DESIGN: Glass artist/fashion designer collaboration spreads in Montreal

 

The Montreal designer Joseph Helmer collaborated with glass artist Jean-Marie Giguère to create this dress, one of several that included glass elements that were the talk of the 2011 Spring Fashion Shows in Montreal.

Hands-down the best collaboration of the 14 fashion designer-glass artist creations that were unveiled during a fashion show held at the Glass Art Association of Canada 2010 conference was the joint creation by Montreal designer known simply as “Helmer” who teamed up with glass artist Jean-Marie Giguère to create a dress with 800 individual glass elements (the audience-choice winning design that was featured in an article on the fashion show in the current issue of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly). The event, held at the Montreal Science Center during Montreal’s year-long “City of Glass” celebration, was produced by Laura Donefer, in hopes that her annual fashion show, which had become a staple of glass artist conferences, would branch out and take root among serious fashion designers. The recent Montreal Spring 2011 fashion shows has seen exactly that, with Helmer’s line of dresses for next spring featuring glass elements that entranced the Montreal fashion press.