Borthwick, Mark
SUSAN CIANCIOLO
Issue #32
The heart is queen in the world of DIY Fashion Royalty
By Justina Blakeney
Published: June 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
I first read about Susan Cianciolo’s work in a book called Fashion Now: I-D Selects the World’s 150 Most Important Designers. The New Yorker stood out among the greats as being the only DIYer creating handmade pieces in a world of mass production — not to mention the only American, female avant-garde designer featured.
Cianciolo started her career in 1995 after graduating from Parson’s School of Design. She created a buzz in the design community when she presented her “Do-It-Yourself Denim Skirt” — a skirt sold with a pair of scissors and a sewing kit, so customers could customize the skirt to their own tastes.
Cianciolo is often referred to as a designer, artist, crafter, filmmaker, and musician; however, the main label for Cianciolo is DIY diva. Her Run collections (1995–2001) and DIY fashion kits helped to pioneer the modern DIY movement by introducing homemade clothing as a fashion trend, and by encouraging consumers to take charge of their own style. Cianciolo believes that “It is not only an artist who is a creator, it is everyone.”
Cianciolo’s other fashion collections, including Diamond and Magic Star, are handmade, limited edition, and are sold in select boutiques and to personal clients. Her creations have been presented in more than 40 galleries and museums worldwide, including the PS1 Institute for Contemporary Art in Brooklyn and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
On the first day of spring 2007, Cianciolo hosted a multimedia presentation called Queen of Hearts-Chevalier in Los Angeles. The event took place at a tiny motorcycle shop called Choke in Los Feliz and included the screening of a short film by Cianciolo, an exhibit of still photographs taken during the making of film, and the inauguration of a new, exotic scent called Chevalier, meant to be worn with the Queen of Hearts Collection.
Queen of Hearts clothing is marked by visible hand stitching, non-matching threads, and unfinished hems — all characteristic of Cianciolo’s style. She explained how her newest collection crosses the 1700s with new-wave couture. “It’s a mix of many textiles from many lands,” she said. “Each piece is an abstract painting, and several pieces together is a montage of shapes, colors, ideas, perspectives, forms, lines, and three-dimensional elements.”
THE STUDIO
Cicanciolo’s West Village studio is like no other design studio I’ve seen. There are no shiny white Apple computers, press packets, or snooty fashion magazines. Instead, the small space overflows with magical odds and ends, sewing stuffs, wall drawings, and doodles.
Cianciolo said collaboration is an essential part of her creative process, because it represents the understanding of culture. “To communicate through work is to communicate to the world, or to others, or with each other,” she said. “It is one voice, really, and (when) there are several mediums putting them together, it is a powerful voice.”
So powerful, in fact, that in 2006, the artist combined forces with Cone Denim — the oldest denim company in the U.S. — to create an exhibit called The Woman of the Crowd. The exhibit showcased a one-of-a-kind collection of denim pieces hand-crafted by Cianciolo. Cianciolo’s trademark homemade look, asymmetrical applications, and playful patches characterized the pieces. Plans for another collaboration with Rayder are also in the works, as preparations begin for a clothing line, aptly named Frankie and Sue.
I perused shoeboxes full of pictures from the Cianciolo collections while sitting on a miniature wooden chair in the center of the studio. Her assistant, Sarah, was kind enough to let me see, touch, and smell (yes smell!) pieces from the Run, Magic Star, Diamond, and Woman of the Crowd collections. I chatted with Sarah for a little more than an hour over mint tea before I realized that Cianciolo wasn’t going to show up for our scheduled interview.
Disappointed but not necessarily surprised, I communicated with Cianciolo via e-mail the following week. She answered all my questions in abstract, collage-like sentences, with no traces of conventional grammar or punctuation. Sarah sent me CDs with images for the article, a timeline of Cianciolo’s work, a postcard, and a Hello Kitty sticker.
For so many reasons, I am convinced that the Susan Cianciolo Studio is like no other. A roots, DIY production and still compared to Europe’s Martin Margiela and Vivienne Westwood. Cianciolo, however, does not live in the conformist fashion universe. Her world seems to be a watercolor one, where there is no concept of time, the imagination is royalty, and the heart is queen. As she puts it, “Where my heart sees is where I go, and then create.”
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