Skye Clark

BFA Fashion Design Materiality

Title: No Sleep in the Gutter

Updated: August 5th

How can I make a diary without writing words on a page? This was the first question I asked myself when I began the descent into my senior thesis.

I became obsessed with reading other people's diaries; Herbert Huncke, Jim Carroll, Jean Rhys, Jean Genet, Cookie Mueler, etc. Being in the business of words you assume the identity of a writer, and you must live in the gutter and suffer the abuses of a world turned over by hedonistic youth. A published diary, however, is the melding together of self-made mythology, delusions and gruesome truths. At times it feels quite naughty to uncover the secrets of the intimate, this is the experience I seek to capture in my body of work.

While playing in a rock and roll band in New York, it is my duty to preserve the unusual and bizarre aspects of the city, to be its innocuous excavator of the past. By using the format of a diary I communicate my concepts through the manipulation of textiles. Some garments I covered in resin trapping personal objects between the epoxy and material to give this reference to (crawling out of) the gutter. I wanted to take something iconic and subvert it, make it a little more grotesque, I created a leather jacket, trench coat, bomber jacket to communicate the archetypes of subversive counter cultures. My work, like a diary is filled with secrets, obsessive scribbling and tangible objects line every garment. This scribbling is often violent in its empirical nature, this observation lead to the exploration of materials which are more visceral and elemental. I created a line of metal and silver sculptures that can also be worn or used. An oversized bullet, a metal leather jacket, a cain which is shaped like an oversized/ welded nail, etched belt buckles, medallions, distorted license plates and spiked silver knuckles. The metal pieces juxtapose other more delicate garments, scribbled and pierced nylon tights, tattered pirate blouse, bootleg band shirts, knit sweaters and underwear (which can be seen on my website (skyeclarklowbrow.com)).

As the viewer observes and searches they are able to find details hidden within, by spending time and investigating each garment a relationship is formed between the viewer and the artist through the garment. Much like a detective finds out every detail of a victim's life post mortem, these pieces are clues to the intimate. My practice and my life are inseparable, consisting of constantly working towards one body of work which blurs life and art. Through many media facets I am able to re-enact a world which is a figment of pop delusion, true pagan rock and roll, and a wonderful sexual device. This collection can be viewed as a capsule of youth, through esoteric, erotic, and hedonistic symbols we can find universal truths.

I seek to evoke hallucinations with the shocking and confrontational, worlds of primordial porno playgrounds crawl out of the gutter.


Designer, textiles, painting, creative direction, metal work, artist, collector, musician, b-movie bombshell, jack of all trades, a kind of lowbrow for the tweens kind-of-deal. Based in Hollywood.