Kleft Magazine sydney
Interview by Kleft Magazine
Can fashion be as expressive as other art forms? KLeft talks to graffiti artist turned fashion designer/provocateur Hamansutra and finds out about breaking through limitations, designing German Army uniforms and hanging out with female bodybuilders…
Forget about haute couture and what’s in Vogue at the moment. Fashion is not just about clotheshorses, high society and money. For Iranian born German artist Hamansutra, the clothes maketh more then the person. They define, delight and challenge society’s ideas on style, form and function.
Born in Tehran, Iran, Hamansutra moved to New York with his family in 1978 but was principally educated in Germany (he has German nationality). English is his third language. This melting pot of cultural influences means that Hamansutra’s style is very unique, in his own words, it is what inspires him, particularly
“…the poetic influences of Farsi. My Persian background is very important to me, because it is a forgotten culture… The best compliment a designer can be paid is that their personal style and signature is the identifier of their work - and that it can’t be pigeonholed. I hope that applies to me.”
Hamansutra first cut his teeth on innovative design when he was introduced to graffiti through the Munich underground scene. He went on to study graphic design in Munich, funding his studies by working as a DJ at various clubs playing a mix of Soul, House, Rap and other urban styles while completing contract graffiti artwork, some of which was published in the book Graffiti Writing in Munich.
Throughout this time, synthesizing the design and creation of fashion which explored his Persian cultural background from a fresh perspective became increasingly important. So too did the need to take what was there – the fashion design and production process and try and make something more personally meaningful.
“Basically my aim [with the work] is to turn my ideas into clothes, no matter what kind of ideas and what area they come from. And I think this would change the atmosphere in fashion, because my clothes are inspired not by limitations, but by the idea of abandoning limits.
“Not ‘let’s sell lots of this style, but we have to use cheap fabrics to make a profit’. That’s limiting. But ‘let’s design this, it will give people a whole new body consciousness when they wear it’…I would never let a good idea simply die because the budget didn’t stretch to cover it - that’s what the whole structure of the commercial process is about, with sponsors and advertising - when the structure is used to support good ideas, it justifies the whole [fashion] thing.”
Exposure to different facets of creativity came from working through various apprenticeships including a stint at the established advertising agency Jung von Matt in Hamburg, working on 3 costumes for a major project at the London International Film School, and completing a two-month assistant-ship at the Kleiderkasse für die Bundeswehr (KKBw) – the Clothing Department of the German military forces - in Munich. Serious design cred’ followed with his third work experience role as an assistant for Kostas Murkudis (the former assistant of Helmut Lang).
There is no doubt that this wide variety of work experience shaped Hamansutra’s awareness of his own desires and style when it came to his own designs:
“I experiment a lot - the ideas don’t necessarily have to work straight away, but I need to try them out in order to develop further, and too much theory and abstract thought can often ruin an idea - practice is better.”
The way he approaches creating his work is both systematic and free-flowing.
“My dream process of creating a garment would be to draw the characters, turn them into life-size models or “statues”, and then make a 3-D animation like the film “final fantasy”. For me, every garment is a construction process. I build. I am very open to all new skills and techniques, but I am also able to use standard and classic skills, and of course I produce all the prototypes by myself.”
With garments which look very surreal and futuristic, Hamansutra claims that the whole world inspires him.
“I suppose I’m surreal because I apply a lot of tolerance and breadth to an idea - although I’m tough on deadlines. I try to combine aspects and areas that aren’t related and fuse them into a single idea. These combinations can be complicated and confusing, because they are experiments,” he explains.
“During my studies I investigated a variety of usages of ‘constrictive clothing’, ranging from army uniforms to clerical robes and even corsets, and tried to identify ways in which these offer fresh impulses and motivation for a new generation of fashion designers.”
“To be a futurist or an outrider for the future, you have to be prepared to sacrifice yourself, to suffer if need be in order to encourage the next generation. I love function - and the future is function, function is the future,” he concludes.
One major influence he will recognise above most others is the strong influence of music on his work. A DJ part time, Hamansutra’s eclectic tastes are echoed in the music he plays and consequently the clothes he creates.
According to him, music breathes life into the creative soul as long as you’re willing to experiment.
“To be a good DJ today you basically need to have a PhD. I can mix rock’n roll with soul and electro with classical orchestral. DJs today play house music non-stop and think that’s all it takes. They have no experience with old-school composers like Bob James and Vangelis.”
In turn, music provides a strong creative pulse for him.
”When I work on my design experiments, music is a very important factor for me, for example [works such as ] Computerwelt by Kraftwerk, because I feel the vibration for my inspirations in the music.”
Don’t think for a moment though that fashion as art means all soul-searching and boundary pushing and no sense of humour. Hamansutra remembers a particularly memorable moment when he decided to use female body builders as his models (reproduced here over the next few pages).
“I wanted to use women bodybuilders as the models, and tracking them down was quite an adventurous process…you try searching for ‘female bodybuilders’ on the web and see what kind of sites you end up with - quite an eye-opener! I nearly abandoned the whole idea! Finding these models was a whole project in itself.
“I then went to Nuremberg with the bodybuilders to start shooting, and the location manager looked around and asked me, “Where are the models?” I said, “They’re right in front of you!” He must have thought that all these amazing-looking women were my entourage!”
Laughs aside, Hamansutra’s goal is to continue to develop works which keep challenging what the perceived future of “fashion” and society is.
Plans for the future may also involve a visit to Australia, a country he has never visited but which he believes needs to be experienced to understand completely. In typical Hamansutra style though, the unknown proved too good a challenge to pass up, and he has explored an idea of Australia, daring to imagine what it could be like:
“I completed a short animation film for the Sydney Olympics which was called Kraft des Lichtes (The Power of Light). That’s the image I have of Australia - this huge landscape full of incredibly powerful light.”
The final word must go to Hamansutra though, the self-styled “Universal Designer”. Asked the ultimate question of Why? And his answer is pretty direct:
“I am not interested in living in the pure fashion world, and I don’t take it seriously. I believe in my vision and I’m fanatical about realising it in 3-Dimensions.”
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