THUR 6 JUNE, 12.00 – 1.00 PM, P152, DUNEDIN SCHOOL OF ART, RIEGO ST, DUNEDIN

Natalie Smith: From Formality to Fluidity: Fraser Crowe, “Art as Fashion, Fashion as Art” 20 Years On 

In 1998 an article on the fashion label Fraser Crowe appeared in Art New Zealand, the title of the article, “Art as Fashion, Fashion as Art: Deborah Crowe and Kim Fraser” spoke to the interchangeability, or fluidity, of the borders and boundaries between the two worlds.

Author, Mark Kirby, noted that  Crowe and Fraser’s collaborative designs were considered unusual because they were conceptually based and did not fit “any of the customary fixed fashion categories.”  The designs reflected the duo’s backgrounds, Fraser has a background in fashion design, while Crowe has a background in fibre and sculpture.  In 1997 Fraser Crowe won the  Supreme Award at the Benson & Hedges Smokefree Fashion Design Awards (BHSFDA) for Dual Outlook a garment made from a copper sheath with a woven visor, the design prophetically conceptualised the future – a future where we would need to cocoon ourselves from the onslaught of digital communication.    Using Fraser Crowe as a case study this paper explores how, 20 years on, the relationship between art and fashion is now more fluid than ever. 

Natalie Smith is a teaching fellow in Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology and a Lecture in Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Otago.  Her primary areas of research interest are New Zealand fashion design and the social and cultural factors that influence design.  She is particularly interested in the relationship between gender, work and design; craft; textile design; and the art/fashion nexus.  Natalie has a longstanding interest in arts governance and has served on the boards of several not-for-profit arts organizations in Aotearoa New Zealand.