FOLK ART MEETS

HIGH FASHION

A show at the American Folk Art museum features wondrous outfits

inspired by objects in the collection.
Jean Yu is a fashion designer who normally works in delicate silks and organza which she folds and drapes to create
minimalist lingerie and dresses . But when it came time to make an outfit for the show''Folk Couture :Fashion and Folk
Art'',debuting January 21 at the American Folk Art Museum in New York,Yu foundherself ripping apart a broom.
She wanted GGto repurpose the bristles as quills,a reference to David Alvarez's wooden porcupine figurine in the
museum's collection.When Yu broke the casing apart,she recalls ,the broom''opened up and spred out into this beautiful
globe''.And she fastened the spray of bristles to the shoulders of a black chiffon minidress.

In folk Couture,Yu's frock joins an entire wardrobe of new ensembles inspired by folk art.Guest Alexis Carreno invited
13 countries to select works from the museum's holdings and create one of a kind designs to display alongside the
quilt,coverlets,sculpture or paintings they've chosen.While some motifs drom the objects find their way into the
clothing''there is not a literal translation of the artwork into thr ensembles.''says Carreno''Spectators have to find the
connections''. And so the dots and triangles in an off the shoulder crochet dress by Catherine Malandrino play off a
geometrical papercut made by Joseph G. Heurs in 1919.A photograph that Eugene von Bruenchenhein snapped of his
wife in island attire ispires the hookey chic,fkamingo hued fronds on a maxi dress by Creatures of the Wind.And a
childlike drawing of a coat by James Castle leads to Ronaldus Shamask's trio of long tailed,see through ''kite''dresses in
paper nylon and linen.''By doing dresses that cannot be worn and made of fragile materials'',says Carreno,''Shamask
took a break from fashion and thought as an artist creating dreses''.
Like Shamask,the collective threeASFOUR adopted a sculptural approach to dressmaking.With powerfully puffed up
shoulders and an allover pattern of angular cutouts.the group's multicoloured patent leather minidresses stike an
idealistic pose.In tribute to an 1844 quilt feauturing sis pointed stars sewn by some different quilters,the designers laser
cut the leather with the shapes of three religious symbols:a cross,a pentagram and a Star of David.
This pluralistic motif which recalls the designs in the group's current show at New york's Jewish Museum,resonates
with yhe collaborativespirit of yhe oriinal quilt,explains treeASFOUR's Gabiel Asfour.
''They were combining all their different embroideries and fabrics but it looks like one unified thing'',he says.''The star
united them''.