what it is to be worn

As lovers of good design and high fashion, we spend hours pouring over magazines and in dressing rooms looking at the fit and cut of an exquisite garment. So often we find these things out of reach due to money, availability, size or functionality.

$4,000 is not in my monthly clothing allowance. neither is $400. $40 is getting closer.
where would i wear this?
will it fit over my hips?
how do you walk in these?

Out of desire and longing, we have been known to create the opportunities to wear these exorbitant items. Throw a cocktail party, where formal dress is required and then you have the perfect reason to acquire the gown. Function follows fashion. The dress gives you the reason. The dress is wearing you.

Moving a step further now - let us examine what it is to be worn.
I propose to create three garments that wear the wearer - they will have lives of their own - filling the space with their grandness - setting the tone with their own voices.

I by land, II by sea, and III, by sky.

BY LAND

montana: I

by land :::: we see a female enter the crowded room. she is followed by a light and the music changes. she spends much time fidgeting with her floor length gown.
her train is very long and full and she is very aware of her body and her posture --- perhaps awkward in her skin. her gown is expensive and she is overdressed and the train is not functional and every other thing that comes along with luxurious and exorbitant fashion.
she moves to a space in the center of the room. she circles the space until her train is fully extended and spread.
*pop* the lighting and sound changes and her dress comes to life. like a photographer's reflector, or an inflatable dome, the train rises to shape and extends up to four feet into the room. it is stretched fabrics taking form and becoming a 3-dimensional mountain range on which projections begin to occur. at first it is beautiful and strange ... flowers blooming and then dying, weather patterns, decomposition sequences (earthly and dirty) she is intrigued and as an actress or a dancer, she is somewhat interacting with the imagery. the images change into scarier ones, wolves snap at her face, birds fly into her, trees fall down, the they move into real beauty ... skin, touch, pulling her in ... she enters the architectural space created by her own train and her silhouette makes shadow plays as she dances her part ... the light fades and the dress closes around her.

fin

by land: call for collaborators

1---PERFORMER---For this piece I hope to work with a female performer with dance or acting experience. She must be available for the entire dates of Wednesday, October 1st and Thursday, October the 2nd for rehearsal and final fittings and hair and makeup. She must have a photo or video documentation of previous performance experience to share with me. The gown will be fitted to a size range of 2 to 8. Please forward your interest or recommendations to me.

video content

Here are the plans for the visuals///projections. The concept is to give the gown its own ecosystem ... creating a world for the wearer to immerse herself in. Here is the rough outline that I sent over to Aaron.


Act I : view from afar - flocks of birds flying over the dress hills//weather patterns
flocks of starlings --- perhaps these are too far away???

cloud formations with new age muzak





Act II : View on the ground///plantlife -we move from the view from above, to the ground ...
flowers blooming
time lapse poppy on black background - i like this one, because it exemplifies the voided background

flowers wilting
some incredibly beautiful flowers growing, blooming and then dying
- this footage is absolutely beautiful - i love the inclusion of the decay ... that leads us to :::


Act III : decay

here is some beautiful decay, perhaps a bit creepy, but nice texture
- the next sequence will be decomposition - we can move through this quickly, towards the fearful things :::


Act IV : surprise and activity

quickly, perhaps just one snap of the wolves jaw ...
running horses

- not sure if this can be isolated -- losing the environment

Act V : back to serenity /// the dress begins to deflate
i was thinking
a sunset

also perhaps something with skin and touch ... but not sure how that would integrate.

cast & crew

Yarrow Kraner, angel of Hatch has been my reference for seeking out Montana talent to help me to get this show off the ground. He has recommended a projectionist by the name of Aaron Hjelt. I talked with Aaron on the phone about logistics and he seems to have a clear vision of how we can pull this off. It will likely take two ceiling-mounted projectors. I will not be able to rehearse this until the day before the show. There will be a lot of improvisation. I like it that way.
Yarrow has also recommended a model. Her name is Kezia Vernon. I typically would do a casting call and invite at least ten people in to go over the project and audition ... but Yarrow seems convinced that Kezia will fit the role without a question. We have begun a correspondence and she seems very enthusiastic. This is a photo that she sent:

