A standing-room-only crowd navigated its way around the Armory Art Center last week for the Armory’s first-ever wearable art show and fundraiser ―Fashion ARTillery ― as part of the Armory’s 25-year anniversary celebration.
Amid works by Dayron González, Omar Rodriguez Lavandero and New York and Palm Beach-based artist Serge Strosberg, the crowds came out Feb. 7 for a fashion event and runway show in support of the Armory’s school and gallery programs. Style icon and the 90-year-old face of Mac cosmetics, Iris Apfel, was honorary chairwoman of the event.
High-end vendors, from the Whitespace exhibition gallery in West Palm Beach to ceramics, sculpture and jewelry at the Maryanne Webber Gallery to Fun with Linda & Jane ― Jane Levy’s geometric bronze one-of-a -kind jewelry and Linda Golden’s hand-dyed and crafted felt scarves ― set the tone for the fashion-conscious crowd.
“We’re a unique community resource which provides art education to all ages and abilities,” said Stephen Rabb, Armory board president himself a stone sculptor. “We reach out to underserved youth with affordable programs and scholarships. This kind of event brings visibility to what we do.”
Women in orange hair, feather boas, stratospherically high heels and designer everything, plus men with colorful sports coats and technicolor floor-length jackets, munched on crab cakes and flatbread pizzas under The Muse, Strosberg’s larger-than-life painting.
Fashionista Bonnie Roseman, of Bonnie Roseman’s BLT Boutique on Worth Avenue, decked out in a handpainted silk and silicone wrap, oversized green-leaf Lucite necklace and bangles the size of small tires on her wrists, was scouting potential designers.
“I was impressed with the originality of the designs and the creativity and innovation expressed by the designers,” Roseman said. “I loved Shanley Mitchell’s coffee-filter wedding dress and thought the use of inner tubes, bottle caps and Coke flip-tabs on the garments was clever as can be.”
While not the type of merchandise she typically sells at her high-end boutique, Roseman said she will keep her eyes on a number of the up-and-coming designers.
The fashion show, divided into two parts, Daydreams and Nightscapes, featured fashion, art and ballet students from the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach.
Recyclable materials ― bracelets made from duct tape, Astroturf, and garbage-bag dresses ― were accessorized with glittered bubble wrap. Designs included Jessica Armstrong’s fabric- and powder-coated copper necklace and Jackie Tufford’s tongue-in-cheek Dinner Is Served, modeled by artist Summer Collins and composed of plastic take-out containers, silverware, tablecloths and fabric.
Artists Veronika Koushal and Juliana Saez’s seashore evening dress, a statement on maintaining Florida’s beaches, received a positive reaction. Created from polypropylene fishing nets and sea stars, it boasted a train of recyclable plastic bottles, pails and shovels.
Other pieces included Barbara Winkel’s dresses with wearable dryer sheet pockets and feather epaulettes, Victoria Danvers’ wedding dress made entirely of pantyhose, and Rebecca Hadley’s Throw a Penny, Make a Wish, a hand-painted distressed muslin dress with image transfers and pennies.
Strosberg donated a limited-edition mixed-media signed print, Sleeping Idol I, depicting a high fashion model reclining among fan-like floral patterns ― part of his Agalmatophilia (Love of the Statue) series, for the silent auction. The print was purchased by collectors Marvin and Baylie Rosenberg of Palm Beach.
“I’m honored to have my work purchased by the Rosenbergs, to support the Armory’s programs and to be part of an event for fashion icon, Iris Apfel,” said Strosberg, who has exhibited at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens and other South Florida venues.
“In New York, I’ve become intrigued by fashion,” he said. “I play with the notion of fashion as religion and infuse my mannequins with a life of their own, inspiring people to look at fashion through different eyes.”
And, in fashion, as Apfel is wont to say, ‘More is more and less is a bore.”
Contest winners: First prize in the event’s contest went to Tufford’s Dinner Is Served; second place to Hadley’s Throw a Penny, Make A Wish; third place was won by an untitled wedding dress made from coffee filters, designed and modeled by Shanley Mitchell.
For information on the Armory’s shows, classes and programs, please visit: www.armoryart.org. For more information on Serge Strosberg and his New York shows, please visit: www.strosbergserge.com. For information on Bonnie Roseman’s BLT Boutique, please visit: www.BonnieRoseman.com.