“Teresa Field’s line was an artistic masterpiece...[it] looked like an exhibit in a modern art gallery, but was wearable and figure flattering.”
"Bambi" dress, shot by Mel Harper
“The inspiration for this collection originally stemmed from an elk skeleton. It had this dark, haunting beauty—majestic but elegant, severe yet breathtaking, a relic of a living thing and yet so infused with feeling. The colors are drawn from process sketches from H.R. Giger’s ‘Alien.’ They reminded me of a healing bruise, which to me communicated this sense of resilience.”
Collection inspiration, H.R. Giger's "Alien."
“The show picked up on gorgeous detailing as Teresa Field and James Thai’s collaboration saw designs of mythical creatures burned onto creamy leather that puts one in the mind of soft pencil etchings on white canvas.””
Illustrations by Teresa Field.
“Hundreds of cell phones were whipped from their pockets when these custom leather pieces came down the runway...””
Runway images from Mercedes-Benz fashion week.
“I felt an immediate kinship [with Field] when I saw her Fall ‘13 collection hit the runway for the Academy’s show at New York Fashion Week. Her collection immediately caught my attention and held it...
The thing I enjoyed most in this collection was the apparent collaborative effort Field mastered with the help of textile design James Thai and jeweler Leah Aripotch, all Academy students. I’ve always had an extremely high respect for designers who were unafraid to seek out help in other design departments, in order for their collections to be the best that it could be... You gotta love a designer with an eye for subtlety and genius craftsmanship.”
Leather designs were done in collaboration with textile designer James Andy Thai. The lambskins and cowhides were meticulously hand-burned with a soldering pen, and each piece reflects nearly 100 hours of work solely on textile manipulation. Field and Thai mapped out the designs on the pattern pieces for weeks, ensuring that each seam aligned perfectly.
“The nano-second we saw this etched bone leather jacket, we knew the front-row dwellers who would actually be able to visually grasp the material and detail would utter an audible ‘wow’ (and they did in our section, fyi).”
Custom jewelry and hardware were created in collaboration with jeweler and sculptor Leah Aripotch, and included buckles, a necklace, bracelet, and glove. The centerpiece was a clutch featuring a snake wrapping itself around an egg, made in cast bronze and weighing almost 10 pounds.
“It’s like having a boa constrictor about to kill you, but it looks awesome.”