Alexandra Konwinski II

Love this unusual enhanced shoulder design by French costume designer Alexandra Konwinski.

Alexandra Konwinski I

Alexandra Konwinski graduated in 1994 from the ESMOD in costume design. Alexandra makes costumes for theater, dance, events and projects. She has worked with many directors on small and large scale productions these costumes are 'white birds' worn by the dancer Angélique Naccache with photography by Armelle Bouret.

Sabine Calkins

Sabine Calkins is an artist who works in many genres of art and design but was inspired to make this costume after a visit to her favorite place Sauvie's Island, near Portland, Oregon.
The picture has been damaged by the elements and this has added to its magic and beauty.

Howitzweissbach II

Howitz and Wiessbach's Aufraeuman collection,often this duo's collection feature a full circle skirt, this dress with full skirt doubles up as a tablecloth to get dye splashed all over it.

Sofia-di-Saia

Sofia-di Saia makes garments that include many different forms of fabric manipulation rag rugging braiding and folded, quilted forms all come together to create rich textures and colour combinations. These were inspired by the city of Venice and it's carnivals.

Anahi Araujo

Anahi Araujo is an Argentinian designer who uses textiles with history, sheets, curtains, tablecloths and bags of flour are all reinterpreted into stunning clothing with classical cuts combined with unique layering this collection is called 'The Second Life Of Things'.

Howitz-Weissbach I

I love transparent voiles and the effects of layering that you get with them. This is the work of Howitz and Weissbach called 'High Street Robbery'.
I really like the lookbook for this collection as it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. This design label has a great morality and aesthetic, the garments are all manufactured locally to the highest possible quality.

Bart Hess I

Bart Hess's work has fascinated me for years and I have just found his 'garment district' work created for the Future Perfect Exhibition, Lisbon Architecture Triennale 12 Sep – 15 Dec 2013.

"I’m really interested in digital imperfections – I look at computer glitches and wonder how they would feel if you could touch them, and what kind of material they would be made from in the physical world. This piece imagines how people might dress themselves in the future – not in a style sense, but in how they would actually put on their clothing. Perhaps it would grow on their skin, or come from a lab. It’s the digital become tangible.I’m really interested in digital imperfections – I look at computer glitches and wonder how they would feel if you could touch them, and what kind of material they would be made from in the physical world. This piece imagines how people might dress themselves in the future – not in a style sense, but in how they would actually put on their clothing. Perhaps it would grow on their skin, or come from a lab. It’s the digital become tangible. could touch them, and what kind of material they would be made from in the physical world. This piece imagines how people might dress themselves in the future – not in a style sense, but in how they would actually put on their clothing. Perhaps it would grow on their skin, or come from a lab. It’s the digital become tangible." 

"I’m interested in any materials that you use daily – it can be paper, washing up liquid, wood, textiles of course, latex, whatever – but what I like is to really dive into that material and to try to make some magic by using it in a way that you’ve never used it before. I try to push and test the material as far as possible to see how it reacts. You always have expectations of how a material will respond and behave, but very often it does the exact opposite when it’s pushed to extremes. This moment inspires me, where you can feel the tension in the material; you can almost feel it in your belly, something strange is happening. A big thing in my work is that I try to make fluid materials static, and I try to make static materials almost fluid."

"I was interested in using wax in water because it becomes an echo of a movement, a solid trace of some invisible force or action. If you press a body part through liquid wax on water, as your body goes in deeper and deeper the shape stays, and it becomes a history of your movement. In a way, you can control the wax, but it also catches uncontrollable ripples and energy. The result really reminds me of the digital artefacts that I’m seeing in my world of software." Bart Hess talking with Jonathan Openshaw

Vingi Wong

Vingi Wong is a Fashion, Textiles and Print Designer from Hong Kong who graduated from London Central Saint Martins, Fashion Print Ba (Hons) last year. Her textile designs combine techniques such as silk screen printing ,digital print, hand embroidery and beading and are exciting, bright and full of texture.

Zoè Gruni

Zoè Gruni was born in Pistoia in 1982 and she now  lives and works between the cities of Florence, Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles.

Zoè Gruni's costumes made from hessian/ hemp sacking are;

"sculptures for wearing and for living in, create hybrid figures mixing the human and animal bodies, almost as though they were primordial presences capable of acquiring a history of their own and of becoming personalities over time." Zoè Gruni

Kimiko Yoshida

In the age of the 'selfie' Kimiko Yoshida is not involved in representing herself but disguising and destroying her own identity, a  “ceremony of disappearance”.

“There is no search for identity in my work. I know that identity doesn’t exist. There are only infinite layers of me. If I peel them back, like the skin of an onion, there will be nothing underneath.” 
"Art is above all the experience of transformation. Transformation is, it seems to me, the ultimate value of the work. Art for me has become a space of shifting metamorphosis. My Self-portraits ... are only the place and the formula of the mutation." Kimiko Yoshida

Beastiary

Students in fashion design at the Lycée Ernest Hemingway Nîmes, France were given the challenge of designing a costume from old clothes and objects in the theme of Beastiary here are some of the fantastic results.
I love the creativity that projects like this promote and enable (thank you Deb).

The Rodnik Band

Pop art fashion by The Rodnik Band designed by Philip Colbert.
This label is inspired by the the Pop Art movement. ‘The Rodnik Band’ label is presented as a pop band rather than a traditional fashion label. The collection is a unique amalgamation of music, art and fashion which combines three closely associated genres to create a unique fashion concept that is dynamic and fun.

Swarte

Top to bottom: The Mosuo Family, Equilibrium, Mamihlapinatapai

Body paint is costume to me, so allow me to deviate from textiles and share the amazing collaborative work of two Romanian artists Corina Olaru and Manuela Vulpescu known as Swarte. This project explores the survival of indigenous people in the 21st century through their symbolism creating art through body painting painting and photography.

"It was painting, it was drawing, it was body art and in the end it became photography; so many levels and so many ways, as a kind of representation of all historical human lessons that made us what we are today and what we can become in the future. All characters in the art works were “drained” of their own individuality for a better comprehension and fluidity of the narration." Swarte

Chung-Im Kimmeios

Chung-Im Kimmeios began her career working in the textile industry as a surface pattern designer while also running a studio and teaching in Seoul. In 1990 she emigrated to Canada where she is now an associate professor in the Fibre Dept at OCAD University.

"These recent works explore the chaotic order resulting from many small pieces containing broken images. I tend to see each of these parts as an independent soul containing unique power and energy that then together becomes an entity as cells to a body."  Chung-Im Kimmeios

Chung-Im hand prints and embroiders industrial felt into dynamic forms and patterns

Why felt? It has been many years since I was introduced to industrial felt, and was struck by the unique quality and rich potential of this relatively unknown material. The more I engaged the more I became attached to this material, and continue to explore it’s flexibility, shape forming ability, and forgiving nature. These qualities allow me to realize my ideas in a physical body of work. Like many in this field, I feel that understanding material fully and obtaining the technical skill to handle it are every bit as important as developing the idea. Still, I wouldn’t dare to say that I completely comprehend this material, felt, but that I hope there will be many more years ahead having fun with it. Chung-Im Kimmeios

Aldo Lanzini

Aldo Lanzini takes the craft of crochet out of its comfort zone and explodes it into extreme costume art and masks.
You can see a film about this artist and his work here: Aldo Lanzini