‘Art in Motion’ fashion show features bold work of Iowa fashion designers

It will be a runway like no other when the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art hosts the "Art in Motion Fashion Show."

The unique event, which is slated for Friday, April 25, will feature the designs of local fashion designers Judy Bales, Gyan Shrosbree and her mother Kathy Shrosbree. Models will bring to life the designers' inspired creations on a runway winding through the art-filled galleries. The fashion show was inspired by the CRMA's exhibition, "All Dressed Up and Down," which can be experienced through May 18.

Bales, who has had her garments displayed at the CRMA in previous exhibitions, is looking forward to models, as opposed to mannequins, sporting her clothing. Bales' designs often utilize reclaimed or recycled materials, which are made unrecognizable by repetition or restructuring.

"My work, though created from man-made materials, alludes to the transcendent beauty of nature," Bales said. "I am amazed at the ability of man-made materials to take on organic form when manipulated in ways for which it was not intended when manufactured."

With more than 30 years of experience in diverse artistic endeavors, including fiber art, fashion art and as a public art designer, Bales has a unique vision. Bales has shown on the runway at Omaha Fashion Week 11 times. The common denominator for Bales fashion is fiber.

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"Fiber is an integral part of our lives from the cradle to the grave," Bales said while calling from her Fairfield, Iowa home. "We are wrapped in fiber, as in cloth, at birth and again upon death. Our entire lives are permeated with not only clothes, but bedding, towels, interior decor or functional objects, architectural elements such as awnings ... For decades I have worked in non-traditional materials, such as wire or plastics, but in fiber processes, such as sewing, looping and improvisational weaving."

Kathy Shrosbree is also expert at sewing. The trained furniture designer stitches together her daughter's art, which is dubbed "paintings that move." The Shrosbrees' designs feature bright colors and an abstract flavor, with two-dimensional sculptures that suggest a painted canvas that has been taken from a gallery well and draped onto a human form.

"We really enjoy what we're doing together," Gyan Shrosbree said.

Not every child works with their parents, but the Shrosbees enjoy creating with each other.

"The dynamic is fabulous," Gyan Shrosbree said. "We are so similar and different in all the right ways. We know each other so well and have a lot of the same interests and inspirations. My mom is so precise and a total perfectionist. Everything she makes is refined and beautiful. She understands me and is able to work with my fast and loose ways and not squash those ways, but instead complement them. We have fun working together and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do this. Every time we start a new series, I am ecstatic that we get to do it again."

After receiving her bachelor’s in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute and her master’s in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Gyan Shrosbree thought she would work in the fashion industry, but the business side wasn't for her.

"I was very clearly an outsider in that world," Gyan Shrosbree said. "I realized quickly that I was much less practical and more interested in playing the fashion game with no real fashion rules. The second I was truly exposed to the field, I was more interested in creating alternative fashion spaces and places as opposed to the traditional fashion world with all of its practical concerns and what I felt to be restrictions and rules that didn’t apply to galleries or museums."

Kathy Shrosbree looks forward to working with her daughter each day.

"It's a total blast," Kathy Shrosbree said. "We work so well together. I love seeing her paintings come off the wall and inhabit bodies."

It's no surprise that her daughter became a painter.

"Gyan has been drawing and painting since early childhood, and it was very apparent that it was a form of expression that came naturally to her. She has been surrounded by art and artists her whole life, so the environment was an encouraging one for someone who had the inclination toward the practice."

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Even though Bales and the Shrosbrees have had mutual admiration for many years, the “Art in Motion Fashion Show” is their first collaborative endeavor. Will the trio work together again?

"I certainly hope so," Bales said.

The trio would make for intriguing guests for a show like "Project Runway." However, Bales is not angling to be part of such a program, at least not at the moment.

"Oddly, I am not a personal fan of reality fashion shows because of what I perceive as superficiality and sometimes almost meanness," Bales said. "However, all my friends love them, and I think the pressure and challenge of being part of such a competition can be a catalyst for a tremendous boost for a young designer's career. And Gyan and I had a recent conversation where she described the support the designers have for each other and the values of the challenges that are given. So, I may need to give them another look."

In the interim, the artists will focus on current projects. "But we're really looking forward to this event," Bales said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."