Wearable art, also known as Artwear or "art to wear", refers to art pieces in the shape of clothing or jewellery pieces. These pieces are usually handmade, and are produced only once or as a very limited series. Pieces of clothing are often made with fibrous materials and traditional techniques such as crochet, knitting, quilting, but may also include plastic sheeting, metals, paper, and more. While the making of any article of clothing or other wearable object typically involves aesthetic considerations, the term wearable art implies that the work is intended to be accepted as an artistic creation or statement. Wearable art is meant to draw attention while it is being displayed, modeled or used in performances. Pieces may be sold and exhibited.
Gaston Lachaise was a French-born sculptor, active in America in the early 20th century. A native of Paris, he is most noted for his female nudes such as his heroic Standing Woman. Gaston Lachaise was taught the fundamentals of European sculpture while living in France. While still a student, he met and fell in love with an older American woman, Isabel Dutaud Nagle, then followed her after she returned to America. There, he became profoundly impressed by the great vitality and promise of his adopted country. Those life-altering experiences clarified his artistic vision and inspired him to define the female nude in a new and powerful manner. His drawings, typically made as ends in themselves, also exemplify his remarkably new treatment of the female body.
Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton, is a French luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes, perfumes, watches, jewellery, accessories, sunglasses and books. Louis Vuitton is one of the world's leading international fashion houses. It sells its products through standalone boutiques, lease departments in high-end departmental stores, and through the e-commerce section of its website.
Art jewelry is one of the names given to jewelry created by studio craftspeople. As the name suggests, art jewelry emphasizes creative expression and design, and is characterized by the use of a variety of materials, often commonplace or of low economic value. In this sense, it forms a counterbalance to the use of "precious materials" in conventional or fine jewelry, where the value of the object is tied to the value of the materials from which it is made. Art jewelry is related to studio craft in other media such as glass, wood, plastics and clay; it shares beliefs and values, education and training, circumstances of production, and networks of distribution and publicity with the wider field of studio craft. Art jewelry also has links to fine art and design.
Albert Paley is an American modernist metal sculptor. Initially starting out as a jeweler, Paley has become one of the most distinguished and influential metalsmiths in the world. Within each of his works, three foundational elements stay true: the natural environment, the built environment, and the human presence. Paley is the first metal sculptor to have received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects. He lives and works in Rochester, New York with his wife, Frances.
Mary Lee Hu is an American artist, goldsmith, and college level educator known for using textile techniques to create intricate woven wire jewelry.
Jack Lenor Larsen was an American textile designer, author, collector and promoter of traditional and contemporary craftsmanship. Through his career he was noted for bringing fabric patterns and textiles to go with modernist architecture and furnishings. Some of his works are part of permanent collections at prominent museums including Museum of Modern Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Art Institute of Chicago,Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which has his most significant archive.
Monique Péan is an American artist whose practice is focused on fine jewelry, sculpture, painting and furniture. Her studio is based in New York City. Her work explores themes of space, temporality, identity, and origins, and makes use of materials such as fossils, meteorites, and sustainable recycled metals.
Clifton 'Cliff' Nicholson is an American sculptor and jewelry designer.
Cindy Chao is a Taiwanese jewellery designer. She founded her company, Cindy Chao The Art Jewel, in 2004. She is known for her Black Label Masterpiece Collection and Annual Butterfly.
Florence Koehler was an American craftswoman, designer and jeweler. She was one of the best-known jewelers of the Arts and Crafts movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Joanna Angelett is the artist name of Joanna Trummer, a British-Australian jewellery designer, author, founder of the worldwide anti-racism Tree of Life art project. As a designer she is best known for her sculpture-like jewellery, and as creator of desktop items of precious metals, decorated with gems and cloisonné enamels.
Dirce Repossi is an Italian jewellery brand founded in 1929, during the Art Déco era, by Camillo Repossi and Giusto Zeme.
Shaun Leane is a British jewellery designer best known for his sculptural pieces created for Alexander McQueen. His eponymous jewellery brand is a four-time winner of the UK Jewellery Designer of the Year award.
Azza Fahmy is an Egyptian jewellery designer, and the founder of the design house Azza Fahmy Jewellery. Fahmy was the first woman to train in Egypt's jewellery quarter, Khan El Khalili. In 2013 Fahmy founded ‘The Design Studio by Azza Fahmy’, in partnership with Alchimia, Contemporary Design School in Florence.
Hasna Sal is an American glass sculptor known for designing and sculpting large-scale glass sculptures and glass jewelry.
Jan Yager is an American artist who makes mixed media jewelry. She draws inspiration from both the natural world and the lived-in human environment of her neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, emphasizing that art is a reflection of both time and place. She has incorporated rocks, bullet casings, and crack cocaine vials into her works, and finds beauty in the resilience of urban plants that some would consider weeds.
Peter Chang (1944–2017) was a British artist known for his distinctive jewelry. He trained as a graphic designer and sculptor at the Liverpool College of Art. He won the Liverpool Senior City Scholarship in 1966 which enabled him to study in Paris at Atelier 17 under S.W. Hayter. From the 1980s onward, he focused on jewelry-making. His collection was featured in Rifat Ozbek’s 1987 fashion show. His work is in collections around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, German Goldsmith's House and the Cooper Hewitt.
Foundrae is an American luxury jewelry and lifestyle brand founded by Beth Bugdaycay and Murat Bugdaycay. It is headquartered in New York City.
Bibi van der Velden is a Dutch jewellery designer and sculptor who uses unexpected materials and shapes in her creations. She is also the founder and creative director of Auverture, a contemporary jewellery platform.
