MORE THAN MEETS THE TIE

C. CHAUCHAT TAKES MIXED MEDIA ART AND A FEMININE TOUCH TO MAKE SOME OUT OF THIS WORLD NECKWEAR.

Something you might not know about me is that I love mixed media art and have for many years spent a great deal of my free time creating mosaic art from magazine scraps. The idea is to take hundreds of tiny parts, pieces and colors to create an image that is at the same time familiar and unusual. Take this piece I did called "Sunday". Up close its just a bunch of magazine scraps, but from a distance you see that it is meant to depict a group of friends riding around town with the top down. I love the reaction people have when they first realize that it's not a photograph. There is more than meets the eye, and that is why I love mixed media!

It's a terrible picture, but you get the gist. The image is made from thousands of tiny pieces of paper. 

Naturally, when I came across the work of designer accessories team C Chauchat I was more than just a little excited. This duo working in the East Village of NY, Curie Choi and Beverly Liang, use non-traditional methods to create tie's, bow ties and scarves that both feel familiar and unlike anything you have ever seen at the same time. Combining the disciplines of dress making with the collaborative instincts of mixed media artists, the two women use bright funky fabric like leopard prints and polka dots combined with opaque and sheer fabric to create a layered yet muted statement. The result is a complicated and fresh look that resembles paper machet. I LOVE it and think that these ties should be incorporated as intended into the everyday dress wear of today's business man. Think about it, how boring are those striped oxford ties or heaven forbid Regis inspired shiny silk ties everybody wears? If we must wear a tie, let's try something a little more interesting.  You can see the rest of their goods HERE. They are currently only found in the US at Assembly New York and can be bought online HERE - expect to pay about $180.00 bucks - a lot for a lesser known designer, but consider that each piece is original and hand made - pretty rad and not easy to make. Below are some cool pics of the creative process as well as some more shots of the product. I gotta say, I love when fashion meets art. Super duper cool. 

- brother