Claudia Hill Participates in Fashionlab with Colorlab Performance
New York, NY—December 20, 1999: Fashion Designer Claudia Hill has most recently participated in the December 18-19 Fashionlab, an annual multi-media design event held in the DUMBO Arts Center in Brooklyn. The Fashionlab project brings together an international group of innovators in architecture, fashion and digital design to create artistic solutions to design presentation. For this event, Claudia collaborated with photographer Ariko Inaoka to create an interactive performance piece.
Members of the audience were invited into their “Color Lab”, a white room in the DAC loft space, complete with lab counter, test tubes, flasks, petri dishes and the other fittings of a serious scientist. On the wall hung “menus”, photographs by Ariko with color swatches next to them. There, participants were asked to choose a color from the menu and then watch as Claudia and Ariko prepared their color beverage. The participant could then “taste” the color of their choice.
About Fashionlab
Fashionlab is an annual multi-media installation showcasing the work of designers, architects, and visualists whose work is future conscious. Fashionlab is a work-in-progress where visitors are active participants in defining the relationship between themselves and the process of design and presentation. The 1998 inaugural event was designed using clothing as a medium because of its proximity not only to our bodies but also to our identities. Fashionlab is about creating one’s own style from an unlimited supply of re-usable items and ideas.
About Claudia Hill
German-born, Claudia Hill learned to sew at age eleven from her mother, a tailor from Prague. A natural eye for detail and a love for the work eventually led to an internship in Set Design at the Nuremberg State Theater and Opera. In 1993, Claudia came to New York to study at the New York Dance Intensive, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Parson’s School of Design. Since then, in addition to taking on costume design projects for both theater and film, she has created her own label and, in collaboration with Japanese photographer Ariko, The Number After 10. One of her designs for the Broadway production of Rent was choosen for the Smithonian Institute’s permanent collection.
Today, the Claudia Hill label embodies its creator’s vision: “For me, clothing is a three-dimensional surface. It’s more than just fabric. Making clothes is like building a house around the body. The clothes change the way you feel. They can make you feel strong, secure or transformed. And you notice the changes.”
About Ariko Inaoka
Kyoto-born photographer Ariko Inaoka’s super-saturated color work and unusual subject matter has already begun to bring her professional accolades. These include an editorial spread in the progressive Paris-based publication Purple Magazine, in-store photo installations for the new SOHO store Apartment (slated for opening in March 2000), as well as the most recent magazine advertisement for Tokyo street-fashion outfit Hysteric Glamour. Ariko began collaborating with fashion designer Claudia Hill on their joint T-shirt line The Number After 10 in 1998, and continues this collaborative effort with her debut in moving image as the director of photography in the Fall/Winter 2000 Collection presentation.
Ariko’s work developed outside the traditional academic curriculum at Parson’s School of Design, winning her praise at various student exhibitions, most notably the FUJI price of “Best Use of Color”, judged by Albert Watson. Upon her 1999 graduation with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts for Photography, she was honored with an inclusion in Photo District News’ “Thirty Under Thirty”, a publication which celebrates emerging international talent. Ariko currently resides in New York City.
