Clothing Meditation

As the collection gets finished up and the show draws close I thought it would be fun as a team to do some more experimental works, like clothing as stream-of-conscious.
A question that has been on my mind is "how do you create clothing as art?" It is as big a question as the general query "what is art?" but since clothing rarely is included in this conversation, it is comman that people state that their clothing is art but rarely does anyone take them seriously enough to challenge it.

For me personally, within the art-as-clothing movement there should be a distinction of craft versus art. There seems to be a lot of very talented crafts persons who make clothing. They are weavers, embroiderers, fiber arts, dyers etc., and give life to their creative design as beautiful garments and fabrics. The key here is to differentiate design and technique, which are avenues for expressing beauty, efficiency, among other things--and art, which you define yourself.

Well then, what does define an artist? To me, an artist is someone who has deep need to express something from themselves. Within them lies an ever flowing fountain of expression that needs releasing otherwise the artist suffers. Like a fish needs water the artist creates to ease their soul and as my grandfather Jean Varda said, "the artist speaks through God."

Personally, I find myself in a strange position as an artist trying to express my creative visions through the clothing design process. As a designer, I am constantly bombarded by the "final product" mindset. Questions like: Who is your customer? Who will wear this? How will it fit? Will it sell? Are constantly thrown at me. This stifles the creative process because it takes the expression away from the creator and into the hands of a non-existent entity that holds power over the end result. Overall, I don't have any problem with this way of thinking. It is important and valid and produces great clothing. But for those of us who are caught up in a world between art and fashion, a new paradigm must be found.

So, I decided to do a little experiment. I got most of the girls together and the first step was to choose a Rex painting from which to work from. Then, one person starts the ball rolling by grabbing whatever fabric calls to them and starts to sew--which this time was Bennie. Each person takes a limited time to execute an idea 10-15 mins max and then hands it to the next person who goes with whatever inspiration first comes to mind and then hands it to the next person and so on until it is finished or the time runs out and then it is finished regardless. The idea is to feel the design, not analyze it, judge it or think about it too hard. Hopefully a subconscious form emerges and brings new possibilities forth that are normally not allowed to surface.

As usual the project went differently than planned but still allowed us to play with the idea of clothing as stream-of-conscious.

We chose Rex's "Clouds, Mountains, Buildings" from which Bennie was inspired by the buildings to do a bunch of box pleats--you can see her in the image above measuring the pleats. I think she even counted the buildings in the painting as made the same number of pleats. From there, Lauren (below) jumped on by adding a silk scarf and some blue fabric that she attached in a bunchy form.

Next Jennifer added more blue and arranged the piece on the body form into a dress form. As seen in the picture she was first playing with a cow-neck version, which later on you see was changed.

Last in the team, Patty rearranged the fluffy bottom piece and rearranged the top and brought the clothing meditation to a close.

By then it was late, and everyone was tired.

This was a very positive exprience and we learned for next time to try and explain less of their thoughts to the next person. I realize they did this so the following person would know what to do with the piece, but in sense I was really excited to see what would result from the confusion of not knowing and just go with their gut.