Runway Spotlight: Amy M. Ho

Close readers of the KSW Blog will be familiar with the multi-talented Amy M. Ho, who has shown her art in APAtures prior (the Shifted Focus podcast might ring a bell). On the fashion side, her wedding dress made with hula hoops was a show stopper at the first ever APAture Runway.

Amy M. Ho is a San Francisco-based installation artist who occasionally experiments in fashion. Her work reflects a sculptural approach to clothing and addresses the fabric as a medium for expression. 

We love Amy’s take on the sundress.

Utilizing materials such as chicken wire, polyester stuffing and hula hoops, the designs subvert utilitarian views of fashion. Amy Ho graduated with a degree in the Practice of Art from the University of California, Berkeley and will be attending the MFA program at Mills College in the Fall. www.amymho.com

The Saucer Dress

, A Little Black Dress

Amy will also be designing the layout of this year’s runway. Thanks, Amy!

You’ve gotten a look at half of the designers in APAture Runway III. So far you’ve seen knitwear, t-shirts, bridal, sculptural, and fair trade fashion–this really is a fresh and eclectic kind of fashion show. More to come next week, including our Featured Designer!

Runway Spotlight: Bok Choy Apparel by Brian Yee

Looking for some witty, clever t-shirts? Check out Brian Yee’s t-shirt shop, Bok Choy Apparel. You’ll find tees featuring beloved Asian foods, like tofu, white rabbit candy, boba, and of course, bok choy!

The Bok Choy Apparel site even lets you vote on which designs get printed. You’ll get to see the full crop of tees at APAture Runway III. Don’t miss it!

Bok Choy Apparel (BCA) was formed in February 2008 just at the beginning of the year 4705 (Earth Rat, for those keeping track). Created as an outlet for the growing “Asian Artist” as well as providing support for various non-profit groups, BCA was from the beginning about what they care most about: our community.

Their vision is simple but fundamentally unique in fashion: to just make people look good. Everybody loves a t-shirt and they love it even more when the shirt fits both body and personality. To this end, they print only on 100% cotton American Apparel shirts, for the softest feel possible.

Bok Choy Apparel features artists who are passionate about their work, community organizers are passionate about their causes; they are passionate about providing a medium to unite these forces, and making some great clothes along the way!

If you’re interested, they warmly welcome you to “dine” at their family table. Don’t be late for dinner!

bokchoyapparel.com

Back by popular demand – Sign up NOW!!

SHIFTING FOCUS: Changing Your Brain, Changing Your Poetic Practice
with Pireeni Sundaralingam

When: August 1 & 8, 10:00am – 1:00pm
Where: KSW @ PariSoMa, 1436 Howard Street

What: This workshop is split over two consecutive Saturdays and is dedicated to helping you develop a sustainable and effective practice as a poet. Incorporating ideas from neuroscience, the workshop’s aim is to challenge the way that we, as writers, engage with the world around us. In particular, the two-day workshop will explore how innovative metaphors can be used to shift our focus.

The workshop involves assignments, designed to enrich your out-of-class writing practice, that need to be completed between workshop sessions.

-    Space is LIMITED. Sign up NOW!!  –

How: Registration fee is $80. To register by check, please send check or money order to: Kearny Street Workshop, PO Box 14545, San Francisco, CA 94114-0545. Or pay online at www.kearnystreet.org. Please include your full name and contact info.

About the instructor: Educated at Oxford, Pireeni has held research posts at MIT and UCLA and is a former professor of cognitive development. She has held national fellowships both in cognitive science and in poetry. Dedicated to examining the confluence of science and art, in the past year alone Pireeni has enjoyed invitations to speak on the intersections between poetry and cognition at MOMA (New York), the Exploratorium (SF), and the Life in Space symposium at Studio Olafur Eliasson (Berlin). Pireeni was born in Sri Lanka, and raised both there and in England.

Pireeni Sundaralingam’s poetry has appeared in national newspapers and political journals such as The Guardian (UK) and The Progressive (USA), university teaching texts, anthologies, and literary journals such as World Literature Today and Ploughshares. Pireeni is a co-editor of the forthcoming collection Writing the Lines of Our Hands, the first anthology of South Asian American poetry. Pireeni’s recent poetry honors include receiving the Rosenthal Fellowship from PEN USA and being invited to give the keynote lecture at the University of Southern California’s annual English Studies conference.

Runway Spotlight: MXW by Shani Solomon

Next up in KSW’s Fashion Week is Shani Solomon. Her collection, MXW, is handmade and fair trade.

You’ll get a chance to bid on an MXW piece at APAture Runway III. Actually, we’ll be auctioning a piece from each of the 10 designers in the show!

MXW started establishing itself as a design and clothing company in 2003. They work with only the finest of resources; such as uncultivated silk, quick renewable bamboo fabric, organically grown African Cotton and essential oils, derived from herbs and flowers.

All of MXW’s products are handmade, from the extracting, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and sewing. To top it off, all of their clothing is one-size-fits-all, making their truly limitless collections available to everyone.

The production details go further and combine practices such as natural dyeing, printing and the fair trade philosophy.

MXW works directly with craftsmen and craftswomen worldwide. MXW travels and learns what has sustained their communities for generations and in turn teach what is sustaining ours in the West. This fusion creates products which are exclusive to MXW.

