'Kuma Guna' 1996
foam costumes for dance by Maria Blaisse
Maria Blaisse Q&A
What do you think of the images and how Karen Langley and Gary Card interpreted your work?
I like the images best when my work is interpreted in other materials. The most clear are no. 1, 2 and 8 (I like the idea of the black padded bathing suit).
How did your sensibility as a designer develop from the beginning? How did you become so involved with incorporating shape into your designs?
I always let the form evolve from the material. I take a lot of time for research in form and movement and then work with dancers. I learn most from nature
How do you balance wearability in your costume designs, especially considering the dancers have to move vigorously?
The longer the investigation, the more is possible and then one form can express many forms and movement and wearability find their own way. The form influences the dancer and the dancer influences the form; there is a natural interaction
Where do you think you sit in between fashion, sculpture, artist and professor?
I am just in the middle of these worlds. They inspire each other.
Do you see your work echoed in contemporary designers today?
I know that the designers that are inspired my work, work more directly and simply.
