On Sept. 7, 2016, the start of New York Fashion Week began with an explosion of celebrated diversity, overwhelming emotions, and a deep love for color at Patricia Field’s newest collaborative collection at the Howl Happening Gallery in the East Village.
Field is best known as the award-winning costume designer and stylist for “Sex and the City” and “The Devil Wears Prada.” Her ‘ART/FASHION‘ Gallery collection consists of made-to-order merchandise by a select group of artists with the goal of serving as the renaissance of the creative self-expression fashion used to have before the fast fashion era took over the industry.
One of those selected artists is Academy of Art University textile instructor Ben Copperwheat. Copperwheat is known for his use of dye combinations over a variety of prints, his risk taking on screen-printing from all angles of each piece and his fearless color statements.
A photo posted by Ben Copperwheat™ (@bencopperwheat) on
Copperwheat’s winning mix of media and colors made him a perfect fit to join fellow contributors Jody Morlock, Tom Knight, Suzanne Mallouk, Kyle Brincefield, Suzan Pitt, Scooter LaForge, and Iris Bonner in Field’s exclusive group. The collection was largely made out of handmade pieces, printed textiles with iconic female faces, empowering phrases and neon color drippings fitting models of all shapes, races and personalities.
“Patricia Field Art/Fashion was an inspiring downtown New York experience,’’ Copperwheat said of the event. “A mix of punk and grunge the show was bursting with vibrant color and pattern. I feel very honored to be a part of such an esteemed group of artists. Patricia Field has an incredible New York history and this chapter is another fabulous one to add to it.”
Scooter LaForge added: “Ben’s clothes are a array of celebrity pop culture, little cute pigs and COLOR! Ben takes classic silhouettes and then detonates a bomb of color and pattern! I love his clothes.”
Copperwheat has an MA Textiles from the prestigious Royal College of Art, was a Fashion Textile instructor for the University of Northumbria and is currently teaching an online curse at the Academy of Art University, FSH 294: Textile Printing for Product for the Fall Semester. He has also created textile collections for fashion houses like Gucci, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Peter Som, Edun, Pret A Surf, Victorinox Swiss Army, Stephen Burrows, 3.1 Phillip Lim, DKNY, and Daryl K. He also has made products for such high-end icons as Beyoncé and Blue Ivy, Boy George, Liza Minnelli and the late Isabella Blow, among many others.
A photo posted by Ben Copperwheat™ (@bencopperwheat) on
All of the artistically-driven designs and curated pieces from Copperwheat and the rest of the artist from Pat Field’s ‘ART/FASHION’ Gallery collection will be available and exclusively sold at www.patriciafield.com. Click here to see a video of the runway show.
And you can see more of Ben Copperwheat’s work here.
Text by Adelina González Alcorta, MA Fashion Journalism.
