thumb|220px|Wearable art by the artist Beo Beyond

Wearable art, also known as Artwear or "art to wear", refers to art pieces in the shape of clothing or jewellery pieces. These pieces are usually handmade, and are produced only once or as a very limited series. Pieces of clothing are often made with fibrous materials and traditional techniques such as crochet, knitting, quilting, but may also include plastic sheeting, metals, paper, and more. While the making of any article of clothing or other wearable object typically involves aesthetic considerations, the term wearable art implies that the work is intended to be accepted as an artistic creation or statement. Wearable art is meant to draw attention while it is being displayed, modeled or used in performances. Pieces may be sold and exhibited.

Wearable art sits at the crossroads of craft, fashion and art. Textile and costume historians consider the wearable art movement to have burgeoned in the 1960s, inheriting from the 1850s Arts and Crafts. and the 2000s-2010s began integrating new materials such as electronics.

History

Origins

The wearable art movement inherits from the Arts and Crafts movement, which sought to integrate art in everyday life and objects. Carefully handmade clothing was considered as a device for self-articulation and furthermore, a strategy to avoid the disempowerment of fashion users and designers by large-scale manufacturing.

The term wearable art emerges around 1975 to distinguish artworks made to be worn from body art and performance. It was used alongside the terms Artwear and "Art to Wear". The best known galleries supporting Wearable Art were Obiko (founded in 1972 by Sandra Sakata) in San Francisco, and Julie: Artisans' Gallery (founded in 1973 by Julie Schafler-Dale) in New York. Scholars have described these designers as part of an "anti-fashion" movement that transformed garments into conceptual and sculptural forms.

African ceremonial dress and beadwork

Across Africa, wearable artistic traditions have historically combined aesthetic, ceremonial, spiritual, and political functions. Beadwork, textile arts, and body adornment often communicate identity, social status, lineage, and religious meaning.

European conceptual fashion

European designers contributed significantly to the development of conceptual and wearable fashion during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Designers such as Iris van Herpen became known for sculptural garments incorporating 3D printing, digital fabrication, and unconventional materials. Museum exhibitions described her work as a fusion of "artistic expression, craftsmanship and creativity". Designer Alexander McQueen developed theatrical runway presentations frequently described as forms of performance art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art noted that his work expanded fashion "beyond utility to a conceptual expression of culture, politics, and identity".

Contemporary Wearable Art

Wearable art declined as a distinct movement in the late 1990s due to competition from industry, which enabled customization at scale, the migration of artists towards haute couture or the production of small series, and the broader availability of handcrafted garments from around the world. using new manufacturing technique to expand possible silhouettes, such as Iris Van Herpen and Damselfrau; revisiting motifs from the art world in couture such as the 2015 Fall couture show Viktor and Rolf; or works used in performance arts such as Nick Cave's Soundsuits. Moreover, works originating from fashion may question everyday wear with provocative pieces. One example is trashion, with artists creating outrageous art garments out of trash.

Materials and Shapes

thumb|Damselfrau's mask «Jule», made from mixed materials

While wearable art may use any materials or shapes that are worn, there are trends in the techniques and types of pieces produced due to their affordances for artists.

Materials

Fibers

Crochet, embroidery, knitting, lace, quilting and felting are all commonly found in wearable art pieces. Crochet remained a homemaker's art until the late 1960s, as new artists began experimenting with free-handed crochet. This practice allowed artists to work in any shape and employ the use of colors freely, without the guidance of a pattern. The work of Janet Lipkin in the 1970s and 1980s is a good example of this technique. Machine knitting, because it enabled the rapid creation of complex knitted designs, was similarly popular as exemplified by the work of Susanna Lewis.

Electronics

As wearable computing technology develops, increasingly miniaturized and stylized equipment is starting to blend with wearable art esthetics. Low-power mobile computing allows light-emitting and color-changing flexible materials and high-tech fabrics to be used in complex and subtle ways. Some practitioners of the Steampunk movement have produced elaborate costumes and accessories which incorporate a pseudo-Victorian style with modern technology and materials.

Shapes

Kimonos and capes

Two recurring shapes in the Art to Wear movement were the kimono and the cape. Similarly, in Nam June Paik's 1969 performance piece called TV Bra for Living Sculpture, Charlotte Moorman played a cello while wearing a brassiere made of two small operating television sets.

Major exhibitions, events and organizations

Exhibitions

  • The Museum of Arts and Design has hosted exhibitions related to Wearable art since 1965
  • Art for Wearing, 1979, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
  • Art to Wear, 1987, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
  • Artwear: Fashion and Anti-fashion, 2005, De Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco
  • Off the Wall: American Art to Wear, 2019-2020, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Events

  • World of Wearable Art Awards, held annually since 1987 and run by Suzie Moncrieff.
  • Australian Wearable Art Festival, held annually since 2019.

Organizations

  • Fiberworks Art Center for Textile Arts, founded in 1973, closed 1987 in Berkeley
  • World Shibori Network
  • World Textile Art

See also

  • Fashion accessories
  • Steampunk
  • Wearable computing

References

  • World of WearableArt Awards Show - international design competition held yearly in Wellington, New Zealand.
  • The Wearable Art Awards - Wearable Art competition held yearly in Port Moody, Canada
  • Wearable Art competition held annually in Alice Springs as part of the Alice Desert Festival