Wearable Art – No, it’s not wearing a painting around your neck
By Portia Favro
“I wore a bird on my head!” cried Carrie Bradshaw.
“Is that what that was? I thought it was a feather?” replied her friend, Miranda Hobbs
Looking down with a heavy sign, “It was a bird,” Bradshaw replied.
This scene, played out by style and television icons Carrie Bradshaw and Miranda Hobbs in the 2008 movie Sex and the City, encapsulated both the impracticability and fun of fashion – especially about materials some designers use and ladies choose to wear. Fresh off the heels of the 2011 Paris, New York, Milan and London Fashion weeks, various materials were used across the world to literally create wearable art.
Leather made into black feathers, parachutes cut into blouses and even skateboards taken apart and glued into accessories – new trends are showing clothes do not have to be made out of just fabric. Since the eco-friendly “boom” of the past decade, major and amateur designers alike are making creative pieces, with a story and artistic expression behind each stitch.
In Canada, one of the places that dedicates a large amount of time, space and effort into wearable art is in Kelowna, British Columbia. The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art in the city runs the Annual Wearable Art Gala, falling on April 2 this year.
“It’s not just a fashion show,” says Heather Martin, event coordinator with the Alternator Centre, “it’s something more than that, it’s about the body being adorned with art – whether it be with flour and plastic wrapped around them or sprinkled in various ornaments!”
She has helped run the gala for the past five years says that there will be about 65 different performances of art, some in groups and others displayed on models or the creator. However, the surprise element will be in the designs by first-year fine art students from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Curated submissions from the general public are also allowed.
Martin says that the show is the place to expect the unexpected, with former submissions ranging from dresses made out of keyboards to people walking on silts through the crowd. There are prizes available for categories such as the Naughtiest, Best Hair and Makeup and any other niche within the show. But the gala is not about winning the blue ribbon for the best piece.
“It’s all about artistic expression…we have two artistic directors for the show who work with the artists and can help take things to the next level, but through wearing art as clothes,” Martin says.
Following in the footsteps of this mindset, second-year UBCO student Ceara Crawford has aspirations to enter a piece of work into the Wearable Art Gala. She has two unusual qualities about her application: she would be entering as a citizen (she’s an engineering, not fine art student) and wants to submit her prom dress.
In May 2009 in Kelowna, most girls from Crawford’s high school, Okanagan Mission Secondary were finally getting to wear the gowns they had been searching, hemming and sharing photos on Facebook to ensure there are no repeats for months. For Crawford, she was putting on something slightly different to go to prom – a red, chocolate-brown and white dress made of duct tape.
“I made a duct tape wallet in grade nine, and I’ve been using it ever since,” says Crawford, “My friend Jenna saw an ad for the duct tape competition [for prom dresses and tuxedo] online…she told me about it and I immediately jumped on it.”
Crawford made the dress to enter the Stuck at Prom Contest, a competition open to students to make and wear a dress and tuxedo for the opportunity to win up to $5,000 in scholarship money.
After scouring the internet, Crawford found a wearable art dress that was made out of tax receipts, and “fell in love with it.” At the end of January 2009, she had taken the basic design of the dress she had seen online, added personal details and had an unusual birthday request.
“I asked everyone to buy me chocolate and rolls of duct tape for my birthday,” she says with a laugh, “So that supplied a third of the supply I needed.”
Ten rolls of duct tape, one month and $115 later, Crawford had finished her prom dress, complete with a corset back. After two more months, she finished her date’s white tuxedo with 13 rolls of tape, and a corsage and boutonniere all in duct tape.
Although she did not win the scholarship, Crawford still receives comments on her pictures two years later. The interesting and quality of her design is proving to stand the test of time, as compared to normal fashion trends which walk down the runway each season.
“I still love how I designed my dress, I wouldn’t have changed a thing,” says Crawford.
Across the country, Arik Idan has been selling his jewelry designs in his store called Wearable Art, for 22 years downtown Toronto. He believes that art and sculpture can be anything, including jewelry, as each is designed to fit a specific space.
“You see, a sculpture can be made to fit a very particular area within a space,” he says, “the body can also be seen as the base, made for the environment, and I have the same attitude about fitting it with jewelry.”
Idan says that art strives to be eternal in a world of mass consumerism, where fashion can be disposable. He strives to make pieces to combat this notion, and will last for years with quality, but still interesting designs.
Idan works primarily with metals, especially silver and gold to make one of a kind pieces, some of which are collected by clients and displayed like art in cases. His pieces vary in design, ranging to eclectic stones and shapes.
“Wearable art is like haute couture,” says Idan, “it will be relevant in a thousand years as a piece of art. The difference between it and fashion is that a good piece of fashion jewelry may be [relevant] next year if it is a good piece…the problem is that we have been brainwashed to value the name [of the designer] and not the details and interest of the product.”
Looking forward, materials, quality and showcases are challenging the original role of fashion, and pushing it more as a means of artistic expression – literally. What was once a activity for the elite is now accessible and able to be interpreted by the public.
Kelowna’s Wearable Art Gala sells out every year. Idan has a group of clients who lust after his newest pieces, and Crawford proves that you can make clothes out of just about anything.
“Walmart is full of surprises!” says Crawford, who found a plethora of coloured duct tape at the megastore for her dress.
She’s still considering a career in the fashion industry, and who knows? Maybe in 10 years we’ll all be lusting for the handbag of the moment designed out of duct tape, or something else that may be considered not just fashionable, but a real piece of art that can be worn.
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