaginary spot mentionned above.

"It should not bend,
but accomodate the body it holds within,
without altering its shape,
while at the same time supporting it
and preventing it from acquiring bad postures"

François-Alexandre-Pierre de Garsault
Art du Tailleur
1769