| | | | | | | | | 2017/05/23 15:34:44 プライベート♪ | | | Three Chicago Designers Making Non-Binary Fashion | |
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Every year, the School of the Art Institute Chicago rolls out a fresh, new lineup of promising fashion talent. These graduates represent both the superficial and sociopolitical future of design, informed by what newcomers find important and therefore implement in their own practice. SAIC students this spring were particularly attuned to gender, investigating how clothing can help dismantle the binary and assert more inclusive, liberated style. Below, meet three breakout designers from SAIC's graduating class, who're each paving the way for non-binary fashion.
image: Missy Dress Prom Dresses
Known for purveying a joyous, exaggerated attitude through her whimsical designs, Natalie Castro's senior collection recalls the most carefree time in every person's life: childhood. "My concept is inspired by the nature of children," Castro says. "Children have unique traits that are unmarred by society's conventions. They are joyful, uninhibited, playful and unassuming."
Titled No Worries, No Rules, Castro's childlike debut exists outside boring learned biases, which we've developed as socialized adults. "Children live by no rules," she says. "A skirt can be [a] jacket, hat or purse to a child. These attributes are too often lost once we start growing up."
Castro's collection captures the spirit of someone wanting to keep their childhood self close, featuring an outrageous color palette, bulbous shapes that resemble kindergarten toys and activewear-inspired silhouettes. "My clothes are for people who are nonconformist, genuine, confident and carefree," Castro says, ushering in an ageless, genderless perspective on fashion.
Born and raised in Shanghai, Oscar Chen questions everything through fashion, specifically analyzing where western culture collides and, at times, aligns with Chinese communist ideologies. His senior collection, titled No Homo, is aptly charged with social commentary, pulling inspiration from dramatic LGBTQ provocateurs, such as Leigh Bowery, and juxtaposing them against traditional masculinity.
See More: Cheap Evening Dresses
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| | | | | | | | 2017/05/08 17:02:49 プライベート♪ | | | Vintage fanatic Rose Jackson has never been married but owns 35 wedding dresses | |
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Most women who haven't been married don't have a wedding dress hanging in their wardrobe - but Rose Jackson has more than 35 of them.
A passionate collector of all kinds of vintage clothing, Jackson says she started collecting wedding pieces a decade ago.
"I have a garage full of vintage clothing and accessories ranging from Victorian to 1980s that I have collected over the past 20 years both in New Zealand and overseas - the wedding dresses are one part of my collection.
"I've dug up vintage wedding dresses in op shops in Napier, the Avondale markets, I got an amazing matching 1940s dress and bolero for half price on K' Rd one day.
"Part of the process of staging the exhibition (opening May 14 at Auckland's historic Highwic House) has been me trying to explain to myself that just because I own 35-plus wedding dresses and I've never been engaged let alone married, it doesn't make me some deranged marriage-obsessed crazy lady.
"I take some comfort in the fact that the wedding dresses are one of the smaller collections I have!"
Jackson says her love for vintage clothing and textiles is part genetic, part environmental.
"I come from a long line of crafty women. My grandmother owned the local haberdashery store in Whangarei for years, one of my aunties was a school home economics sewing teacher and my mother used to make some of my clothes and bits and pieces to sell at the Avondale markets when I was little to bring in extra money. I started sewing by hand when I was young and still have a tin full of dolls clothes and handmade mini hangers that I treasure."
The ethical and environmental side of things came later, living in the UK.
See More: Missy Dresses | Graduation Dresses Online
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