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Australian fashion designers and artists visit the world of craft and design and place the focus back on how objects are made.
In today’s society, when first considering the question “How You Make It” the answer doesn’t seem as obvious as we may initially think. In an age where most garment construction takes place off our shores, we understand less and less about how things are actually made. Enter-How You Make It; a display of Australian artisans work that aims to showcase garment construction techniques and design principles drawing our attention back to how things are made.
In a collaborative Project between Craft Victoria and Object Gallery, Australia’s leading fashion designers and artists garments are featured in an exhibition where the central theme is garment construction as an art form.
Artists work shown included Anthea van Kopplen, ESS Laboratory, FORMALLYKNOWNAS, MATERIALBYPRODUCT, Paula Dunlop, Project, S!X and Simon Cooper.
When explaining how garments were selected for the show, curator Kate Rhodes expressed that it wasn’t the end result of the work she was taken with but rather the construction techniques embodied in the pieces: “The garments in How You Make It are characterised by their multidimensional and often structurally complex nature and display the tangible results of considered choices about when, where and how to cut fabric.
“Often existing garments have been deconstructed, reconfigured and reworked using fine tailoring techniques. These systems are used to explore and create new garment forms and new ways of wearing clothes” Kate adds.
Associate Director of Object Gallery, Brian Parkes says consumer driven demand has inspired such a show: “The consumer demands to know where, how and with what material a product is made. Being increasingly motivated by ethical and environmental concerns, these demands have led to genuine improvements in the availability of related information on product labelling and on-line”
Echoing this sentiment, Chantal McDonald from MATERIALBYPRODUCT has taken the traditional ‘care label’ of a garment and turned it into a design concept. All the information normally found on a tiny label inside a garment is now printed onto fabric and featured on the waist band of their designs making for quite a striking and unique trait.
Equally as intriguing are the structures displaying the Projects. Developed by Erik North from lev studio/workshop, a platform made from interlocking panels of Waferweld-a sustainable composite material made from various fibrous hardwood sawmill off-cuts feature the garments. The fittings are open and transparent in the gallery to showcase the unique craftsmanship and every construction detail. Rather than traditional mannequins, wooden frames with mannequin shoulders represent the human form in this space. This definitely adds something to the atmosphere of the room; it is somewhat less distracting than expressionless plastic department store models, and lets the clothing speak for itself.
The display is also interactive and invites you to become involved by trying on the garments. An outstanding piece is MATERIALBYPRODUCT’S Soft Hard Harder Dress Curtain. Chantal McDonald explains this piece as being dormant as a curtain yet activated by a body. Hence you are invited to try on this stunning work to bring it to full fruition. By stepping up into the dress, putting your head through the head hole and arms through the sleeves and wrapping the attached ribbon around your waist you can become fully immersed in this design.
The craft of beading also features heavily in this dress. MATERIALBYPRODUCT were inspired to bring beading forward as an accessory; traditional beading having appeared lost to the technology of mass production techniques of today. The material itself is printed with a digital scanned image of a beading design and then hand worked over the top with traditional beading. This piece was such a hit when featured in an overseas trade show that Bjork herself owns a Dress Curtain inspired gown.
Another stand out piece from this collection is Anthea van Kopplen’s Envelope Dress. The construction of this work is truly remarkable as it is made from one pattern piece. It is a cleverly designed pattern that takes its form by folding the fabric into sections and sewing a few simple straight lines and pieces of cord into the work. Anthea’s inspiration behind this pattern and all her designs is the idea of sustainability and extending the lifecycle of her clothing. She also encourages everyone to download her pattern and instructions to make an envelope dress for themselves. Just click on this link envelope pattern to download your own free pattern.
How You Make It provides the perfect platform for designers, artists and everyone involved in creative industries to showcase the skills necessary to make objects. It also encourages us to think beyond the finished appearance of a garment to see how it is really made and through patterns like Anthea van Kopplen’s Envelope Dress, encourages us to get involved ourselves.
How You Make It is a touring display and will move between Victoria and New South Wales for the next sixteen months.
Credits: How You Make It brochure - Craft Victoria
By Claire Stewart
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