11×17 Paper and a Xerox Machine
We wrote previously about Papier Couture, a series of dresses sculpted from paper by designer Lia Griffith in collaboration with artist Sean Moran. Here we ask Griffith a little more about her project and her process.
Where did this project come from?
I was doing contract work at Xerox, doing print samples. We were trying to come up with new concepts, new ideas for these print samples. Our photographer said, why don’t we do a paper dress? He was looking for someone to make the dress. I’m very crafty, I’ve always made things. And I just said I wanted to do it.
That was the Xerox dress.
This is my art form. My love for fashion, paper, design, textiles it all comes together making this design, this sculpture.
design: Lia Griffith. photo: Manny Minjarez.
What’s your process?
Well, I start with 11×17 white paper and a Xerox printer. One of my friends, Sean Moran, is an artist. I told Sean I wanted some organics, some free form stuff. He gave me a whole disc of his sketches, paintings. One dress is completely painting. Some of his images, I’ve manipulated, overlayed with photos. It’s basically a remix using his artwork and typography.
For each dress, I start with a corset. Paper has its own life, you kind of work with it and go with it. It’s an experimental process with each dress, cutting, using a hot glue gun. For one of the dresses, I got friends together and we folded 1,000 cranes. After I finish, Sean will come back and paint on some of the dresses.
You mention typography, what is the text? Is it found text?
Some of it. There’s Rumi , a Joseph Campbell quote.
Okay, now take us back before Xerox. What’s your background?
I’ve been working as a graphic designer for 20 years. I wanted to go to fashion design school. My parents said, “No.” My passion has always been to do fashion and apparel. About ten years ago, I had a children’s line that did quite well, sold to Nordstrom and Neiman.
In the back of my mind, I’ve always been thinking, I have to do this.
So this project has brought you back to fashion. Tell us about the women’s line you’re working on.
Purlia is a women’s line I’m planning to launch in spring. It will be yoga-inspired lifestyle wear, very soft, very feminine, not an athletic line at all. We’ll be using mostly knits, cottons and blends, as much natural as possible, however Lycra is my best friend.
Where does the Papier Couture project go after this?
We’ll see. Xerox is doing national publicity and the show might travel. We’re creating a 12 page book that Graphic Arts Center, one of my sponsors, is printing for us, doing it as a promo using a new kind of metallic printing. They’re doing 10,000 of them!
See the Papier Couture dresses on the runway on Wednesday, September 6 at The Art Institute of Portland (1125 NW Couch) at 7 PM in a show sponsored by the AIGA (featuring Q6 models and makeup by Kristen Arnett!).