The Fashioned Body
9th December 2023 - 12th March 2024
Open on Fridays, by appointment on Mondays-Thursdays
Private View - 8th December, 6pm-8pm (RSVP here)
The Trampery, 13 Rookwood Way, Fish Island, London, E3 2XT
From avant-garde up-cycled couture to immersive installations and runways, the intersection of art and fashion has always been a crucible of innovation and creativity, challenging our notions of consumerism, sustainability, the status quo, and creative rebellion. This convergence plays a critical role in developing narratives encompassing the human body, adornment, and how we as individuals fit into wider social dialogues.
'The Fashioned Body' explores creative outputs in both art and fashion and how they overlap and impact each other. The exhibition will showcase East London artists and designers working in the mediums of fashion, textiles, fashion photography, fashion illustration, painting, sculpture, and audio/video. Their work encourages a re-evaluation of the body and our environmental impact, and how we can challenge social and cultural paradigms.
This exhibition brings together 25 artists from both Felstead Art and Drawing Cabaret Couture. We wish to thank DCC and their artists for participating in this exhibition. You can find more information about them at www.dccstudioslondon.com.
DENELLE + TOM ELLIS
Denelle + Tom’s personal work, amarriedcouple, is their satirical view on a traditional marriage. It is an on-going series of self-portraits. Inspired by their own experiences, the duo creates snapshots of themselves in this fantasy world created within their home studio and sometimes on location. Together the couple explore the stereotypical binary ideologies of gender performance, highlighting the tensions between the sexes both past and present as well as the spectacle and pressures of a marriage.
Tom Ellis (b.1989) came to London in 2013 to work at Curtain Road Studios along side the cities established and emerging photography community.
Denelle Ellis (b.1989) came to London in 2013 after graduating from OCADU’s fine art photography program to continue working on her self-portraiture practice.
DAIGORO SASAKI
Daigoro Sasaki, a London-based visual artist and photographer since 2009, explores "the visible and the invisible" in his works, delving into memories across time axes. His multidisciplinary approach includes photography, video recordings, art installations, and mixed media. Influenced by keywords like intuitions, conflicts, identities, and more, his works have been exhibited internationally.
His experimental visualizations focus on light effects, utilizing reflections, projections, and transparency. The result is a light-scape within the subconscious, with photography and video works telling narratives that encompass both reality and the imaginary. Lately, Sasaki's focus has extended to fashion, art directions, craftsmanship, artist documentation, and various creative cultures, highlighting essential topics.
EMILY HANA
Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1990, Australian multimedia artist Emily Hana explores the concept of light as a three dimensional material; Her work observes how light can affect our perception of and interaction with a space, and evoke a sense of nostalgia.
Within her current practice Hana explores themes of coming back to your body and healing after sexual and emotional trauma, facing yourself and learning to befriend these places of discomfort. Hana works predominantly with discarded and found objects to make sculptural canvases, taking unwanted and ugly things and giving them value as a process of reclaiming parts of herself that have been discarded or demonised over time.
HANNAH WILSON
A commercial textile and fashion designer from two separate Arts Universities in Japan and the UK; Hannah has worked in the Textile Design industry for many years now whilst creating eccentric and erratic things they 'don't let you sell in zara' on the side.
Big supporter of 70's style aspic and saving the rats. Open for commissions to help her pay for new knickers, cigarettes, pickled onion space raiders and to fund her incurable addiction to growing and raising a long and prosperous rich family of SeaMonkeys.
Her work is inspired by anything and everything and nothing at all too. Japan, Morocco, sex, beer she's tasted, nudity, shroomy bugs, aliens, ciggies and flowers. Although she works in commercial fashion 9-5; Her true passion is creating work that lets the inner child that wants to strut round Sainsburys in their knickers come out...when she's not working as a sorry slave to fast fashion.
JIVOMIR DOMOUTSCHIEV
Born in Varna Bulgaria and raised in London from an early age. Studied Fashion Design at London College of Fashion Early days Designer at Brand TwoGuys Worked as a Freelance Fashion Stylist / Creative Director / Consultant for numerous international clients in both the music, fashion and advertising world, including stints as fashion director The A Magazine, Touch, Wig, Infringe magazines and co founder Fashion Director of Centerfold Magazine. Creative Director / Designer Jivomir Domoustchiev Fashion Brand launched 2016 ongoing Exploring Purity in Future Fashion Sculpture Design and expression through fashion Film and Digital Photography.
LAYLA MOHAMED
Layla Mohamed, a fine art graduate with a background in both university and college education, delved into the London figurative drawing scene in 2013. Her focus became the immersive portrayal of people from life, driven by the aspiration to capture and convey the essence of her subjects. Over the past five years, Layla has strategically evolved her artistic identity, establishing herself as a brand capable of offering artworks, entertainment, and unique artistic experiences.
