Pieced, painted, and stitched silk jackets by Starr Hagenbring. All photos permission of the artist. Late in September I interviewed Starr Hagenbring, New York wearable artist and designer, for Fiberarts magazine. She was just back from a road trip with her father in his 1910 Knox and I was transfixed by her account of the contortionist moves that driving such a car entails. Hagenbring likes to tell stories and she was revved up and going the afternoon we met. Her work, as the photos above demonstrate, is simply fabulous. She does it all--design, cutting, piecing, stitching, and painting--herself, working out of a midtown apartment/studio filled with art, books, refurbished furniture, beaded dolls, and even a large starfish, not to mention the textile paints and silk fabrics and threads of her trade. We talked for about five hours, then adjoined to a neighborhood Greek restaurant for a quick supper before I headed for a bus to Pennsylvania, visions of elegance dancing in my head.
