We sat down with TXA Design Lecturer Gail Chovan to discuss her recent collection, DEFIANCE, that will be launched in Paris this week at the Galerie Virginie Louvet. Her current collection DEFIANCE is non-traditional in that it highlights seven pieces made from a 1930's movie banner. The pieces will be displayed as an installation in a gallery rather than walked down the runway.
DEFIANCE is about defying industry constraints, seasonal predictability, and the notion that fashion is ephemeral, disposable, and meant to be forgotten. The installation is inspired by the wily Louise Bourgeois, the unflinching work of Kiki Smith, and the 1931 Mary Astor film Behind Office Doors, a pre-code film about a working woman's unrecognized and unheralded power.
"I am transforming verbal snippets cut from the Behind Office Doors movie banner into frock coats, trousers, sheath dresses and blouses which will be suspended on hard-coated mannequins and hung on hooks from the gallery walls," says Chovan. "Visitors will be invited to experience the installation of a 'fashion' collection by walking through customarily anthropomorphized shapes that have been dehumanized, suspended and covered with lifeless garments."
You can see the video interview conducted with Chovan on our TXA Facebook page.
Highlighted in A Shaded View of Fashion blog
But you don't have to go to Paris to see Chovan's creative force: she recently received the honor of being chosen as one of the 9 out of 214 applicants to showcase her work at Austin's Women And Their Work art gallery during 2017-2018.
