Homer designers take on ‘Object Runway’ in Anchorage
• Fashion show to feature surprising variety of Homer dress designers
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Kari Multz, owner of the Fringe and a well-known dress designer, is helping to organize a large show in Anchorage that will feature designers from throughout the country.
Even photographs and painted pictures contain endless options. By computer, they are transferred onto fabric for the front of a dress or skirt. This form of dress designing is a collaboration between art mediums and artists, and it’s known as recycling.
Another Homer artist, Ann Margret Wimmerstedt, wove a dress out of recycled pop cans using the same technique as folded gum wrapper designs.
On Feb. 6, Multz and Wimmerstedt will show their designs in Anchorage for “Object Runway” at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, located downtown at the Anchor Pub , 712 West 4th Avenue at 6:30 p.m.
The event is a take-off on Project Runway, a reality show on HBO that features designers and their work. Sponsored by the gallery, the project is billed as “a wearable arts show” and will be hosted by Christopher Straub, a designer who was one of the finalists on the show.
Other Homer designers participating in the show include Amanda Miotke, Irene Root and Lynne Burt. Bunnell Street Gallery Director Asia Freeman and Homer teen Lacy Cloud will model, with Michael Walsh filming the event.
“It’s interesting because so many of us are participating,” Multz said. She is making some five new outfits especially for the event. One is a red silk dress made of ties, but you wouldn’t know it’s made out of ties to look at it. She also designed a man’s shirt with a collar inspired by raven wings.
“These are gallery pieces, so the materials are unusual,” Multz explained. “People will make statements with their pieces. It’s not strictly a fiber arts event. At the end, the designs will be judged and then will be on exhibit throughout the month of February at the gallery.”
Entries are coming from around the country, with already several from Los Angeles registered to participate. That makes for potentially stiff competition.
Considered a design challenge, the idea is to use magazines, newspapers, newspaper bags, graphic designs inspired by drawings, evening attire, military, food, rope, ribbon, valentines, music, traditional or “wildlife.”
Wimmerstedt, the artist who made the dress out of pop cans, felt inspired to make another dress of recycled black leather, black tule and safety pins for the show.
“I call it barely wearable art,” she quips.
Normally she works in drawings and paintings, so moving into a three-dimensional form gives her new inspiration.
With recycled materials, anything is fair game for making clothing, Multz found. She began sewing at the age of eight, and has continued through the decades, finding new inspiration and ideas from discarded objects.
Beside her shop at The Fringe, in the Bunnell Street Gallery building, she has a studio that is filled with an unusual assortment of materials: the collection of out-dated men’s ties, jars of colored dyes, photos of people on fabric. Multz has helped orchestrate many fashion shows in Homer and Anchorage throughout the years, which is why this the International Gallery of Contemporary Art called on her to help put together the Object Runway.
“I’m really looking forward to this,” Multz said. “It should be a fantastic opportunity for Homer artists to really shine.”
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Posted by Newsroom on Jan 27th, 2010 and filed under Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Posted by Newsroom on Jan 27th, 2010 and filed under Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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