From landscape designer to sewist – not really such a long passage. The creation of beautiful spaces for people to live and beautiful garments to wear only differs in the medium. Plants and wool, boulders and cotton, flowers and fabric, are all materials for that basic human impulse to create art from our lives. I have the sacred opportunity to design gardens that hold people’s lives. I also have a fascination for fashion and how it supports and encourages vibrant living.
Like my work in designing landscapes, my fashion inspiration springs from a love of color and texture that runs through my life like a river. In the last year my design energy has bubbled into the creation of wearable art from energetic, dutch-wax cottons. My coats and dresses are inspired by these beautiful African prints in stylized botanical and geometric designs, works of art in their own right. I mix them with up-cycled menswear wools, lace and other accent fabrics to create garments with depth and originality. This new eddy has reconnected me with my early life, learning to sew under the experienced guidance of my mother. She was the daughter of a logger and farmer, a pastor’s wife, registered nurse and elegant homemaker. I’ve named my collection Francy King, hoping to channel mother’s resourcefulness and joy in creating beautiful and practical things to enrich life.
My intention both as a landscape designer/fashion designer is to create gardens/garments of beauty and originality. Both endeavors utilize the skills of color and texture mixing, scale and composition and both have at their centers the vitality of living things.
See my wearable art at francyking.com