Layla's current artistic practice revolves around rapid (averaging 15-minute) figurative drawings from life, employing ink and watercolour. She skillfully combines precise lines with the unpredictable nature of wet media. Her figurative work delves into the contortions of the figure, utilizing shibari (Japanese rope bondage, also known as Kinbaku) as a medium to create compelling shapes and tension. Additionally, Layla employs her art to document the diverse individuals and events within the London alternative/queer/fetish scene.
Beyond figurative drawing, Layla engages in crafting intricate monochrome line drawings that depict abstract forms and narrate stories. Her personal compositions using this style have been translated into screen-printed designs on clothing and limited-edition prints, showcasing her versatility as an artist.
MATTHEW LAURENCE
Co Founder of Drawing Cabaret Couture Matthew Lawrence graduated in 2012 with Fine Art (BA Honors) from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee. Post completion of studies in Scotland, Matthew headed south to London where he currently works as an oil painter & applies his practical skills and creative eye as a set designer for major Fashion Brands, Music Videos & Film.
Matthew is currently represented by The Runway Gallery, London's Fashion focused gallery and has appeared in numerous exhibitions and galleries applying his knowledge to teach other artists and students working as a tutor and art director alongside Drawing Cabaret Couture.
With his creative talent, Matthew brings a pedigree and work ethic capable of elevating any brand artistically, recognised for his attention to detail to produce art events and online immersive experiences that connect and engage audiences worldwide in a uniquely inclusive way.
MILOU STELLA
With a background in painting and sculpture, and working across various mediums comprising textile, sound, video and performance, Milou Stella’s work deals with themes of kinship and memory, often creating costumes, embroideries and soft sculptures.They have both a studio-based and a collaborative practice embedded in the politics of participation, queer theory, and community.
As a recent associate artist at Open School East in Margate 2023, they have participated in the exhibitions: We Danced Until There Was Nothing Left (curated by Maggie Matic, Studio Voltaire), and Marking Time, (Hypha Studio). Milou has a BA from Slade School of Art (UCL) and an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford.
Their practice is rooted in East London and has been involved in numerous Arts Council and Heritage Lottery funded projects, including most recently Traces: Stories of Migrations (2021, Poplar) in partnership with London College of Fashion and Lucy Orta.
MINGZHANG SUN
Mingzhang Sun is a Chinese-born artist based in London. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and the University of the Arts in London. Driven and inspired by his surroundings.
Mingzhang explores and translates his experiences into visual art through paintings, drawings, sculptures, clothes, performances, and videos. Mingzhang has joined exhibitions and competitions nationally and internationally and was awarded the CAFA President’s Choice Award 2013, UAL Excellence in Design and Realization for Performance Award 2017, and New Zealand WOW Wearable Art Prize 2018.
As an artist Mingzhang’s central concerns are time, space, and being, which he explores using inspiration from his memories and the experiences of his surroundings. Aiming to fill the gap between languages through his artworks Mingzhang blurs the barriers of established styles and techniques as he strives to achieve a higher artistic freedom by combining different artistic mediums and materials to create his visual language of feeling to share with the world.
RAINER STOLLE
Rainer Stolle, a German visual artist based in London, graduated in Graphic Design in 1994 and later explored digital tools in Magazine Design and Visual Effects for Film, contributing to productions like Game of Thrones and Avatar. In 2003, he graduated from Central Saint Martins and practices in digital fashion, film, and illustration. Since 2011, he collaborates as Codeture, producing experimental illustrations, short films, and digital prints for fashion garments. After a stint at the Art Academy in Florence in 2023, he aims to expand into figurative oil painting. Stolle began life drawing in 2000 in New Zealand, considering it an exercise in capturing the human form, fueled by his fascination with the expressiveness of fashion illustration. Over the years, he developed a more emotional approach to life drawing, focusing on small narratives and the multiplicity of human experience. His approach involves spontaneity, relying on luck for the choice of medium, and creating mental space to express emotion through drawing.
‘The choice of medium depends on luck. Sometimes I find the right medium immediately. Sometimes it takes a few attempts. Sometimes it is frustrating. The model is a driver. It is important to me to create the mental space to find a visual language expressing my emotion while drawing. In a way I am bleeding a feeling. The lines and marks that create each piece are markers of that feeling. '
ROSALIE OAKMAN
Rosalie Oakman is primarily interested in exploring the human body and sexuality through her artwork. After completing a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at Les Beaux Arts d’Angers in France, she pursued an MA in Textile Design at the University of the Arts London, where she specialized in sustainable textile design. She was awarded the Moorhouse Scholarship and the BADA Art Prize.
