However, by no means did I want to create something "ugly" for this metropolis of art, beauty and fashion. I therefore strived to create a "couture", jet-black, fashionable New York dress, that just happened to be made from garbage bags. To me, this piece represents all the contrasts inherent to New York: wealth and poverty - beauty and trash.
To fill the bags, I used another New York icon - crumpled-up New York Times newspapers saved for me from the daily leftovers at the Marmara Manhattan Hotel. This was a great material to work with, filling yet lightweight. As an added benefit, the dress was recyclable when finished!
Here is the sketch for the Garbage Dress design
And the beginnings of the project. I worked in an art studio in Brooklyn rented from fellow artist Rob Kimmel, who was out of town for the month with his family in Morocco. Special thanks to friend Stacy Lee who visited the studio and helped me stuff bags with newspapers!
Trying on the dress... it still needs one more layer on the bottom.
The finished dress!I also made a detachabe train so that I could walk in the dress, then add the train at the photo shoot.
