MEMENTO MORI: FASHION AND ITS INSPIRATION FROM DEATH AND DECAY

Abstract

Death and Decay has been one of the major influences on art and design for a very long time. Surprisingly, the more we fear death the more we use it as a source of inspiration and transform it into powerful creativity. Since the beginning of evolution, we have killed animals in order to obtain skin and fur, to make cloth and clothing, and to make ourselves feel warm and safe. We have lived by tearing others' lives while we wait with anticipation for our death. We see death happening around us, we see it tearing apart the lives of our loved ones, and we question where in the world death took them. Perhaps this morbid obsession has touched the deepest part of our soul. We turn the fear in our hearts into art and design, for it can finally answer the question we desire. Memento Mori or Remember you must die is one of the important art movements that employ the theme of death in every medium. Based on this concept, it is quite fascinating to explore Memento Mori with the eyes of fashion and costume from the past to the modern day, since it is one area of art and design that deals with death from the basic nature of itself. For this at last, it may make us look back at ourselves, reminding us every moment that death is never far away.