Another thread in MXW’s interwoven multifaceted business is their commitment of giving back percentages of our profits each year to the craftspeople and organizations to which they are connected.

mxwclothing.com

Runway Spotlight: Gingerbread Clothing by Heather Guevarra Arcega

Fashion Week continues here at the KSW Blog! We now turn the spotlight onto our next designer…

Heather Guevarra Arcega

Heather Guevarra Arcega is an award-winning fashion designer, whose design credits include Hurley International, Lucky brand Jeans, and Joe Boxer. While at fashion school at San Francisco’s Academy of Art, Heather showcased at the Annual Academy Spring Fashion Show and was featured at Macy’s Passport Fashion show in 2005. She has since been featured in fashion blogs like USTrendy, fashion newspaper California Apparel, and on TV shows like the WB’s “Making the Cut.” Born in Hawaii, she now lives in San Francisco with her husband Michael and daughter Chanel, who inspire her work everyday. gingerbreadclothing.com

Heather is one of 10 Asian American designers showing a collection in APAture Runway III. Don’t miss the show August 8 at SOMArts!

Runway Spotlight: I Shan Liou

With just two weeks to go until APAture Runway III takes the stage at SOMArts, we give you a taste of the 10 designer collections in this year’s show. We’ll be spotlighting an APAture fashion designer each day leading up to the show! Stay tuned…

Let’s start with:

I Shan Liou

I Shan Liou is an inventive knitwear designer who studied at the Academy of Art University. She combines fine art and painting on fabric with fashion design. Through an opportunity to collaborate with textile designer, Myoung Hee Kim, Liou creates unique prints to achieve her design concept of painting on fabric. She is inspired by the moods created in Sam Francis’ paintings of earth, water, air and fire and in the abstract painting, the vivid colors, drips and splatters of brushstrokes. www.ishanliou.com

APAture Runway III

Who: 10 emerging Asian American designers

Where: SOMArts, 934 Brannan St., SF

When: Saturday, August 8 * 7:30pm

Why: Proceeds benefit Kearny Street Workshop’s 11th annual APAture festival of emerging Asian American artists.

How much: $10-20 at the door OR $8 online pre-sale at brownpapertickets.com

Get your tickets NOW!

You’re Invited! – Special Screening of Johnnie To’s ELECTION

Comcast cordially invites you to a special screening of Johnnie To’s ELECTION.

Date: Tuesday – July 28th, 2009*
Location: Sundance Kabuki Cinemas (1881 Post Street – San Francisco, CA)
Screening: 7pm – 9pm

*Theater is overbooked to ensure a full house – please arrive early in order to claim your seat(s).

PLEASE SEND YOUR RSVP TO KELLI.HILL@SUNDANCECHANNEL.COM – please specify if you are bringing a guest.

Synopsis of ELECTION:

“Wo Sing is Hong Kong’s oldest Triad Society. Under the leadership of its current Chairman Lok, it has grown to become the most feared crime organization in the city. Jimmy (Louis Koo), a twenty-first-century gangster with an M.B.A., wants to go clean by building a legitimate business empire. His profit-making enterprises have already made him a favorite in the upcoming Chairman election, but his popularity has also brought him to the attention of the Chinese authorities, who believe he is the perfect middleman to bring the Triads and the Central Government into peaceful co-existence. The Chinese authorities offer Jimmy access to the Mainland’s business market should he choose to lead Wo Sing for the next two years. The irony is not lost on Jimmy: in order to escape the Triads, first he must become their leader.”

Present Tense Panel Discussion, July 25

Present Tense Biennial: Panel Discussion 
Contemporary Art, Community and Public Space

A panel discussion with Present Tense artists Julie Chang, Justin Hoover, Ken Lo, Imin Yeh and representatives from the Chinatown Community Development Corporation and the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development

Saturday, July 25, 1 – 3pm 
Chinese Culture Center Auditorium 
Inside the Hilton Hotel 
750 Kearny Street, 3rd Floor

 

Join Present Tense artists, community partner organizations and exhibition curators for a casual and lively discussion about the goals, inspirations and challenges of the nine Chinatown storefront installations that are part of the exhibition. Among other topics, we will discuss the relationship between contemporary art, community building, and public space as a venue for the arts; the impact on artists, the community audience; and how exhibitions like Present Tense can bring new and provocative energy into the public scene. We invite artists and non-artists alike to participate the discussion in hopes of gauging community response to the Present Tense public art installations, as well as elaborating on the relationship between art, community enrichment and economic development.

Co-sponsored by: Community Educational Services, Asian American Women Artists Association, Asia Society, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, Asian Law Caucus, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Chinatown YMCA, Chinatown Community Development Center and Community Youth Center.

APAture Comics Kickoff – Free Food!

Saturday, July 18
12:30 – 4pm
At PariSoMa
1436 Howard St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

Comics plus free food – how much better can it get?
Interested in participating in APAture 2009’s Comics and Craft Expo? Come and join our kickoff meetup on Saturday, July 18. We’re inviting the members of BAAU (Bay Area Artists Unite), who publish the annual co-op comics and art anthology “BAAU Down”. Come find out about BAAU and our plans for comics at APAture then draw, share ideas or just hang out with other artists. Free food and drink.

For more info call Chris at 415-260-3879
About BAAU: www.baau.org
About APAture: www.kearnystreet.org/apature

The Invisible Cities Live Web Concert TONIGHT

APAture 2008’s Featured Artist in Music, The Invisible Cities, will be playing a live webcast show at 8pm tonight!

How cool is that?

Listen live at theinvisiblecities.com.