.PHOTOS: 'Pivot: The Art of Fashion'

Hosted by Anne Sconberg and Mark Henderson—creators of Anne & Mark’s Art Party—“Pivot: The Art of Fashion” was a celebration of creativity in Silicon Valley. One part fashion show, one part pop-up art gallery, Saturday night’s event was a pre-party for Anne & Mark’s Art Party 2016, scheduled to be held Sep. 24-Oct. 1 at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
By 7 pm, The Armory was packed with guests. A violinist played while guests lined up at the long wooden bar to imbibe Hermitage and Camino beers as well as wines. On the other side of the room, Tony Caters kept up a steady flow of tasty hors d’oeuvres. Metro photographer, Jessica Perez, was on hand, snapping pictures.
The surrounding walls held many works of art: cute cloth Funny Bunnies; Sieglinde Van Damme’s paired eyes, embodying “the social management of identity”; Tobin Lynne Keller’s diorama-like scene whose background décor featured a design of realistic human hearts echoed in the long gown worn by a mannequin; and many others.
Most guests dressed casually, but a number took to heart (and head and heel) the suggestion to wear art themselves. One woman’s leather hat, intricately lit with red lights, boasted goggles, feathers, and a bustle (it matched her dress).
Artist Rose Sellery (whose amazing shoe-art/foot torture wowed Art Party attendees in the past) deserves kudos for curating this event.
One might be forgiven for considering fashion perhaps the most superficial of the arts, but one moment of the night particularly undermined that assumption: when Anne Sconberg thanked the guests and creators and reminded us that art serves a transcendent function. Following that statement, a beautiful a cappella rendering of “Amazing Grace” rang out. It was not cloying, nor ironic. It was moving, a signal that in San Jose, we don’t just look at art; we make art, we do art, we honor art.
Before the runway show, a trio of ballerinas from the New Ballet School performed with impressive professionalism.
The fashion event featured a host of artists, designers, photographers, hair stylists, and professional models presenting wearable wonders, first among them translucent white dresses shot through with white lights. Some items required more guts to wear than others. An amazing “space suit” with transparent helmet and cell-phone belt was one such. A man’s suit in vibrant tropical colors, however, could be worn to a party. Was that mini-dress really made out of Jiff peanut butter wrappers? Yes, it was. But the costumes weren’t arbitrarily weird the way found art can sometimes be. On the whole, they were spectacularly gorgeous (also sometimes amusingly or amazingly weird).
In all, sixteen artists/couturists participated (All guests received a list with each house of fashion and its website as well as sponsors)
San Jose’s glossy Content magazine co-hosted the event, fitting for a high-end publication. And production company Mu Industries made an auspicious debut.
For more photos from the event, click here. All photos by Jessica Perez.