DRAUP’s REDUCE shapewear collection was created in collaboration with artist Patternbase

*In conversation with Lamia Priestley, DRAUP's head of artists, Patternbase discussed their process in creating the collection. Listen to the full conversation on our podcast. *

Describe your creative process

I come from a traditional arts background in illustration, painting, and fiber arts, and I work professionally as a textile print & graphics designer for fashion accessories & home decor. As a surface print designer, my creative practice spans across many different mediums and styles. I’m kind of a jack-of-all-trades, with a major focus on pattern and all the contexts in which it can be applied to various projects and products.

In my personal art practice, I’m more interested in exploring the boundaries between fine art and design, technology and craft. The work I create and the processes I use are often defined by the materials, technologies, and techniques employed in my studies and experiments. I am also curious about the different forms pattern takes within our everyday lives, and how we perceive it and experience it collectively.

The goal of my work is to harness our society’s obsession with pattern, repetition, and mark marking, to create new designs that invoke imagery from histories and cultures past that are still inspiring trends in the art and fashion worlds of today. An increasingly integral theme in my work is exploring how art can metamorphose from being something tactile to digital, or vice versa.

Why Digital Fashion?

Digital fashion is exciting to me because it introduces a novel dimension to the industry, where the constraints of reality fade away, enabling artists & designers to dream up and implement innovative concepts that push the boundaries of what is achievable in our physical world. It empowers artists & designers to transcend the limitations of traditional methods, innovate and expand their workflows through the use of new technologies, and explore the possibilities of collaboration in ways that were previously unimaginable.

**You make a lot of work in the virtual world Voxels (formerly Cryptovoxels)… **

What is Voxels?

Voxels is a virtual world built on the Ethereum blockchain where you can build on virtual land known as ‘parcels’ and interact with other users in-world. Each piece of land is a unique digital collectible that you can own, build on, and host events on in-world.

And what do you enjoy about it?

I bought my first Voxels parcel in early 2021—it was one of the first really big NFT purchases I had made, and I remember feeling both nervous and exhilarated about investing in a digital property at that time. But it’s easily one of the best investments I’ve made, because it’s where I initially connected with many of the artists, collectors, developers, and friends that I interact and collaborate with to this day. When I first discovered Voxels, I was instantly intrigued by the aesthetic of the world and fascinated by all the experimentation that was happening there. Many creators have built art galleries, shops, music venues, and other virtual spaces where they host events, hang out, and talk about art. What I love most about Voxels is the collaboration that happens between artists in-world. It is a place where artists are always working together to build new islands, create new experiences, and showcase art, music, and media in new ways.

How did you start creating wearables?

When I first started building in Voxels, not everyone could mint wearables. The Voxels team had created a selection of them, and there was a limited number of items to choose from. In those early days, it was always exciting to see someone’s avatar floating by wearing clothing or accessories because they were more scarce and there were so many blank avatars around. Then at some point, wearable creation was opened up for parcel owners and could be minted in parcel shops. Everyone was excited, including me! My first voxels collection consisted of a variety of items, ranging from edgy accessories with a punk vibe, to art supplies and items to decorate your parcel with, to full builds of my favorite sci-fi characters.

You’ve been working with voxels for quite a while…

What changes in your process to design when you work with Voxels?

Working with voxels demands a different mindset because of the building constraints. The 32x32x32 voxel format requires a thoughtful approach to 3D design in which you have to consider how the placement of even a single voxel can completely change the look of an item’s shape, the way it moves on an avatar, or how the perceived depth of an item’s texture is affected in-world. It’s actually very similar to print design in a lot of ways —similar to how the direction and layout of elements within a pattern design can change the entire look of a print once it is put into repeat or printed onto fabric.

For the REDUCE collection, you designed a series of patterns for the shapewear.

How did you go about creating the designs?

For the REDUCE collection, I started designing patterns as I normally would in Illustrator and Photoshop. I created the general layouts and designs I knew I wanted to incorporate, then scaled them down to create a pixel effect. After that I was able to go back into the prints and begin editing the designs, pixel by pixel, to create the hard lines and soft textures I was trying to achieve.

**Of course, shapewear or undergarments have quite a specific culture of prints, patterns and design. **

In what ways did you draw on that?

For the REDUCE collection, I was inspired by motifs and patterns that are commonly seen printed on soft undergarments, such as florals, abstract & geometric prints, and designs inspired by materials such as lace.

One thing I really love about fashion is that it offers such a fluid form of self expression that can help us fortify and explore our identities, and experiment with how we are perceived by others. And prints specifically can have a very powerful impact on our moods and attitudes, and often invoke a subconscious emotion or feeling within the wearer. For example, floral prints can make one feel light, delicate, and pretty. Abstract & geometric prints can feel playful,while undergarments made of delicate lace can make one feel more sexy and sultry.

Tell us more about the significance of yellow and black in your pattern palettes

Growing up, I spent a lot of time in nature and was fascinated by the organic patterns you would find on plants, animals and insects. I’ve always been attracted to black and yellow creatures like finches, bees, spiders and snakes. I think the first time I really saw black and yellow showing up in my work was when I was working on illustrated studies of garden spiders. Something about the contrasting colors really spoke to me, and so it continues to show up in my work as it evolves.

Unlike the Voxels wearables you usually create, this collection is not designed for specific use in a voxelized virtual environment, this allowed creative freedoms with voxel dimensions and a removal of other restrictions usually associated with voxel tools…

What was it like working with this format of voxel tools?

It was really fun to work with voxels outside of my typical 32x32x32 or 126x126x126 format. Typically, when I create with voxels I am designing a specific 3D item and am tied to those constraints, but in this project I was able to break that mold and work with the voxels on more of a 2D plane. It was interesting to see how changing the scale of the voxel blocks within the garments manipulated the patterns themselves, and how that impacted the garments as a whole.

The approach brings up interesting questions. Is the print still legible as a floral when the voxels are very large? Do the fine details of the print enhance the garment when the voxels are very small? How does voxel size and print size change the perceived look of the person wearing the garment or create new visual effects we weren’t expecting?

I think for me, what excited me most about the process is the experimentation, and mind set of “let’s try this and see how it looks”. I was eager to see what results we would end up with in the final selection of generative garments, and I think this sense of discovery is something I would like to see designers embrace in future collections.

REDUCE – DRAUP’s collection of digital shapewear — is on sale on the DRAUP platform until NOVEMBER 28TH. #GetInShape today