MH: I definitely prefer handmade collage. SC!: Do you prefer digital or handmade collages? I think most of haute couture is rather silly, but it makes for great collage material! I try to inject a little humor in my work, but I try not to mock designers or deliberately make grotesque images. I don’t pay particular attention to labels. For me, fashion is just a means to an end. I suppose it’s a great way for designers to showcase their work and draw consumers into the process of creating ensembles that whole interactive thing. MH: I know that apps like Polyvore are popular. SC!: Why do you think there is so much movement now around collage in fashion? Occasionally, I’ll start out with an idea, but most of the time I just start cutting and see what works with what. I also like to add words to a lot of my more recent work, stuff that pops into my head. Also, magazine stock is a little heavier and easier to work with. I do make collages primarily of women from fashion magazines because: 1) I find women far more visually interesting than men 2) I can get old magazines really cheap at my library. MH: If by leitmotiv you mean a recurring theme, I’m not sure I have one. After I ran out of haikus, I thought about some other kind of endeavor and naturally fell into handmade collage. I called them “ransom note haiku” and started posting them on Tumblr. Later, after I abandoned the website, I began composing haikus out of words I cut out of newspapers and magazines. I wrote them fairly quickly, but it took me a long time to do the illustrations. I’d reduced the book to 15 haikus and made a digital collage for each. My biggest project back then was “Moby-Dick in Haiku”. His work was great! I think I cut out and saved every one of them. I was greatly influenced by the work of David Plunkert, whose illustrations ran every Sunday in a magazine my newspaper used to publish. I’d taught myself Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Mad Haiku: I started doing digital collages to illustrate some of my haikus. Due to a company requirement that all personal blogs to be reviewed and approved by management, something he strongly disagreed with, he shut down his blog, though he still uses the pseudonym to for his collages So Catchy!: When and why did you start making collages? The name Mad Haiku came about in 2001 with the creation of a blog dedicated to the hundreds of ‘haikus’ he had written. Mad Haiku is a journalist who left the newspaper field in 2011. SC!: Do you prefer digital or handmade collages and why? In the meanwhile, I’m writing my first collage movie.

LM: I’m working on a project for a great brand. I admire directors I think they are the real artists today. LM: Honestly I don’t like collage artists. SC!: Which other collage artists do you admire? SC!: Why do you think there is a big movement now around collage in fashion? I can do what I want – psycho crazy divas in a psychotic vision of fashion. Movies are the most important thing in my life I like to discover dreams and nightmares behind the sparkling world of celebrities. Hollywood backstage, star backstage, divas backstage. LM: I think my leimotiv is the BACKSTAGE. I’ve always loved to put pictures together in order to create new worlds.

Luca Mainini: I started to make collages when I was a child. So Catchy!: When and why did you start making collages? His collages and gifs are daring and fun, authentic cubist constructions that leave no one unmoved, so much so that Tru de Trussardi asked the artist to make the video presentation for the spring/summer 2015 collection. In collage, you have to take an image apart before you build it up again it’s a way of expressing a message using the message of others, an art form that offers millions of possibilities, and it’s got our attention. There’s also the work of Pablo Thecuadro, Ernesto Artillo from Spain, and Pias Collages and the original and funny gifs from Toilet Paper Mag: There are many more amazing artists working in collage apart from these five creative talents like Julien Pacaud with his retro videos and the latest project from the duo, Hunter and Gatti, CARNE, using Inge Jacobsen‘s image: This time, we’re bringing you 5 international artists who agreed to give us some insight into the movement which is experiencing a resurgence. As you might have guessed from our interview with the artist Sheila Miani a few weeks back, at So Catchy! Where Fashion Begins, we’ve been looking into collage in the fashion world.

Fashion art collage