The New York Times: The nicest thing you can say to Hochi Asiatico is that his work looks like hell.
That’s because Mr. Asiatico is one of a small number of Broadway distressors, artisans who make costumes look beautifully bad. In the play “Eclipsed,” he turned a “Rugrats” T-shirt, worn by Lupita Nyong’o, into a sweaty rag that looked as if it had spent weeks forsaken in Liberia, where the play is set. Clint Ramos, who won a Tony Award for his “Eclipsed” costume design, said that Mr. Asiatico created “a history for a garment” that came across onstage as “organic and inherent.”
2 comments:
I find Mr. Asiatico's take on telling a story through distressing incredibly refreshing, especially because the artistic process of distressing can be so easy to cast off as simple, easy, or unimportant. It is one thing to make a garment look "distressed," but what Asiatico is doing is making it look worn, beaten, used, loved, and even hated. He is showing the life of the piece itself and through that the life of the character, and creating a history which transforms it from a costume and into a piece of clothing. Artists like Asiatico are the driving force behind making already wonderful designs into believable pieces, which the audience can imagine the characters plucking from their closets in the morning just as any human being would. People like him are the difference between good costumes and great ones, and deserve so much more recognition. His understanding of the human relationship to clothing and the act of wearing a garment is obviously invaluable, and the more designers take advantage of his talents the more vibrant and alive Broadway stages will become.
I am entranced by the phrase “history for a garment.” I had not previously thought about how a costume designer, or in this case a distressor could tell the history of a garment without words. How clothes interact with the actor they are placed on, its surrounding environment and other characters is equally as important to how characters themselves interact with each other. It informs the performer of motives, what their take on others actions are. I can see how it would be the same thing with clothes. A designer coupled with a distresser would have to go through a similar process I would assume according to this article. We have learned about scenic painters who provide the treatment for scenery, but it is really interesting to see how there is a mirror artist in the costume field. What a cool job! I love that the article includes a little DYI. Not only is that fun and hands on, but it really goes to illustrate just how complex of a job a distresser has. I love comparing the before and after photos and seeing exactly where he want with his process.
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