Stephanie Liner

 

 

I was so excited to find this amazing and unusual work, it is by Stephanie Liner and is part of '40 under 40 : Craft Futures' at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on until February 2013. Stephanie's work crosses the  genres of furniture, performance, costume and fashion, these particular works being like faberge eggs or the princess chariots of fairytales.

"I create work using methods and materials traditional to the furniture and textile belt of the Southern United States, which become environments for characters and performance.  This work explores the connection between the human body and architecture, specifically the relationship between Interior and Exterior.  I am interested in the way social expectations shape and dominate the exterior, both physically and interpersonally, and how those forces impact the interior. One’s interior can either oppose external forces or submit to them." Stephanie Liner

The techniques that Stephanie uses may belong to furniture but the emotion and investigation of meaning and consequence belong to fashion.

Alexis Themistocleous

 

 The amazing world of designer Alexis Themistocleus whose fashion blurs the bounderies between sculpture, art and costume. These costumes were exhibited as part of the Aarrrgh! Monsters in fashion exhibition last year at the Benaki Museum in Athens. (thanks)

Sandra Backlund III

"The handicraft process is also very important. It is a freedom to be able to make your own fabric while working." Sandra Backlund

"I am very interested in almost every traditional handicraft method and I do experiment a lot with different materials and techniques, but it is my three dimensional collage knitting that is most significant." Sandra Backlund

Above: body sculpting, knitted fashion from Sandra Backlund's collections: Last Breath Bruises and Don't Walk

Sandra Backlund II

Sandra Backlund loves playing with body silhouette and body sculpting with her designs.

Sandra Backlund I

I love the sculptural fashion that Sandra Backlund creates from unconventional materials such as pegs, but she also applies an unconventional and sensational aspects to her work with more traditional fabrics.

"My work is very personal to me. I improvise and allow myself to loose control and see what happens if I do not think too much about practical things. The human body is always the starting point. I am fascinated by all the ways you can highlight, distort and transform the natural silhouette with clothes and accessories. i build my garments from a couple of basic bricks which I multiply and attach in different ways to discover the shape that I want." Sandra Backlund