Kaleidoscope’ is a playful mash-up of motocross combined with surplus fabrics by New York based artist Claire Fleury. An intimate collection of 9 looks each deserving of having their own names. When a garment takes up to a week to make Claire likes to give them another level of personality, hence, the names.
‘Gal Gador’ came to her because she imagined wonder woman wearing this dress on a date, ‘Post It’ got its name because of the little square appliques and ‘Calypso’ because of the ruffled pink fabric found in Calypso Brazilian Carnival costumes, which for this jacket was hand pleated.
Lovingly pieced together by hand, these soft armor play suits tell a unique story, Fleury utilized surplus fabric from her own studio as well as cherished materials donated from independent designers who recently left New York due to COVID19.
The collection as a whole is quite literally a rainbow of colors carefully pieced alongside prints, mesh and anything else that caught Fleury’s eye creating a ready to wear kaleidoscope. Known for incorporating signature circles into her designs, Claire kept the fluid round lines within the silhouettes and chose to add squares into a look purposely called ‘Post It’.
‘The garments took quite long to make, and as with any creative process, I wasn’t always sure it would turn into something beautiful’ CF.