The Hands and Holy Grail Dress is from the collection From Fine Art to Fashion. The surrealistic imagery and harmonious color sense featured in African-American painter Larry Rushing’s artwork have inspired me to collaboratively develop digitally-printed fabrics. Using sections of Rushing’s painting “Naked Lady” and Photoshop, I designed a repeat, which was printed on woven cotton, and then draped on a mannequin with hand tucking and machine sewing. The intent is to produce a gallery exhibition documenting the entire process “From Fine Art to Fashion” and back, featuring several original paintings, framed fabric repeats, and a collection of dresses, with accompanying fashion illustrations and photographs. This dress was exhibited at the International Textiles and Apparel (ITAA) conference in 2019.
Photos by Monet Cavanaugh