Two Main Street business owners have dreamed up a most fashionable way to get people to come to Cold Spring this month.
“Fashion as Art” offers a full slate of activities in the Putnam County village that is designed to blur the line between art and fashion.
The goal is to encourage not only thought, but also foot traffic that will lead to an increase in shopping and dining, said Marilyn Heberling, whose business, Art to Wear Too, is a co-sponsor of the inaugural event.
“You try everything,” she said. “You just keep trying and keep doing.”
“Fashion as Art” finds Heberling”™s clothing store teamed up with Gallery 66 NY. Both are businesses owned by women with a long connection to the community.
On a recent morning, Heberling, a Cold Spring merchant for more than 20 years with a background in fashion and costume design, discussed the event with fused-glass artist and longtime resident Barbara Galazzo, the founder of Cold Spring Arts who opened up Gallery 66 NY last year.
Galazzo said the townwide event”™s roots go back to this month”™s exhibition, “Fashion as Art: A Matter of Taste,” that she was planning for her gallery.
“I thought it would be really cool if we could combine that with a fashion show, so I went to Marilyn and it went from here to heeee-re,” she said with a laugh, spreading her hands out to reflect the breadth of the project that officially kicks off June 7.
Galazzo said there are indeed some parallels to a Cold Spring event held last year, the ArtFull Living Designer Show House. That unique venture, a benefit event founded by Galazzo, saw Hudson Valley artists working with interior designers to show how easily ”“Â and artistically ”“ homeowners could incorporate visual arts into their surroundings.
“Fashion as Art,” she shared, has an underlying theme in common: “I”™m always thinking, like at the showhouse, how can you present art so that people don”™t see it as something they can”™t attain?”
Heberling added that part of the mission of “Fashion as Art” is to challenge perceptions.
“It also makes people think about art in a different way,” she said.
“Fashion as Art” may do the same for fashion: “They get to see it in a different light.”
There are many ways to do that.
“Fashion as Art: A Matter of Taste,” which will include historic fashion illustrations by Robert Herrmann, will run June 7-30 at Gallery 66 NY. In addition, two fashion shows will be held in town. “Living Sculpture,” offered June 23 at Gallery 66 NY, will focus on artist-designed apparel with couture wear featuring coffee-bean sacks, a display of Japanese kimonos, edible-and-wearable art, an outfit made of glass and a life-size Barbie.
“Drawn to Fashion,” set for June 29 at SkyBaby Studio, is a site-specific event with an interactive element. As designs from merchants including Indigo Chic, Hudson Outfitters and Art to Wear Too are modeled, performance artist Jaanika Peerna will create a work by drawing on a live model.
The month will also feature a children”™s mini-fashion show at Gallery 66 NY, displays of fashion-related art created by local teenagers in windows of Main Street merchants and restaurants, spotlights on “artful” clothing made from everyday objects provided by local merchants and a display of fashion accoutrements from wartime exhibited at the Putnam History Museum.
“With us, it”™s 45 various businesses ”“Â pretty good,” Heberling said of the effort.
“Fashion as Art” will be a positive move for Cold Spring, a town she has seen through many ups and downs.
“I feel, though, right now we”™ve got a great mix,” she said of the businesses currently operating.
And, as Galazzo concluded, “Fashion as Art” will show that all off in a stylishly cohesive way.
“It kind of will be cool because as you”™re walking down the street, all these merchants will be tied together.”
The opening reception for “Fashion as Art: A Matter of Taste” will be from 6 to 9 p.m. June 7 at Gallery 66 NY, 66 Main St. Cold Spring.“Living Sculpture,” will be held June 23 at Gallery 66 NY. “Drawn to Fashion” is set for June 29 at SkyBaby Studio, at 75 Main St. For more information, visit gallery66ny.com or call (845) 809-5838 or Art to Wear Too at (845) 265-4469.
