Fashion Garments

When the Wearable Sculpture Fashion Show debuted in 1999, it was an underground event held in a Riverwest storefront that creators George Sheppard, James Allen, and Brent Budsberg called Canada World. And, yes, it really was a fashion/art hybrid featuring fish and cigarette butt dresses and clothing made from bark, wire, chocolate, car parts, glass, and mirrors. It continued until 2004—sometimes as part of the short-lived Milwaukee Degenerative Arts Weekend, and once as part of the Milwaukee International Film Festival. Now it’s back as part of tonight’s MAM After Dark: Greener event at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The pieces in this year’s show all focus on the environment, with pieces made of garbage bags, computer parts, moss, and even live birds. Clearly, this all requires some kind of explanation, so The A.V. Club tracked down Sheppard to sort it out for us.

The A.V. Club: It’s a long way from Canada World to the art museum. How is this show different?

George Sheppard: We have 13 artists and 18 pieces. It’s artists-slash-designers because, unlike in the past, I really reached out to embrace different parts of different communities. And the quality is much better. The statements and the professionalism in all the submissions—we never got submissions like that before.

AVC: It used to be an underground event.

GS: Yeah, and there was some concern, at first, about whether this event belonged at the Milwaukee Art Museum. But you know, while the subversive nature of the event doesn’t go away, we’ve also all grown up, and times change.

AVC: Was there concern that it loses something by being at MAM?

GS: I think change is inevitable. I don’t think it’s worth my time to spend any time thinking about that. You don’t have any control over the submissions you get.

AVC: It’s still far from being a typical fashion show.

GS: When people hear fashion show, they get a certain connotation in their head: It’s people walking in clothes, with an attitude, with that walk, with bright white lights that never go off, and that’s it. To explain this to people is hard. The key words are “wearable sculpture.” You’ve really got to ignore the fashion show part. I think, you know, some people that don’t pay attention, or don’t read the fine print, or look at past videos and aren’t familiar with it are a little thrown off. It’s performance art, it’s music, it’s video—it’s all these things put together.

AVC: Will there be another one after this?

GS: I don’t know. What’s funny is if you’d asked me six months ago if I was going to do a Wearable Sculpture Fashion Show, I would have said, “No. Why are you asking me that? No way.” At this moment, I should be really exhausted and thinking, “What am I doing? I’ll never do this again.” But in my mind, I really see this becoming an annual thing again. So I would like it to be. I don’t know how that’s going to happen. I would love it to become a regular thing at the art museum, but let’s see how this one goes first.

source:http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/articles/off-the-wall-and-on-your-back-the-wearable-sculptu,37011/