She eventually turned to painting and textile art as mediums for expressing her interests in anatomy, psychology, sexuality, and mortality. Her work is influenced by artists such as Egon Schiele, Jenny Saville, Lucian Freud, and František Kupka. She often works from life, drawing and painting people in her sketchbooks to better understand the relationships we have with our bodies, minds, and emotions.
She uses a variety of materials in her art, ranging from intuitive, abstract studies to emotionally charged oil and acrylic paintings and watercolors. Her goal is to celebrate what it means to be human through her artwork and to explore the complex, multifaceted nature of human identity.
In her own words, ‘I want to understand as much as I can about what it means to be human and sexuality. We are not just the image we present to the world. We are the minds and bodies that we inhabit. There are aspects that connect us all and we are also unique individuals. I moved into drawing and painting people because it is a celebration of this.'
SAHAR FREEMANTLE
Sahar Freemantle is an award-winning milliner based in London, known for her brand Sahar Millinery. Combining excellent craftsmanship with playful curiosity, Sahar creates bespoke hats that embody British eccentricity and aim to bring out the wearer's inner confidence. Her diverse clientele includes Princess Kate Middleton, Ellie Goulding, Paloma Faith, and Katy Perry.
As a scholar of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, Sahar's hats have been featured in screen productions like Downton Abbey and exhibited internationally. With a BaHons in Performance Costume from Edinburgh College of Art, Sahar employs traditional millinery methods to craft hats that are not only stylish but also comfortable.
Beyond hat making, Sahar offers workshops and hat-focused life drawing classes, encouraging participants to be actively involved in the creative process. She also has a sub-brand called UglyLovely, exploring beauty through playful and surrealistic designs inspired by nature.
In Sahar's own words, her practice involves merging traditional millinery with electrified tenacity, diving into a realm of playfulness, experimentation, and creative exploration.
DRAWING CABARET COUTURE
Drawing Cabaret Couture also known as DCC Studios is a London based production team who specialize in creating high fashion films & editorials. All of which are professionally produced and live streamed from their film and photography studio in east London- DCC Studios. Alongside their productions DCC regularly hold weekly haute couture fashion illustration life drawing classes, fashion photography workshops and portfolio boosters.
Drawing Cabaret Couture was founded by artist, & set designer Matthew Lawrence and professional dancer & model Janet Mayer of J'adore La Vie, London's high fashion Cabaret.
From Fashion Campaigns to elaborate concepts for Film & Photography, together we fuse our artistic expertise to create original and inspiring life drawing classes, workshops and immersive art events. Our classes welcome artists, photographers and creative lovers from all fields. We welcome everyone at DCC levels from total beginners to the well experienced.
Here at Drawing Cabaret Couture we work closely alongside some of the finest creatives in the dance and fashion industry. These include leading and up & coming fashion designers, agency models, professional dancers, photographers, film makers, stylists, and set designers to bring visually stunning concepts to life providing artists and photographers with high quality classes and beautiful original resource material
ANGELO PIZZIGALLO
I teach adult education in south east Kent, as well as taking workshops and art classes for art clubs and societies in my local area . I work mainly in acrylic , wood construction and watercolour often using sustainable and recycled materials. I work on a commission basis as a portrait artist and studio projects for personal development and exhibitions. My roots as a Londoner always playing a factor in my observations and interpretations of the people and places that reflect in my artistic outcomes and images.
My artwork is about looking and capturing the essence of a character in as free and simple way . Focusing on exaggerated forms and movements that give expression and emotion. I hope I try and convey a unique take on the fashion illustration coming from a painting background. I like to draw in a live or real time setting with short and longer poses , but I do like a challenge combination of a portrait as well as a full figure in costume. I am always trying to evolve with contemporary and historical artists influence in mind , but can only occasionally perch on the shoulders of giants. Practice and making mistakes are always important.
CAROLINE NUTTALL
Caroline Nuttall is a fashion illustrator who has worked as a womenswear designer in London, Hong Kong, America, Paris and Japan. Boldness is her hallmark, creating clean, graphic shapes and lines from ink, chalk, pastels and gouache - with a spontaneous and immediate hand. Her style is deeply rooted in androgyny, where silhouettes challenge traditional gender norms, blurring the lines between masculine and feminine. She is open to opportunities in fashion illustration, womenswear design, live drawing events and commissions.
DEBORAH VANDERG
Deb VanderG is a London-based fashion and beauty illustrator from California who is inspired by her adopted city’s street-style, music culture and artist communities like DCC Studios
ELISKA SKY
Combining bold shapes, vivid colors, and surrealism, Eliška Sky is a contemporary image-maker using a multidisciplinary approach. With a fresh perspective on fashion, still life, and beauty, Eliška's work explores light and color, merging photography and moving image practice to create striking visuals with a modern aesthetic. A deep interest in sustainability and body positivity is clearly visible in Eliška's personal series promoting nature protection and the diversity of beauty.
