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Designer: Charlotte Kruk
Line: Wearable Sculptures
Website: kruktart.com

Candy Good Enough to Wear

Candy is chewy, chocolaty, sour, sweet and totally satisfying. If you have too much of it, yes it’s bad for you, but nothing is wrong with enjoying a nice piece of it every so often. When you’re done with your candy, what do you do with the wrapper? Throw it away? I mean making a dress out of York Peppermint Patty wrappers and Good & Plenty boxes sounds out of this world right? To Charlotte Kruk it’s not. She uses such materials to make what she calls wearable sculptures and let me tell you, her stuff will make you think twice about throwing away that Snickers wrapper. Kruk has been creating these wearable sculptures since 1994 when she graduated with a BFA in sculpture from San Jose State University.

Helium Magazine: What does fashion mean to you?

Charlotte Kruk: Fashion is a package and in our society it’s a way of communicating with each other. I try to make a statement with my art about how much [the U.S.] emphasizes how important the package is.

HM: How did Kruk Designs get started? How long has Kruk Designs been establish?

CK: My intentions were never to be a fashion designer; I’ve never had formal training. I consider myself a sculpture, a wearable sculpture. But I got started in 1994 and in the beginning I ate a lot of candy. I have a terrible sweet tooth, it’s tragic. I have box on my desk where my [high school] students can put there candy wrappers in.

HM: Do you imagine a certain person wearing or seeing your wearable sculptures?

CK: As for wearing them, no I don’t maybe that’s my big flaw. I began making them for myself. Sometimes they were not wearable but I got to know the sewing machine and they became more and more wearable. Some of them are in museums, but who goes to museums? For the most part only the high educated and the elite do.

HM: How do Kruk’s wearable sculptures represent San Jose and the Bay Area?

CK: Candy is and isn’t universal. I am a San Jose girl, my heart is here.

HM: What is your inspiration for your line?

CK: I love the production of [making my sculptures]. To make and create is really healthy for me. And the reaction of people is fun and it entertains me. Seeing the packaging at a different stage is fun and rewarding.

HM: Where can people purchase your sculptures?

CK: Kruktart.com is my website. There is a contact page where you can contact me and we can start a conversation.

So next time you eat your favorite candy or have that Baskin Robin’s spoon, know that there is someone out there who can take that wrapper that you think is trash, and recycle it to become an amazing piece of wearable art. The United States is so obsessed with sanitary packaging and putting layers on layers of packaging on a product, like candy that in the end only creates more trash. But what if we could take this trash and create art, art that is beautiful and wearable? Maybe this is one step closer to making trash into fashion, trashion perhaps?

Interview by Jasmine Duarte

Credits

Monica Dawn – photographer
Jack Husting – photographer & Art Director
Jasmine Duarte – Fashion Director
Makeup – Phiphi Dinh
Hair – Jocelyn Gomez
Jocelyn Gomez – model
Allison Granzella – model
Renata Garay – model
Cherelle Cruz – assistant
Matthew Mountford – Location Scout