Laguna Art Museum adds wearable wrinkle for Art and Nature festival
A dozen years into the exploration of the intersection between the creative components and natural elements of the world, Laguna Art Museum came up with a kick-off event that made the subject matter the belle of the ball.
An upcycled couture fashion show invited students and faculty from local colleges to design dresses that aligned with the mission statements of community partners for the 12th annual Art and Nature festival.
Guests, many of them from among the represented organizations, sat among long rows of chairs in the first-floor gallery, which provided the pathway for the Nov. 2 runway show.
“It was a fabulous response,” said Robin Rundle, the museum’s education coordinator, adding that there are plans to bring the fashion show back in 2025. “There was so much excitement. One of the great parts was really the opportunity to describe the mission statement to the audience, and then describe the student designer, what their artist statement was, as well, and then have a chance to describe some of the materials that they used.”
Rundle said that Katharine Story, a creative director and sustainability advocate in Laguna Beach who had just returned from Milan Fashion Week in September, was the sole judge of the contest. The honorees were announced via social media on Thursday.
Alexis Jewell Brown earned best overall honors for “Mother Nature is Crying,” which sought to represent Get Inspired’s mission of fostering stewardship and curiosity for the natural world through the exploration of science.
As the overall winner, Brown will receive a one-week internship with Story. The winning design will also be displayed in the latter’s Laguna Beach boutique.
Bell Hernandez, a sophomore at UC Irvine, was recognized for the best use of materials. Hernandez’s outfit, “Fates Entangled,” utilized cardboard and included the likeness of a seal’s head as a hat.
“How I got to costume design as what I wanted to do as a career was really coming from doing special effects makeup or, like, horror movie makeup,” said Hernandez, who was representing Pacific Marine Mammal Center. “That was a really big influence on me, so I’ve always leaned a little bit more toward the macabre and things that are a little bit unsettling to people.
“When you’re dealing with something that has so much impact, like environmental causes and stuff, I found that one of the best ways to make points to people is to be incredibly straightforward with the damage that we do. Having that seal head there was that little bit of push forward that I think sealed it for me.”
Best interpretation of a mission statement went to Erica Patapoff, whose full-length, leaf green gown and headpiece represented the Laguna Beach Garden Club.
“If you saw that going down the runway, you knew it was the Garden Club,” Story said in a video on Instagram announcing the winners. “It was beautiful, it was feminine, it was flowery, it was all things garden and nature and beauty. I really loved it. I think any woman would love wearing that dress.”
Honorable mention also went to Matthew Martinez (Boys & Girls Club) and Ayrika Johnson (Laguna Art Museum).
The fashion show featured designers from UC Irvine, Chapman University, Santa Ana College and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
Designers had about six weeks to build their creations. Story then opened her studio for fittings with the models.
Ashley Morgan, who was tasked with representing the Art and Nature initiative of the museum, put a standing wave on the model’s back to illustrate the nearby Pacific Ocean, but she also endeavored to incorporate features recognizing the current exhibits of Christian Sampson, Fred Tomaselli and Jay DeFeo.
“I couldn’t reasonably put glass around a model’s neck, so I used a material called lighting gels,” Morgan said of her attempt to pay tribute to Sampson’s glass installations. “We use it in theater to change the color of stage lights. … The koi fish that was in the middle of the piece was representative of Fred Tomaselli. He has an artpiece with a koi fish that has a lot of pieces of technology coming out of its mouth. … On the inside, I actually painted it, so it had Jay DeFeo’s trees represented there.”
Following the fashion show, the outfits went on display at UC Irvine. Several have since been returned to the original designers.
“We’ve done a full week of exhibition this past week, where all the dresses were there stood up on mannequins,” Morgan added. “It was open to the public … to come in, read the artist statements, see how they were partnered and the materials that were used.”
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