Thumbnail of CoverClipping from the April 2001 Issue of Wallpaper

NOT ALL BLACK AND WHITE | Claudia Hill calls herself a conceptual artist-cum-designer, but her cerebral pre-occupations—19th-century literature and film noir—also wear exceptionally well. Now in her fourth season, the German-born former dancer is bending the yin-yang, mixing masculinity and femininity within a single garment for monochromatic pieces that are both androgynous and sculptural. Her combination of precise tailoring with a long-haired dewy-faced Quaker Puritanism, lends sobriety to a modernist vision. ‘For me, clothing is a three-dimensional surface. It’s more than just fabric. Making clothes is like building a house around the body. They can make you feel strong, secure or transformed,’ she explains. Already it’s clear that with her two-steps-back-three-steps-forward approach to design. Hill is gravitating towards bigger hurdles. But when the Smithsonian Institute picks up one of your designs from the Broadway production of Rent for its permanent collection and Japanese cultural envoy Daisuke Nakayama provides the visual stimuli for your show, it’s difficult not to feel strong, secure and transformed simply standing tall on top of the word. | JF | Keyhole dress, $245, by Claudia Hill, available from Seven New York, 180 Orchard Street, New York, tel: 1.646 654 0156 |

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