KATHLEEN WHITE
Kathy started her career as fashion illustrator in Chicago, Illinois. Moved to London once married, reinventing herself as a storyboard artist working with London advertising agencies. When raising her family she reinvented herself again as a portrait painter taking on private commissions. 2015 Kathy launched her business as a live event artist painting at weddings, parties and corporate entertainment. My illustrations are fashionable, speedily painted, capturing a likeness bringing out the beauty in every face.
LILY LYTTON
My name is Lily Lytton, I am a fashion photographer, creative director, and set designer. passionate about crafting surreal, beautiful, and sometimes kitsch art. My approach combines imaginative pre-production and hands-on making with advanced post-production, turning images into digital art. My work features bold characters and colours, digitally enhanced creatures and big hand built props to add drama. I love the problem solving that comes with bringing creative ideas from concept to completion, and being able to utilise my art background to build playful sets for my photoshoots. It is the details that bring you into a different world. I am interested in the concept of beauty and our need for escapist nostalgia. I have the ability as an artist to create an oasis in a world that sometimes feels overwhelmed by negativity and insecurity. I acknowledge darkness in life, but I choose to portray a beautiful world that is playful, colourful and light, and I invite you to enjoy the exploration of this imaginative world.
LIZZIE VINSON
Liz is based in Kent and attended UCA Canterbury where she developed a passion for life drawing, colour and form, however Liz only came to fashion illustration during lockdown with Drawing Cabaret Couture zoom sessions, which soon became a stable part of the week during a very uncertain and difficult time. Liz’s pen and ink work is heavily influenced by illustrators Heath Robinson and Quentin Blake and English portrait artist John Ward, and her work has been described as story telling as well as expressionist, with movement and character being a main focus in her pieces. Her fashion illustrations have been published in FABUK Magazine, LAZIN Magazine and FASHION MAGAZINE 24. Liz has exhibited in London, Kent and Sussex and her wildlife illustrations have been published in the UK and Europe and sell worldwide. She also has a piece of work “QEII Bridge” in the permanent collection of the Palace of Westminster.
NATALIE THOMAS
I am a self-taught artist and a carrier of pen and paper wherever I go. I have always drawn since I was a child but it was only later in life, after stumbling across life drawing sessions in London, that I found a love of figure drawing and started to develop my style. My art tends to focus on line-work using ink drawing pens. Focusing mainly on figure drawing, especially anything related to fashion illustration. I love to create intricate line art and for me, the more detail involved the better.
TALIE ROSE EIGELAND
Talie is a photographer and videographer who creates striking, intimate portraits. Her captures are bold and 3-dimensional - while heavily stylised, they remain warm and authentic. Norwegian-born and raised in France, Talie’s career took off in London, where she shifted her focus to fellow creatives and provocative yet personal visuals. Talie’s unique eye and candid approach have led her to work with a number of top publications and personalities. She is also the lead singer and guitarist in the band Teiger.
TANVI NAYAK
I am a live/fashion illustrator specialising in watercolour and digital art. My story began when I joined university with the idea of exploring fashion, as growing up I didn't had the freedom in what I wanted to wear. The expectation of being feminine, from the society I lived in, led me to reject feminine clothes and explore masculinity. My embrace of strong and feminine style began with live illustrating models while I was studying at university, admiring the silhouette and the strong feminine energy emitted by the garments and the models. This changed my perception of fashion and beauty. Since then I have become addicted to illustrating garments and people. Learning and understanding the emotions which goes behind the garments and getting inspired by new innovations of fashion.
VANESSA LAWRENCE
Vanessa Lawrence works from observation in response to the worlds of ballet, opera, fashion and film. Her dynamic drawings brim with excitement and drama, evoking worlds of illusion and make believe, all seen with a keen and empathetic female gaze.
Working predominantly in pastel, she endeavours to capture dynamic movement and performance, with liminal narratives of mythology and folklore. Since graduating from the Royal Drawing School Postgraduate Drawing Year she has continued to create opportunities to draw, documenting moments of unique choreography (Royal Ballet, Trinity Laban), breathtaking acrobatics (Brighton Festival) and show-stealing couture (invited artist London Fashion Week 2022-23, Miss England 2023). Live performance brings character driven narrative into her work that brims with both the energy of the moment and the excitement of capturing it with her heartfelt hand.
Vanessa is a Brighton based artist and educator. Graduate of the Royal Drawing School Postgraduate Drawing Development Year 2021-22, VIA Arts Prize 2020 Finalist & FIDA Finalist 2020-2022. Vanessa is a founder member of Distant Connections Zine formed at the (RDS 2020). Recent exhibitions include Tour Art Prize (acquired) selected finalist for the exhibition Figaro at Glyndebourne 2022 (www.artuk.org), The Gallery at Green & Stone Summer Exhibition 2023 and Sussex Contemporary 2023.
