Andrea Loest
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Through experiments with existing garments, collage, and pattern drafting, I strive to discover how the garment connects to the wearer through the actual design, fabric, and materiality.
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On location at a Victorian Bed and Breakfast (Taken with Instagram at Donaldsonville LA)
Rachael and I began work on Spring/Summer 2013. Of course Stitches, my cat, was helping. (Taken with instagram)
Andrea Loest Fall Winter Collection 2012
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.
From Andrea Loest Fall Winter Series 3
13. Fully framed grid dress in white oxford with line restriction and barely pink
From Andrea Loest Fall Winter Series 2
7. Ballet pink belted dress restrained in black and framed by gray
From Andrea Loest Fall Winter Collection Series 1
Industrial assignment dress in carnation and cerise
Our latest collections will be on view and available for purchase and special orders at Mallory Page this Saturday.
More reviews from Fashion Week
Still winding down from the show, but setting up today at the Ogden for the fashion market. Come see me if you want to try them on.
Tickets to fashion week! Please come out and see it. I’m presenting my project, Fair Fit, a customizable garment system that allows a client to create your own unique dress.
Here is a link to an interview I did that discusses what I’m showing on October 18th for fashion week. Come out and see the collection, I’m presenting 30 new pieces.
This week I am in Marfa, Texas visiting my friend Lorna Leedy and working at her store Fancy Pony Land for the trunk show for Alabama Chanin. Marfa is a portal for thought explosions, its not just the “lights” but its about the people who are pulled here. Each time I’ve visited, I’ve been able to experience a shift in my consciousness surrounding the situations I’m creating in my life. This time, I found myself in a conversation last night about an advertising movement called Magic VS Logic. I know I’m definitely working on the sides of magic, logic is the structure I try to funnel through my abstract and random thoughts, but what was interesting was how the person I was talking to was describing it in terms of the creative economy and how its time we figure out how creatives are paid for the magic- the stories, the experiences, the knowledge and learning, and brightness that comes from experiencing great creative work. It’s a difficult structure to consider right now as our economy struggles to hold on to old models of creating currency. I thought about it while we were talking and realized that when I look at it, I really am not wanting or lacking for anything in my life. I have exactly what I need right now to the extent that I have exerted the work for it. And that happens magically, whenever I really need something, someone steps in and shows me how to get there. I think that happens because when you create art and design, you create connections to your audience, and those connections are the actual currency that is exchanged, and its value is beyond monetization. Natalie Chanin told us that this business is not for the faint of heart, that you aren’t going to make a million dollars. You have to do it because you love it. For me its not just about the love of creating clothing, but also the love for how creating, showing, and experiencing my work with other people creates a crazy bartered luxury in my life that manifests far beyond the sales.
New site - check it out!
At the start of the new year, we start to reconsider and then create the plans to newly configure how we present ourselves as public individuals. For me, 2010 was a very private year after graduating from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, finally ending the 3 year arduous quest to earn my MFA. And then almost a week after graduation, we packed up our life in Chicago and moved back to New Orleans. This move completed an almost perfect circle for me, to come back to the place that allowed me the freedom and inspiration to make the body of work that has propelled my creative practice.
This new beginning was also a daunting ending. I believe that no matter where you are at in your life and your career, the pursuit of a master’s degree places you in a constant uncomfortable state of not knowing, of never ending research and deliberation to solidify or toss out what you thought you knew, and then when your education is complete, you are again thrust into a state of not knowing anything- AGAIN- as you begin to rebuild your practice towards self-directed understanding and progress. I admit, I spent the greater part of summer 2010 in states of turmoil and inaction, trying to understand what I wanted my from creative work.
And now, after almost 6 months of research and development, of questioning what paths and ideas to keep and which ones to let go of, I have decided to turn back to a process of practicing direct knowing. I’ve spent years investing my time and energy towards input, now is the time for output. This doesn’t mean I don’t want to learn, of course I’m a curious person and that won’t ever end, but what I believe operating from direct knowing to mean is to follow more subtle pathways of information and to pay close attention to where that information comes from. This also means I want to make clothing for awhile. I want to create clothing from the perspective of really intuitively understanding why I am putting things together in this particular way, why I’m choosing this color or texture. In school I zoomed out so far, trying so hard to consider the widespread social ramifications of everything, that I now feel called to zoom back in, to really personally reflect on the decisions I make as far as material and construction. This will be the topic I will write about and document on this blog for awhile, checking in to evaluate studio process and presenting the development of a new collection of clothing.
