Montreal-born artist Lynn Christiansen is renowned for her incredible, outrageous and wearable art. She’s clinched no less than five World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards Show prizes for her boundary-pushing designs. WOW has since purchased several of her pieces for their museum and touring shows. Lynn will be at the WOW Awards Show on September 23 to see if her most recent piece – Astila – brings home an award.

We chatted with her this week.

SDTC: You’ve won five WOW awards. What’s your secret to beating out the competition?

LC: It’s important to create pieces that are authentic to who you are. The pieces that I have loved making are always the ones that are more successful. I’m not sure how it happens, but an artist’s heart and soul come through in the work. I also get bored easily and always want to try something new, so I have had some success by creating pieces that push materials or designs in unusual ways.

Walk us through your process for developing one of these incredible pieces, like Gothic Habit. How does it all come about?

Each piece usually starts with an image or material (or both) that gets stuck in my head. Gothic Habit, for example, started with a fascination with laser cutting felt and a photo I took of the buttresses of Notre Dame Cathedral. The ideas percolate in my head for months, sometime years, before one comes to the surface. I then make a model out of stiff paper, map out the design, materials and timeline and begin making parts. There is magic when assembly is finished and the outfit is put on a body and the piece finally comes to life.

Can you walk us through a typical day in your life?

It’s difficult to say what a typical day entails. When I’m working on an outfit the day starts with lots of coffee. I then head to my basement studio, work until I realize I’m going to pass out from hunger, eat dinner with my husband, spend a little time with our two cats, then head back to the studio until I can’t focus anymore and drag myself to bed. Repeat this for many weeks until the outfit is finished. Between major projects I’ll take some time to recharge my batteries with some hiking, beachcombing and beach volleyball.

gothic-habit-4

What is your favourite material to work with lately?

I have become obsessed with laser cutting acrylic. I have always worked with multiples and laser cutting allows me to make many parts. I enjoy using a heat gun to manipulate each acrylic shape and then assemble the parts. There is something intriguing about taking the flat, smooth sheets of acrylic and creating a three-dimensional organic sculptural form.

How can we go about introducing more sculptural elements to our everyday style?

Although I love making sculptural garments, I dress quite simply, so I like to bring a pop of art to an outfit with accessories. Wearing crazy sculptural earrings or a large unconventional statement necklace can make even a basic outfit special. I also have a bit of an obsession with bags, and think there is nothing better than a unique sculptural messenger bag.