Dreams By Machine

Re-purposed and Functional Art

• Live Performance Draping

  Always carry large shears.

  Fringe Festival Draping

  I’ve been doing live draping  since 2009. For festivals, at seminars, while vending at galleries and on the streets of Milan.

  What is this all about, you ask?

  The idea came from helping friends dress up for costume parties at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival- I’d drape and tape people into trash bags, bubble wrap, tin foil and make them fabulous. In 2009, Nova Jiang contacted me about creating garments on site for her project Alternate Endings at the Milan Public Design Festival. I suggested we use the draping method, and we were off to a flying start.

  

  Draping in Milan for Alternate Endings with Nova Jiang

  Since then, I’ve been combining my love of re-purposing fabrics and live performance to make the draping more intimate, more eco-friendly…and maybe a little more dangerous.

  I start with  scrap fabrics from projects, thrift stores, donations and begin on the body. I’ll create a basic form, staple in shapes, cut and reshape to fit and draw on pattern lines. Usually I’ll bring a model or 2 to start the process, and then call in the audience to participate.

  No. I only staple and cut actual people if they ask for it. And there’s a disclaimer.

  Yes, the stapled garments can be made into real ones, without staples. Let’s discuss!

  Want to see live draping in action?

  Here are links to 2 very different styles of draping: one for a Spaceport Gallery First Friday event in Kansas City, MO and the other for a Los Angeles Visionaries Sunday Salon. My model in Kansas City is the burlesque performer Eartha Delights and Cutie of the “OG” models for the LA Visionary Society.

  Laura Brody Performance Draping video by Don Maxwell

  http://vimeo.com/15717235

  Draping Cutie at the LAVA Sunday Salon

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRIb28vZ5Jk

  If you’d like to learn more (and start staple draping yourself), take a look at the lessons! http://www.dreamsbymachine.com/live-performance-draping/fashion-on-the-fly-learn-to-staple-drape/

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