How do people react to your designs?

Many think it’s a joke. And perhaps rightfully so. There is an element of humor that is unavoidable, but this runs deeper than sewing sleeves onto a shirt. It is a performance, an act; we are all filling roles whether we are dressing out of the norm, or in costume. Jeans and a T-shirt is a costume too, isn’t it? One that says, ‘I’m just like you’ a sequin bodysuit may say, ‘ I’m not like you’ whoever you wake up wanting to be, I suppose. My clothing seems to find it’s way onto people filling a role of entertaining or maybe dressing for other peoples enjoyment. Maybe it is a joke? Do I care about black? Color? Trends? Magazines? Notoriety? Are these things important? Is it important to take what you do seriously even if what you are doing isn’t serious? All of these questions seem to be reoccurring in what I do with my time. Or, is it as simple as what you put on that morning and take off at night?

I think it is pretty cool to show your design via real punk and rock artists. It matches your concept (I guess) Was it your purpose to show your design through artists?

The artists’ I have been lucky to work with want to be looked at. and I want people to look at my clothing. Actually it’s a pretty obvious path. Perhaps too easy. A very simple idea that benefits many. My collectors covet those pieces that these artists wear. Some want the exact pieces the performers wore – even more if it smells like sweat. The last collector I visited has the Lovefoxxx sequin piece framed. She described her experience with it as that of looking at a ‘painting that danced.’ However, it is only a replica. This particular piece has proven to be one that people own for a slice of imitation. Those who own a replica and those who knock it off are often performers themselves.

SSION is a band that dressing is a life all it it’s own. Designing for SSION is completely unique because you’re dressing an idea, a story, not a band. There is an element of math added to SSION clothing – each seam, each line, each curve is mathematically perfect.
The documentation that comes along with dressing artists an interesting part of what I experience as well. It’s like a growing travel log of your labor.

Who do you want to make costumes for next?

I don’t see my work as costumes, although I am not offended when they are described as such. That perception from an observer makes sense, and it takes us back to the idea of what role we like to fill in our every day lives. As I see it, it is an item that can be had. Just as a painting, a photograph, or experience. When it is reduced to this, I am inspired and challenged – the best way to describe it reminds me of a Tim Griffin letter – ‘…when it comes to art, there will always be those for whom the experience involves some aspect of possession and acquisition. ‘ This is where I am currently – However, he completes the idea that speaks to where I’d like to be.. ‘and for others for whom that experience is exclusively aesthetic or intellectual.’

Do you have a favorite Japanese artist?

I admire and influenced by many Japanese artists – I have been reading about Hiroshi Sugimoto lately – bad at math, wonderful at photographing it. I was thrilled to be able to see the band, Kiiiiiii live while in Tokyo. It was an interesting dynamic of an energetic live show, and a seemingly typical ‘venue’ audience. In the US the audience participates in a live show of this caliber, and the bands come to expect it, or even rely on it. The audience is sometime a PART of the show. In Tokyo, I was caught off guard at the audience reaction to such an energetic presentation. Or perhaps, lack of reaction. Kiiiiiii are performance artists – incredibly imaginative and witty. Thankfully, I experience an audience energy in the underground scene of parties. It was a more uninhibited crowd, and I felt I was experiencing the pulse of the city