Runway Production by NOLAFW for Andrea Loest Spring Summer Conceptual Collection 2013. The Saratoga, October 19, 2012. Photos by Rachel Maloney.

Runway Production by NOLAFW for Fair Fit by Paul Eastin and Andrea Loest. The Saratoga, October 19, 2012. Photos by Rachel Maloney.

New ready to wear collection for Fair Fit. Photography by Kevin Deleon. Makeup by Nikki McCoy of Fifi Mahony's. Hair by Laura Sieberth. Model Kirtsen Rinck.

Runway production by NOLAFW for Andrea Loest. Mallory Page Gallery, March 8, 2012. Photos by Robby Klein. Color is light, a vibration that emanates a primary state of intangible expression. As a transmission, pink was first chosen due to its tenderness and connection to human emotion to be the representation of the very pinnacle of eminence. But pink it has been seized and sentenced to service in the surface realms of Disney princesses and false feminisms, distracted from its true purpose to joyfully express human emotion in form and frequency. In this collection, pink is contained and resisted by black and white, who are not colors, rather filters and barriers that absorb and then reflect all of the colors of light, creating protections and at the same time limitations to genuine experience.

Runway Production by NOLAFW for Andrea Loest. Martine Chaisson Gallery, October 18, 2011. Photos by Robby Klein.

After spending a few years creating research based conceptual garment systems and installations, I decided to try creating from a process of practicing direct knowing. I believe operating from my own direct understanding means to follow more subtle pathways of information, paying close attention to where that information comes from. I moved back to New Orleans and I began to watch my experience in the city. I studied New Orleans' pattern language, and brought these images into my studio to make clothing. My art practice influenced the construction this collection, allowing fragmentation and reconsideration into the style lines and constructing some of the dresses with a customizable fit. I wanted to make dresses that could be unusual, but still be your favorite dress. The entire process made me realize I am happiest when I create clothing from the perspective of really intuitively understanding why I am putting things together in a very particular way, how color, texture, or material is communicating through the clothing to the wearer and audience.

The pieces in this collection were constructed from a selection of garment fragments from my participatory installation project “Everyday Couture.” During a visit to my family farm in Iowa, I felt nostalgic for the the beauty of the land and the serenity that I was lacking while living in an dense urban city. I have always loved men’s dress and work shirts, especially when they have been worn and softened by years of use and washing. With these garments, remnants of existing garments are reconsidered into new parts to make new wholes. The different masculine material identities merge to create composite identities in the form of feminine dresses. The previously established physiologies of the shirts, (cuffs, collars, godets), take on new functions as bodices, skirts, and decoration.

After my move to Chicago, I experienced a drastic shift in the experience of making garments. It was time to move on from my previous clothing line, but in order to separate myself from that work, I stopped creating clothing. After a year, I realized how much I really missed and truly loved making dresses, however, I needed to find a way to express language beyond having to use actual words. By studying embedded meaning in materials, garments evolved from a series of surface design studies that I eventually constructed into garments. These dresses are all experiments into different forms of dye technique, material manipulation, and hand sewn construction. These techniques later became fully developed features that I now incorporate into my current collections.

My fashion line, “Persona,” grew into large collections of one of a kind, hand made products. Each season, I would pull characters from my costume archives and decide which ones would develop into limited edition ready to wear lines. During this time in my artistic practice, I was completely fascinated by the stories that we tell to define who we are. Its interesting how we will hold onto a story, believing that it uniquely defines us, or uniquely limits our experience, until we find out that someone else shares that same situation. In that instance, the act of telling the story out loud allows us to let go of the story, and move onto new definitions of who we are in the world. “Persona” as a product line, allowed more people to have access to the way my clothing operates in for the women wearing it.

This is my very first collection of dresses, created while I was a student at the University of Iowa. In my undergraduate studies, I focused on painting and drawing, learning the craft of oil painting up until after my last class when I decided, “wow, I’d like to wear these ideas instead of look at them!” Even as a beginner artist, I wanted my art to be a part of my daily life, and clothing was the perfect vehicle for that experience. I would make dresses based on my early observations, ideas of who I thought I was and who I thought I’d be. And then I’d wear the dresses, sharing them with my friends, and creating exciting happenings like the event captured in these photos.