>> Wendy Tremayne ( gaiatreehouse.com) is renovating an RV park into a 100% reuse off-grid B&B in Truth or Consequences, N.M. Another project, Swap-O-Rama-Rama ( swaporamarama.org), is a clothing swap and DIY workshop designed to offer people an alternative to consumerism.
Between 50 and 100 bras clutter Itsi Atkins’ New York City apartment. Ranging in size from 32A to 50I, many of them have been transformed from underwear to outerwear and now await contents to fill their cups and a shoulder to carry them away. These bras have become handbags, backpacks, and water bottle holders.
The leap from undergarment to purse is not arbitrary. The bra and the handbag, Atkins explains, have three common and necessary design characteristics: structure, shape, and style. Both items have one primary purpose: to hold. Accordingly, “A perfect bra creates a perfect bag,” he says.
Atkins’ “flash fashion” can be found on the famous shoulders of Hollywood stars such as Carol Channing, Helen Mirren, and Leelee Sobieski, to name a few. He relishes the cleverness of the pun, and describes his designs as a coming together of social and political statements merged with popular culture, typified in his recent Paris Hilton ankle bracelet purse. The handbag, he explains, “is like a small moving billboard as it is carried around town.”
Once a maker views the bra as a creative material, a world of possibility opens. Bras can be found in seemingly endless patterns, textures, and colors. Adorned with thematic accoutrements, they satisfy people of all sizes and temperaments. The various types of bras offer built-in design possibilities. Under-wire bras make great water bottle holders, while very large bras transform into useful backpacks, and silky bras convert to fancy evening bags.
Atkins invites us to look at the bra with new eyes. He sees a garment whose structure, design, and ornamentation is like no other. And he points out that the bra’s utilitarian applications have hardly been explored. With a snicker, Atkins invites the maker to take to the street an article of clothing that at one time might have held the image of their libido.
Two of Itsi Atkins’ bras gone bag.
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