While designers often look to artists for inspiration, sometimes lifting from them directly, the results can be mixed. Marc Jacobs was immensely successful with his collaboration with artist Richard Prince, but more commonly you'll see an Andy Warhol soup can cheaply plastered somewhere it was never meant to be. Demi Park is one of the few designers who has managed to take on the genre of Abstract Expressionism in an in-depth, conceptual manner, and the Spring 2012 Parkchoonmoo show was perhaps the most poetic collection that I saw during NYFW. Playing with colors that reminded her of her Korean heritage, Park layered various dyed and stained pieces of fabric on top of each other, in an effect that she describes as "painting with fabric." While the garments are traditionally colorblocked in the sense that bold colors are graphically combined, the layering and movement of the fabrics adds another dimension to the clothing. While it's difficult to see in still images, the garments' dynamically shifting shapes and colors become living abstract paintings. Absolutely breathtaking, and truly expressionistic.
-Tiffany