Trees give us paper; and paper gives us so many products. We write on it, read off it, wipe with it, cover walls and windows with it, burn it, bake cupcakes in it, and eat off plates made of it, but generally speaking, we don't wear paper.
Not unless you're a model in the Paper Fashion Show sponsored by Art Directors Club Denver. Runway models will strut their papery stuff this Thursday, March 18, at the 6th annual Paper Fashion Show at Mile High Station, just south of Invesco Field and Colfax Avenue. Billed as “wearable art in motion,” the Paper Fashion Show includes pulp outfits inspired by Mother Nature. Check out the photo on the homepage of the Paper Fashion Show website for more information and to see a gown made of paper flowers and leaves.
Another spectacular entry in the 2010 show is titled A Walk Through the Sculpture Garden and sponsored by Museum of Outdoor Arts. Designed by MOA’s wizard-in-residence Lonnie Hanzon, the fashion finds inspiration in the outdoors.
“There are thousands of flowers, hundreds of leaves, ferns, wood branches, wrought iron scrolls, a carved tree trunk bodice, bronze sculpture, earth crystals, moss, grass, lattice. The skirt is die-cut flower lace,” Hanzon said of MOA’s entry. “All of this, mind you, out of paper, which of course comes from trees.”
Xpedex donated the paper for MOA's project. Hanzon selected Mohawk Brand Via in felt texture, using text and cover weights in white. Additional materials for the garden get-up include paint, ink, glue, thread, metal leafing and a little elastic and wire, Hanzon said. And when required on the entry form to estimate the number of hours on project development, Hanzon hedged and wrote in the blank, "Don't want to even think about it."
MOA's wizard-in-residence did, however, fill out the part of the entry form inquiring about his inspiration. Hanzon responded, "The outdoors, and the core of the Museum of Outdoor Art’s mission: To make art and beauty part of everyday life."
And in the blank where he was to list creative observations or challenges, Hanzon noted, "It was a blast working out how to make hard in to soft, light in to heavy, white in to color, and flat into extreme texture using a single material."
A panel of judges will determine winners in the Paper Fashion Show. Fashions are auctioned, and proceeds from the event benefit Downtown Aurora Visual Arts (DAVA), an after-school arts program for at-risk kids. DAVA provides free on-site programs, arts jobs training, and inter-generational outreach. The Art Directors Club Denver’s tagline is “Connecting the Creative Community” and the paper fashion show certainly is one creative and charitable way to unite the--um--fold. (Get it? Paper? Fold?)
Never mind. Just plan to attend!
For more entries by Colleen Smith about gardens and the arts, click on the list of links in blue in the box above, at left.
Colleen Smith gardens in and writes from central Denver; and her first novel, GLASS HALO, will be released this year by Friday Jones Publishing.
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