Articles of Clothing is the fashion label/project of Annie Wu. Annie is an artist, designer and researcher, and currently undertaking a PhD in art and design at Monash University, Melbourne.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. I run a fashion label called Articles of Clothing, which began initially as an archiving art project where I recollected and documented all the clothing I had made in the last ten years. Articles of Clothing is now the continuation of this cataloging process. I am also an art and design researcher (PhD Candidate) at MADA, Monash University, Melbourne and teach in Fashion at RMIT University.
How did your interest in art or fashion begin? From a very young age, when I started playing music in bands since I was 15, I became aware of post-punk, new wave and underground culture, from there I entered art school and spent many years pre-occupied with wearable sculpture and conceptual fashion. I always acquired a peripheral perspective on fashion through being educated within a fine art context and caring much more for ideas and concepts than glamour or trends.
- Photo Credit: Jackson Eaton
What’s your favorite thing about your city? Melbourne is a pretty spread out as a city—you can drive from one end to the next and it can take you hours. We recently moved to an area next to the bay, so we can now see the water from our balcony, which is refreshing and inspiring after living very much inland forever. The other great thing about Melbourne is that amazing tasting food is everywhere, you will never to starved of options.
What are your thoughts about the fashion scene in Melbourne? Melbourne fashion scene is pretty vibrant; it’s not quite New York or Paris but we have the resources to make it happen here. I think Melbournians are very fashion conscious and always on the pulse for the next thing, but in general I would say the fashion industry is run with very commercial ambitions and lacking critique and too preoccupied with following the rest of the world. With that said, there are some really things happening in here too.
- Photo Credit: Jackson Eaton
What artists or designers are you interested in right now? D&K (Melbourne), H.B Peace (Melbourne) Buena Vista (California), Josef Bauer (Austria)
What was the last collection you saw that stuck out to you? Eckhaus Latta are doing really interesting things.
What is your snack/beverage of choice when working in your studio? Hot water on cold days, and cold water on warm days. Coconut coated peanuts and chocolate coated coffee beans.
- Photo Credit: Jackson Eaton
What are you really excited about right now? Having complete creative freedom, traveling, cooking in my new kitchen, and sea breezes!
If you hadn’t become a designer what do you think you’d be doing? Slaving in an ad agency or selling cars—I actually did a work about artist occupations where I listed a different occupation I was interested in pursuing everyday for a period of a year.
- Photo Credit: Jackson Eaton
What are you listening to right now? J-pop on soundcloud and Ed Motta, Pete Dunaway, Andras & Oscar, Hiroshi Yoshimura