Fashion is an art as much as any other medium. At least that’s how designer Dan Richters feels. The Omaha-based creative approaches garment-making not with needle and thread, but with clay and silicone.
“It’s a long process,” says Richters. “I discovered it just by doing it. You can’t find instructions for the kind of things I’m doing. I think that’s how you make something original – you just do it differently than everybody else.”
For those who usually expect garment designs to come from fabric rolled into a dress form, Richters approach is a bit difficult to understand. “I think about how to get a certain silhouette, then take my dress form and my clay and build the shape that I want. I’m basically sculpting the dress,” he explains. He makes a clay mold and then casts it in silicon layered inside with mesh. This provides the stability and shape needed to create wearable garments.
Design by Dan Richters
Dan Richters
The result is highly visual pieces that look like a cross between evening wear and a sci-fi movie. Clothes cling and move with the body like a second skin. Maybe it’s because they are, in a way. “Silicone is very malleable and flexible. This is my favorite material,” says Richters, adding that he searched many fabric stores to find a material that would allow him to create what he wanted, but to no avail. “Then I was walking into a hardware store and I discovered silicone. It’s what you use to close your windows, and I started experimenting with that.”
It became clear that Richters could not have people wearing window coverings. “It smells awful!” – he exclaims. “And you have to ventilate properly when you use it.” He then discovered a brand of silicone used in the film industry to make prosthetics. “It is certified safe for the skin. It’s safe for the people who wear it and for me to work with it,” he says.
It is not a traditional way of making clothes. But then again, Richters is not a conventional designer to sell his designs to mass consumers; he sees his collections more like an art exhibition. His unique outfits go on the runway for a show, maybe on the street for a few fashion shows in a few cities, and that’s it.
Design by Dan Richters
Dan Richters
Parts are sometimes bought, which he says is a good testament to their value. They are also rented for special occasions or borrowed by famous designers for red carpet events. He recently wore a dress to the Cannes Film Festival and sold pieces to a buyer from Japan to put in a store in the famous Harajuku district.
Richters also makes custom pieces: “I’ll only do it if someone commissions me specifically for an idea. We get together and have an idea, and I’ll make it happen. It’s still a unique piece. I’m not into the manufacturing mentality at all. I’m more into handicrafts.”
Richters says he has always been into various art forms, including sculpture, painting and music. He earned a degree in fine arts from the University of Nebraska Omaha with a thesis in painting, and has taken a lot of inspiration from fashion, especially designers from the 1990s such as Alexander McQueen and Thierry Mugler. His start in fashion design started with a group of friends in Omaha who started doing their own underground fashion shows, discovering a strong fashion community in the city.
Omaha Fashion Week began in 2008 and Richters has been a regular show both there and at Los Angeles Fashion Week. He is currently preparing for his first Parker Fashion Week show on September 9th and 10th. Richters says Parker’s show came through Omaha Fashion Week producers. “It’s nice because I know a lot of the same people involved here in Omaha, and I can tell that Parker Fashion Week is really invested and committed to putting on a quality event,” he says.
Fashion designer Dan Richters
Dan Richters
Parker’s audience can expect to find illuminated, otherworldly designs with metallic sheens that Richters drew from his interest in the fashions of ancient aristocracy and royalty. “It’s very inspiring on an artistic level to see how they dressed in a way that set them apart from the rest of their societies,” he explains.
Don’t expect the collection to hit a store near you, though. Richters is not in it for the money. He has a day job as a photographer and videographer to support himself financially. He does fashion for his own creative pleasure, which he says sometimes confuses people. “I do things because I want to do them. I’m not really passionate about selling them. I honestly don’t know how to turn what I do in fashion into a job, and if it did become a job, I don’t know if I would still enjoy it.”
For him, just being in the studio making art is what makes him happy. He says he tries to develop a new method of making clothes with each collection. “The process of creating it is my favorite part,” he explains. “When you’re in the studio and enjoying yourself so much, time just stops. Then seeing it all come together on the runway…I just love the idea of putting something out there that sparks the imagination.”
Dan Richters, Parker Fashion Week, 5 p.m., Friday, September 9 and Saturday, September 10, West Main Taproom, 18595 East Main Street, Parker. Find tickets, $75-$100, and more information at parkerfashionweek.com.
