Carton Couture, 2019

Nancy started this sculpture in 2007 when she discovered that inside the food cartons used for milk alternatives and soups, is a beautiful silver lining and when you pulled this off of the exterior layer, a lovely snowy white paper is revealed. Around that time she saw a dress Penelope Cruz wore to the Oscars and the idea for this dress was born. She made the base dress out of old ripped tablecloths, then started sewing the wavy carton strips onto the bottom slowly working my way up. She worked on this dress on-and-off for about 11 years(!), but felt stuck about what to do on the top.

One day while talking about the dress with an artist friend, Kristin Wessel, some ideas started to flow and Nancy asked her to collaborate with her on finishing the piece. Where Nancy felt stuck, Kristin was inspired to explore pattern, shape and texture and together we created this dynamic belt, coat and “ruff” or collar.

They finished the dress in time for a local trash fashion contest, and won first place