Art Fashion Creation: 2016

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Kabuki Skirt

The idea originally came to me after reading about Kabuki garments, and then resurfaced in the form of one of my Toile La La collages. Initially, I planned to pad the hem layers - as in the construction of the collage, but the actual skirt would have been too heavy with 12 padded layers, so they are instead folded. To counterbalance the sheen and ornamentation of the elegant fabrics, I created texture in the skirt body by handwashing and air-drying. Wabi sabi. I imagine this worn with lovely, block-heeled but lightweight and lady-like powder blue or lavender velvet pumps and a tatty black avant garde airy-knit sweater.

Hem of Kabuki Skirt - JHH

Kabuki Skirt - Toile La La collage

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Artist Room Studies in Miniature

You'll see all 15 Artist Room Studies in the Art Fashion Creation feature post. The Dufy room study is an average size: 5.5-inches high by 7-inches wide, but the studies vary in size - with the largest, Hammershoi, at about 12-inches wide. The boxes had diverse previous lives as storage for jewelry, tobacco, and spice. All have doors and some have several doors and even windows. These details though are reserved for viewers who stand before them to have a look and discover.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Malcolm Rice Dollhouse, 1929

Displayed within the Farragut Folklife Museum in Tennessee, this Malcolm Rice Dollhouse is well-engineered, imaginative, and exudes a rather mysterious aura. Rice, an architect, built the house with electric lighting and it withstood three generations of play. Several details reveal the builder and creators involved were thinking out-of-the-box: a couple of the walls have very detailed, large murals depicting flamingos and either alligators or crocodiles. One room has an elaborate and modern-for-the-time recessed ceiling light. The door at the top of a staircase looks stern and gothic - with studs and metalwork. In its entirety, the dollhouse has a feeling of something created by many hands and eyes imbued with an awareness informed by many cultures and by history. The Rice Dollhouse offers plenty of charming details - such as a courtyard fountain which has for a base a now-very-antique shoe polish tin, three cats: including one nearly as big as the boy descending the stairs - and another perched on the kitchen table. The curtains on the four-poster bed depict what appears to be an Asian batik or block-print fabric. In the papa doll's room is an alcove or shrine. A pillow on the four-poster bed is hand-embroidered and the curtains, though now worn and slightly ghostly, look to be made of women's fancy handkerchiefs - the kind with silky stitched florals or decorative borders, now to be found in a grandmother's handbag. On one wall is a framed photograph of a young woman in a chequered dress - her legs crossed and I wonder if she is someone who once received the spark of imagination from this dollhouse, but that for now is a mystery. I'm so glad to have seen this dollhouse - which tells many stories in its details and which has been so lovingly preserved as-is.

Malcolm Rice Dollhouse, Farragut Folklife Museum - TN. Photo Jennifer Hawkins Hock

Girl in chequered dress, Malcolm Rice Dollhouse 1929 - photo JHH

Knox Asian Festival 2016 Photos

Beautiful day, great performances, music, and costumes. Free hand-held fans to welcome cool air. Excellent event! Such pretty fabrics - would loved to have seen the kimono show, but fortunately met this very nice kimekomi dollmaker. What a lovely smile!

kimekomi dollmaker, Knox Asian Festival 2016 - photo Jennifer Hawkins Hock

kimekomi dolls - back bows, Knox Asian Festival 2016 - photo Jennifer Hawkins Hock

Knox Asian Festival 2016, photo JHH

Knox Asian Festival 2016 - Thailand, photo JHH

Enjoyed a dragon and lion dance so lively it raised the hackles and barks of onlooking dogs. Sans photo, you'll have to imagine this: Young martial arts students slipped into ferocious furry costumes and climbed on each others shoulders, then glided, jumped, and tumbled around the stage. Separately, the boys and costumes brought no response from the dogs - but the instant the boys brought the creatures to life - fierce barks galore!

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Photos - Asheville Fashion Week 2016: Grand Finale

Front row photos expressing the beauty, imagination, diversity, and talent which converged to present this August 6, 2016 fashion extravaganza. From collection start to finish - Kristin Alexandra Tidwell to Angel Blanco - the designers gave a strong show, with an eclectic display of clothing suited to any occasion. A perfectly-chosen playlist set the tone and pace as Gage models brought the clothes to life, with hair and makeup ranging from natural glamour to creative fantasy. All told, a fashion success for Asheville, NC.

Asheville Fashion Week 2016, Grand Finale - all photos JHH

Asheville Fashion Week 2016, photo JHH

Friday, July 29, 2016

Art Fashion Text Millinery

Symbiotic merging of fashion tearsheets and millinery - a Rose Feather Fascinator I created from recycled fashion pages:

Rose Feather Fascinator - milliner JHH, paper rose detail

Rose Feather Fascinator - milliner JHH, upcycled fashion tearsheets

Rose Feather Fascinator - milliner JHH, paper veil detail

Rose Feather Fascinator - milliner JHH, paper rose detail

upcycled paper millinery - JHH

Initially, the paper veil was larger - covering the forehead, (which would be excellent for a furrowed thinker's brow full of years of thoughts), but I abbreviated the mesh with a smoother, youthful brow in mind.
A Heartfelt Thank You to Irene Rudnyk for an excellent paper tutorial.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Fashmob VIII Asheville, KatDog Couture Sequences

KatDog Couture Hoodress, Model - IVY, Fashmob VIII Asheville, photo+art JHH

KatDog Couture Hoodress, Models - lower right L to R: Michelle Raymond, Samantha Singleton, IVY,
Fashmob VIII Asheville, photos+art JHH

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Mothlight - Fashion Bath, Pretty Pretty 7/23/16

Fashion Bath's perceptive pace modulations and surging, cohesive electric metal, bass, drum and vocals kicked the Mothlight - Asheville crowd into motion. Following "two more bangers", Pretty Pretty took the stage - formulating the precise environment conducive to creative movement: electronic beats, percussive vocals and twanging liquid guitar building and pairing unexpectedly. Live show advantage - observing the music move through Fashion Bath's drummer Sean Coughlin on the dancefloor, or watching Pretty Pretty's JB Bowles channel sound behind the keyboard. Hear Fashion Bath here - from the Give It album - try Give It, Lost Love, and Frenulum. See a Pretty Pretty Boots and Stoots performance here.