If you’ve visited Meow Wolf, you’ve surely seen some of the characters that inhabit that world lurking in the shadows or wandering around. They stand out to ticket-paying visitors for their outfits, often gaudy with multiple layers and bright colors that can grab attention and spark intrigue in the dimly lit setting of the Denver interactive. convergence station facility. But are these outfits considered art or fashion? That’s the question that comes to mind as Meow Wolf wardrobe coordinator Kate Major prepares for the museum’s fashion show debut at Denver Fashion Week, which begins Saturday, November 12.
Major says that while creating the clothes for the show, he has to switch gears and go from imagining characters for Meow Wolf to seeing a normal person. “Normally, I think with a mentality of clothing to be worn by artists, it doesn’t show up as fashion,” she says. “So I have to switch from trying to convince people that ‘this is an alien’ to ‘this is a person wearing an outfit.'”
It’s a new avenue for Major, whose career took her down the path of costume design, and a prestigious one. She went from working in fashion retail to managing costumes for Ringling Brothers Circus for ten years before the company closed. From there, she went to Cirque du Soleil for three years, until the pandemic halted those shows. She then landed on Meow Wolf.
When asked how to describe the futuristic, maximalist style of Meow Wolf’s characters, he says that “avant-garde” is the term that comes to mind. “It’s definitely not an everyday piece, but it’s very street fashion,” she explains. “I hope what he yells at people is ‘fun’.”
Photo courtesy of Meow Wolf
Sustainability is a big part of Meow Wolf’s costumes, as most of them are made from collected fabric scraps and other items. The fashion show will also follow that philosophy. “The inspiration and the name of the fashion line is ‘TRASH’. They are all reused materials that would otherwise have ended up in the trash,” Major says.
It adds that Meow Wolf is a B corporation, also known as “Business for Good,” which is a private certification for for-profit companies that meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. A business can qualify by taking Impact Assessment B to measure its impact on its workers, community, environment, customers and the structure of the business to ensure it puts people and planet first.
“We’re doing things that are environmentally sound to the best of our ability,” Major says. “We save and recycle all of our waste. People from other departments also bring me materials. If I have an idea for a character and need a certain material, like cans, I pull out a collection box and ask people to save it for me. We also go to thrift stores. Sometimes inspiration comes from an item I receive and I think about what I can do with it. We send anything I can’t reuse to a recycling company.”
Major says the biggest influence on her clothing-making career was her mother. “She taught me how to use a sewing machine. When she was little, she made all my clothes because she didn’t have money to buy them. And she made stuff like stuffed animals. I’ve always been a seamstress/crafter,” she says.
Kate Major, wardrobe coordinator for Meow Wolf.
Photo courtesy of Meow Wolf
Although she is the costume coordinator on Meow Wolf, Major clarifies that it is a team effort to design and make all the costumes. Ideas for new characters often come from the Performance and Events Manager, Jessica Austgen, and then a narrative story is created. Major then comes up with ideas for what the character could look like, and the team offers insights from there. Major says that what she loves about her role is the fun and creativity: “I love being able to creatively explore and solve problems. If I make an outfit and someone sees it and smiles and says, ‘That’s amazing!’ just the best feeling!”
The same team will work on the fashion show, bringing their own specialties, from graphic design to music curation and lighting. Since the clothing for the fashion show is branded by Meow Wolf, Major says there will be a thread line connecting it to the exhibit. “I hope people recognize the hotlines,” she says.
He adds that one of the big differences in creating costumes for Meow Wolf and fashion for the show is dressing models instead of artists. “Models don’t need to do as much. They don’t need as much range of motion or being able to wear the outfit for twelve hours and wash it over and over again. Honestly, it’s easier to dress models,” she says with a laugh.
While the outfits for the Meow Wolf fashion collection for Denver Fashion Week are being made with people, not characters in mind, Major says they won’t be available for purchase. Meow Wolf plans to keep these on hand to potentially reuse or auction. For now, the focus is on creating the show and moving from art to fashion.
“I’m so excited about it,” Major says. “Our whole mission statement at Meow Wolf is to share art with as many people as possible. I think this is a great avenue to do that. We’ll reach people we wouldn’t normally interact with, and in a way that maybe they wouldn’t.” . I’m not thinking of fashion as art, and it is.”
Meow Wolf TRASH Fashion Collection at Denver Fashion Week, Tuesday, November 15 at 6 pm, Sports Castle, 1000 Broadway. Find tickets, $25-$120 and more information at denverfashionweek.com.
Source: news.google.com