What Is Wearable Art and How We Approach It

Wearable art is a term often used to describe accessories and clothing designed and individually made by hand to express its creator’s unique esthetics and make an artistic statement. It is almost like a blend of visual arts, haute couture, and slow fashion.

Wearable art designers are never constricted by the demands or trends of the marketplace. They feel and follow a need for freedom in the way they use different types of materials and techniques to give life to an artistic goal they choose to follow.

They may use new or repurposed textiles, leather, fibers, beads, and even metal or plastic. They may manipulate and shape their materials by sewing, felting, collaging, stitching, gluing, painting, weaving, knitting, or piecing. Each item they create becomes a one-of-a-kind, precious piece that can be made only once.

On the other hand, not all wearable is truly wearable. Sometimes a designer achieves a real-world embodiment of what they imagined, but the end product cannot be worn in real life. It might perhaps be a showstopper exhibited once on the podium.

AnatolianCraft slippers, mules, and bags are truly wearable art. When we set out to define and design our brand, one of the first decisions we made, without a single doubt, was that we were not going to mass manufacture. We didn’t want to be just another mainstream brand in the same old sea of ever-changing trends.

We wanted our products to be as unique as the women who were going to wear them. We wanted to create each piece with the sensibilities of an artist. We wanted to shape and embroider each item slowly and by hand. We wanted to revive and practice the artisanal embroidery of a glorious past in the form of custom-made, one-of-a-kind artwear that combined timeless elegance and luxurious comfort. We wanted not just to create shoes and bags, but wanted to add artistic beauty to women’s daily lives.

The line between fashion and art has always been blurry. Today, with the celebrated comeback of wearable art, people who are not okay with the throw-away culture, the revolving trends of fast fashion, and mindless levels of mass production have an alternative. Brands like ours are joyfully investing in creating handcrafted custom pieces of clothing, footwear, and accessories to create art-to-wear pieces that stand the passing of time and become heritage items passed from one generation to the next.