Thayaht was the pseudonym of artist and designer Ernesto Michahelles (1893–1959) best known for his revolutionary design of the TuTa and his involvement with the Italian
Futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...
movement.
Early life
A mixture of British, German, Swiss and American origins, Thayaht was born in
Florence, Italy
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
and was related to American artist
Hiram Powers
Hiram Powers (July 29, 1805 – June 27, 1873) was an American neoclassical sculptor. He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture ''The Greek Slave''.
...
. He studied painting at the
Académie Ranson
The Académie Ranson was founded in Paris by the French painter Paul Ranson (1862–1909), who himself studied at the Académie Julian, in 1908. in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, as well as scientific dyes and dynamic structure at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. He adopted the pseudonym "THAYAHT" around 1919; when written entirely in uppercase letters, it is a “bifrontal”
palindrome
A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...
, meaning it's visually symmetrical and can be read from right to left, left to right, and as its own reflection.
Career
In 1919, Thayaht started designing his most famous piece. The TuTa, which Thayaht called “the most innovative, futuristic garment ever produced in the history of Italian fashion” was an early example of what we now know as a
jumpsuit
A jumpsuit is a one-piece garment with sleeves and legs and typically without integral coverings for feet, hands or head. The original jump suit is the functional one-piece garment used by parachuting, parachuters.
The original skydivers' j ...
. It was intended to revolutionize fashion and create a modern and particularly Italian style. With help from his artist brother RAM (Ruggero Alfredo Michahelles) he launches the new design in 1920, and the pattern is published by the newspaper La Nazione so that the TuTa is accessible to all. Intended as a practical item of clothing for everyday use, it was instead adopted as a fad by high Florentine society.
From 1919 to 1925, Thayaht worked as a designer in collaboration with
Madeleine Vionnet
Madeleine Vionnet (; June 22, 1876, Loiret, France – March 2, 1975) was a French fashion designer. Vionnet trained in London before returning to France to establish her first fashion house in Paris in 1912. Although it was forced to close in 1 ...
, the couturière credited with introducing the
bias-cut to Parisian fashion. He started out by designing the logo for the
Maison Vionnet, and quickly became responsible for the graphic presentation of her new models, many published in the magazine Bon Ton. Thayaht also developed numerous patterns for printing on fabric that Vionnet used for her dresses, and designed some original models, including Paysage.
After returning to Italy, during the 1920s he continued his career in the applied arts. Pioneer of
Industrial Design
Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...
, he not only exhibited samples of
fabric
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
and clothing but also top quality furniture and furnishings at the 1923 and 1927 Esposizione Internazionale d'Arti Decorative di Monza. These were also intended for mass distribution. He tried his hand at jewelry design inventing "taiattite", a silver and aluminium
alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...
from which he made primitive fashionable pendants.
During the 1930s he showed at the first Roman Quadrennial (1931), organized the Futurist Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture, Paintings of Airplanes and Decorative Arts at the "Galleria d'Arte" in Florence, showing at the Venice Biennials 1932 to 1936 and at the Milan Triennial in 1933 and
1936
Events
January–February
* January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...
.
Like many futurist artists during the 30s, Thayaht was at some point a supporter of
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
dictator
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
: His famous painting ''"Il grande Nocchiere"'' (The great Helmsman) depicts an almost robot-like, muscular figure of Mussolini, holding the giant steering wheel of some fantastic craft, while in the sky above him, a long line of Savoia Marchetti S 55 Catamaran seaplanes (of the type used by air Marshal Italo Balbo for his propaganda transatlantic flights) soars into a sky crisscrossed by barbed wires. His work was also part of the
sculpture event in the
art competition at the
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...
.
Later life
In the mid-1930s he retired to
Marina di Pietrasanta Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where the ...
, where he concentrated on studying science and astronomy and after the end of WWII founded the CIRNOS (independent station for the recording of space information) with the aim of recording and providing
proof of UFOs.
Death
He is buried in the
Cimitero Evangelico degli Allori
The Cimitero Evangelico agli Allori ("The Evangelical Cemetery at Laurels") is located in Florence, Italy, between 'Due Strade' and Galluzzo.
History
The small cemetery was opened in 1877 when the non-Catholic communities of Florence could no long ...
in the southern suburb of
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
,
Galluzzo
Galluzzo is part of quartiere 3 of the Italian city of Florence, Italy, located in the southern extremity of the Florentine commune. It is known for the celebrated Carthusian monastery, the Galluzzo or Florence Charterhouse (''Certosa di Firenze ...
(
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
).
References
Sources
* Chiara Lastrucci, ed. ''Thayaht, un artista alle origine del Made in Italy''. Prato: Museo del Tessuto Edizioni. 2007.
* Mauro Pratesi. ''Futurismo e Bon Ton, I Fratelli Thayaht e Ram''. Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi. Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore. 2005
* Scappini, Alessandra, ed. ''Thayaht, Vita, scritti, carteggi''. Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto. Milano: Skira. 2005.
* Daniela Fonti, ed. ''Thayaht, Futurista irregolare.'' Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto. Milano: Skira. 2005.
* Chirella Caterina e Uzzani Giovanna.'' Per il Sole e Contro il Sole, Thayaht & Ram, La Tuta/Modelli per Tessuti''. Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti. Livorno: Sillabe. 2003.
* Crispoleti, Enrico, ed. ''Il Futurismo attraverso la Toscana, architettura, arti visivi, letteratura, musica, cinema e teatro.'' Museo Civico di Livorno. Livorno: Silvana Editoriale. 2000
* Richard Martin. ''Cubism and Fashion.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Abrams, Inc. 1998.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayaht
1893 births
1959 deaths
Fashion designers from Florence
Italian people of British descent
Italian people of German descent
Italian people of Swiss descent
Italian people of American descent
Artists from Florence
Harvard University alumni
Olympic competitors in art competitions