Laura Donefer’s wearable art outfit titled She’s Got Balls! debuted at the 2009 Glass Art Society conference in Corning, New York. It consists of torchworked glass balls, silk cape, cloth. Modeled by Laura Donefer. photo: suzy lamont.
This week the internet is ripe with images of Beyonce in Givenchy and Donatella Versace‘s own floor sweeping, decollete frocks at the Met’s Costume Institute Gala. While ranging from breathtaking to eyebrow-raising, hardly a boundary was left unchecked by the likes of Marc Jacobs and the still-shocking Alexander McQueen. Not to be outdone, The Glass Art Association of Canada is accepting submissions through May 31st for its own fashion foray next year. “Glass Couture” is to be held in Alberta, Calgary on May 25, 2013, to wrap up the GAAC Conference themed, Beyond Boundaries: 30 Smashing Years. The Association encourages collaborations between designers and glass artists to apply.
The GAAC Fashion event is inspired by the original fashion glass mastermind Laura Donefer’s first genre-bending fashion show in 1989. Donefer is once again at the helm of the United States-based Glass Art Society’s own fashion show held next month in Toledo, Ohio. The northern equivalent artist organization known as the Glass Art Association of Canada is making an attempt to expand the artistic submissions and their vision by offering to connect fiber artists and designers with glass artists. In this way, experts in their medium can work with others to create entirely new bodies of work.
The submissions page does not call for completed works, but images of work completed in the past, as well as a rendering of the proposed design. The GAAC has not yet settled on a theme as the selected work will determine the scope of the show. Past events of this kind include garments that cover the gamut of wearability from skirts and headdresses comprised of working light bulbs to wraps adorned in intricate glass bead work. If Anna Wintour can wear an enormous sequined lobster on her thigh, then “glasswear” can surely have its day on the fashion runway.
—Katharine Morales