Fashionlines Interview with Sandra Bamminger of Boing

By Christine Suppes, Editor in Chief


Fashionlines: What is Boing?

Sandra: Boing is two things: First, clothes that are based and inspired by kinetics, the art of the moving sculpture. These include the bouncing, jumping crinoline skirts, flapping hemp paper skirts but also tulle skirts and tutus, as well as the crochet spiral more wearable skirts. Second, Boing is an ongoing artistic collaboration. All the photos and events on the website are the result of collaboration with other artists, designers, filmmakers, graphic artists, actors, acrobats, musicians, photographers and also singers and dancers, so "House of Boing" also stands for this collaboration. I call myself the instigator or else also "gatekeeper”.

Fashionlines: How did you get started?

Sandra: I got started on an art foundation, which lead me to experiment with fabrics and textures. I was only meant to stay in the country for one year (I am Austrian) but applied to Central Saint Martins and got accepted to start a womenswear degree the following year. There I started making the first "kinetic clothing" in an attempt to make more truly expressive clothing, that is new, arouses curiosity, and potentially even exaggerates the wearer's characteristics. To bring this out in the fashion shows I gradually started working more and more with dancers, from African dancers to Caribbean to belly dancing, ballet, contemporary, and Indian dancers to acrobatics. This moved me into a more performance orientated area, where I started to do costumes, run independent dance shows, hiring outfits from my website and word of mouth. I also took commissions, mainly from dance companies.

Fashionlines: What is the difference between costume design and fashion design?

Sandra: As described above I arrived in the performance area where I supplied performance artists, acrobats and singers with very theatrical clothes. I also did some costumes for film and also art installations in galleries and biennials. This meant most of these outfits are specifically made for people or occasions. More recently I wanted to retrace my steps and make more everyday wear, for which I began using a lot of hand knitting, crochet spirals, and most recently prints that often express how I feel about the world (the last collections of prints mostly consists of hand drawn screaming faces, 3-monkey faces that hide their eyes, mouth and keep hands over their ears which form patterns, at first you would only see the pattern, then you would notice what it's made out of) So these are lines of clothing, collections, which find their way into shops and onto my website.

Fashionlines: Who is your ideal client?

Sandra: My ideal client is the person who has that moment of rediscovering something within him or herself, rediscovering that little devil-eyed girl or boy they once were, stop and remember, appreciating the moment. Or take the opportunity to mask him or her in outrageous clothing that allows them to behave in a way they usually would not --which is something that more often than not happens on a stage or a performance of some kind.

www.houseofboing.com