In the studio : Finishing touches

It is Monday, September 29th and I have one day left before heading out to Bozeman, Montana. The gown has a few finishing touches that I will leave for the final fittings with the performer. The fan for inflation works well, thanks to David and Ken's help over at Elumenati. I am shipping these items to avoid having the fan mistaken for a bomb and confiscated at the airport.

video content part. II

I spoke with Aaron and it seems that he might need a hand with the content conjuring and editing. I called up Megan McKissack - she was a great collaborator on the Purple Ball Giant Dress project. She says she is interested in gathering footage. Also spoke with Nick Owens aka SWANCRASH ... he said that he can get in on it too, as he is a very accomplished video editor/composer. With all of this talent working towards the piece, we should have something incredible very soon.

video content part. III

Megan came by with her video clips and I passed them on to Nick. He will have his final cut by Monday night - just before I head off to Montana. I know and respect his aesthetic - so I am not afraid. I feel extremely lucky that my fellow collaborators can find the time to pour energy into this. A leap of faith.

Montana

I arrived in Bozeman to an extremely warm welcome. Tonight I met with Kezia for the first time. She is smart, sexy, down-to-earth and I felt like I knew her from another life. In an uncanny bout of synchronicity - I find that she fits the gown like a glove. Yarrow's intuition was spot-on. She didn't even seem afraid of the incredibly strange prospect of wearing a mountain range for a train. Tomorrow we rehearse.

Kezia W. Vernon

So we went out for a drink. Kez and I found a spot at Plonk on the couch and began to tell our stories. It turns out that she has been through a lot this year. She was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and has been undergoing a series of radiation treatments. The quite visible scar on her neck tells tells a story. We are around the same age, so young to deal with the prospect of cancer. Looking into her eyes as she told me, I could see her strength and feel her sorrow.
Strange to sit there and listen to her story, strange to feel so connected to a stranger. I told her about my very first cancer scare, which also occurred this year. I got mal results from a pap - the presence of irregular cells. After two colposcopies and continued cell growth - I had electrical excision of my cervix. I have no peers that I can bond over this with, until I met Kez.

Rehearsals///Upheavals

I just got home from the rehearsals with Kezia. My mind is swimming with desire
to add and detract. Its 3:30 in the morning and I cannot sleep. We have just spent many long hours practicing movement and timing.

First I would like to say that Kezia is seriously delving into this. Dance experience seems to be more crucial than I had previously thought. She seems to be stuck, but that is paired with an obvious and strong desire to make this work.

Issues regarding the body are on the forefront in her life right now. Thyroid cancer has shaken her to the core. Her last radiation treatment was less than two months ago.
I am thoroughly convinced that we have been brought together for a reason. I wonder at the subconscious choice of creating a gown that mutates the silhouette / takes over the body.

The concept behind this piece has moved towards a new point of departure.

This was once about the exorbitant nature of excessive fashion, and now it is more of
a story about the mutations and changes in her body, and her ability to face them and cope.

I am seriously moved by this experience.

I also recognize that the viewer may not absorb this power by observing the performance alone.

This is bringing out something in us.
And I am so glad that we get to share this.

Performance

not mentioned on the handbill is J.P. Gabriel , the lighting designer - and an all-around amazing guy.


this is the innovator's lounge - the heart of HATCH

Kezia performing in what has become a self portrait


fin

looking forward & looking back

It occurs to me that the real beauty of this performance was a secret between Kez and I. The personal connection and conceptual blossoming of the narrative did not necessarily convey itself to the crowd. In some ways, I am comfortable with that. It was a show nonetheless.
I got an email from David today. He said, "congratulations on such and odd creation". It is certainly odd, he is absolutely right. Odd and really incredible. I feel blessed to have met Kezia W. Vernon, and I feel blessed to have been given the chance.

Next up ::: II. by Sea

Im going to be looking into acquiring a VERY LARGE TANK

thanks for reading. email me sometime.

xo,
lovebrooke

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