CHAPTER 3: WEARABLES
Second move, applied artwork: wearables
The first product Behzad came across in research for the idea of injecting art into people's lives was clothing. On the one hand, it was possible to use the art of artists of different fields in the making of clothes, and on the other hand, clothing was needed and welcomed by the public. Behzad knew that in this move, approaching the fashion industry was a wrong action that could not help at all; because having access to fashion industry products, like artworks, was not believable for ordinary people. He had to walk on a thin line between the two, ordinary clothing and fashion products. But he was sure of one thing, a limited number of the products, or even their uniqueness, would keep him on the edge of an artwork.
Behzad Mortazavi, The founder of Paryn.
Behzad's sister Bahareh Mortezavi was just graduated from the Tehran University of Arts in costume and fabric design and had the passion and freedom of thought and action as a student. So, she and one of her friends (Sona Keshavarz) became the artists for Behzad's new project: "Exhibition of Formal Attire using African Motifs."
The idea of the exhibition was to print African art designs on fabric and design women's formal attire using these designs. To do this, in addition to conducting research and designing clothes and fabrics, it was necessary to have a silk-printing workshop and a tailor’s, all of which were done with great effort and expense. In the middle of the work, they realized that the idea could be extended to other items such as scarves and bags, and even cushions, tablecloths, and bedspreads. Finally, about 30 formal dresses and 20 semi-formal dresses, 20 bags, 15 scarves, and 20 cushions, bedspreads, and tablecloths were made as the result of their one-year efforts.
An ordinary empty apartment was decorated to display the works. The exhibition was successfully opened and in about a week, despite the relatively higher price of the works, almost all of them were sold and gave them more hope to continue their path.
Three features were observed for the exhibition:
- There is only one sample of all works.
- Perhaps for the first time in Iran, all the works were presented with complete information about them such as their designers, etc.
- Similar to all art exhibitions, the products were delivered to buyers after the exhibition.