From the Reebok collaboration with Basquiat, to the yearly collaboration between street artists, like Os Gemeos, André Saraiva and INTI, and designer Louis Vuitton, fashion and street art feed off activism and infiltrate popular culture. Fashion is more than just the clothes we wear, it is a statement of our cultural climate. Clothing that is different from the dominant style of the moment acquires political meaning. As fashion icon Alexander McQueen said, “Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.” Part art form, part commentary, fashion is a public-facing billboard for our self image, political views and creative individuality. Synchronously, street art has been a medium for artists to reach the public sector in an uninhibited and sometimes confrontational manner for years. From Banksy’s murals to Mademoiselle Maurice origami cranes on the walls of Paris, to formal and informal street art in our towns, street artists use the unconventional as their canvas and in doing so incite controversy, awe, humor and pause.

In this studio, students will research and explore local street artists and use their work and messaging as inspiration to create “Street Couture,” or high fashion sculptural clothing which interprets the artist’s mission. Imagine delving into the political motivation of Bansky’s painting that shredded after selling at auction for 1.4 million dollars or investigating the meaning of Portuguese-born Vhils’s murals which use drills, explosions and chisels to scratch away sides of buildings to reveal the artwork. Students will engage in a rigorous conceptual and material exploration to form sculptural fashion that elicits the social or emotional sentiments of the artwork in their own interpretation of Street Couture.

Students will learn material fabrication including 2D and 3D modeling (3D printing, laser cutting) and combine them with traditional sewing construction techniques such as machine and hand stitching, fitting and textile manipulation. Students will also have an opportunity to explore the basics of electronics, microcontrollers and computer programming to create wearables that may react via sensors and actuators, bringing to life the art from the street to the body!

REGISTER HERE!

Focus Skills/Subjects/Technologies:

   Fashion Design

   Digital Fabrication (Laser-cutting, 3d Printing)

   Computer Programming

   Electronics

   Pattern-making

   2D and 3D Modeling

   Adobe Illustrator

   Robotics (Arduino)

Prerequisites:

• Enrolling students must be between the ages of 14 to 18 (or grades 9-12)

REGISTER HERE!