Based in New York City, NOT is a studio focused on the visceral experience of dressing: a constant and instinctual dialogue between garment and wearer as they transform each other.
It is dressing as heightened awareness: of weight and exposure, of affected vision and hearing, of height, touch, balance. Clothing is a subtlety of theatre in our lives, and dressing a performance we choose to participate in.
Unafraid of standing alone, the NOT woman defines herself as being unlike the rest.
This collection, titled "Belonging," reinterprets the backpack as an extension of our bodies, with straps encased within our very clothing.
How can we find freedom by carrying our belongings within us? Every privilege is a burden, every king a camel.
Photographer: William Denatale
Hair/Makeup: Jennifer Kim
Model: Lily / Request
NOT SS13 'Porous' is a physical expression of the empty spaces we accumulate in our lives. As we lose people, places, and memories, we can be so full of holes that we float.
Certain garments have the effect of making us feel bigger, stronger, and more impermeable than we really are. NOT disintegrates these silhouettes to expose our fragility. Sheer cutouts reveal our knobby knees and the soft flesh behind our legs; Sheer volumes at the shoulder expose our slender frame. These pieces make us feel porous and light.
NOT S/S13 is a meditation on and celebration of the lightness of being.
Photography: Michael Donovan
Hair/Makeup: Alison Smith
Model: Gabriela / RED
AW12 'Clothed Close' is a collection of garments without closures. Inspired by the overlap closure of a pillowcase, garments become self-contained, foreign objects which the body must manipulate its way into.
Photography: Christian Coleman
Makeup: Johanna Rollins
Model: Taryn Fujita
Styling: NOT
Hat: Heidi Lee x NOT
'Portrait by Sheet' offers a portrait of individuality coming not from what one exposes but how one hides oneself. It is about the woman who sometimes wishes to observe the world under anonymity yet never ceases to exude personality in her disguise.
The common and the lustrous, cotton and silk, make their marriage in a dark palette of grey, navy, and green. Although dark, the collection is playful and versatile; channeling how a sheet is both a little girl throwing a blanket over her head and an ominous lump that hides a body. The wearer that does not want to be seen treads a fine line, as the more one hides herself, the more she risks being noticed. These varying levels of extremity are played with through pieces that can be buttoned up over the face, hoods that fall to the chin, and flaps that blur the silhouette as much as they can be undone, let loose, and opened up.
Photography: Chassey Reyes
Model: Miranda Steele
A look at the nonwearable objects that represent NOT: These are one-of-a-kind pieces that emphasize the hand of the designer and create a personal experience for the receiver.
NOT creates site-specific and custom performance experiences by collaborating with performing artists, integrating performance into presentations, or curating the garments themselves as objects of performance.
Select NOT collections are sent to photographers around the world who have complete freedom in the concept and subject of the clothes. The first miniseries takes place in Stockton Bight, New South Wales Australia by photographer Lauren Eiko.