Theta is delighted to present its first exhibition with SC103, the collaboration between New York-based designers and artists Sophie Andes-Gascon and Claire McKinney. This exhibition will also serve as the launch of their limited edition book, ‘SC103, September 9, 2022, 9PM, New York’.
SC103 is a multifaceted creative project operating in the broader consciousness as a clothing and accessory label. SC103 presents two collections per year with coverage on Vogue Runway and stockists around the world. Their designs have been exhibited in and entered the permanent collection of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their work is often characterized by a playful approach to the handmade and inventively tailored, incorporating unconventional materials into fashion that seems to come from an inviting world you’ve never seen before.
The work in Chimera derives from a time of creative development leading up to the formation of a new collection—silhouettes, techniques, material play. Augmented garments, drawings and sculpture denote freeform and meandering paths, where McKinney and Andes-Gascon employ instinct and explore their passions and curiosities. These are the run-offs that have crystallized into glistening, alien forms best recognized as Art.
There is a strong sense of origin and place infused in the work of McKinney and Andes-Gascon. The pair met in New York thirteen years ago, at Pratt Institute by way of Oregon for McKinney and the Amazonas of Brazil and the DC area for Andes-Gascon. Their brand was born in 2019 and named after their initials and the building number of the apartment they shared at the time. Today they continue to live together and share a studio in Brooklyn, working separately, yet side by side as they meld their visual languages for wearables that embody the inheritance of their cultural influences. Andes-Gascon has a flair for ornament and bricolage, McKinney for construction and silhouette, but rarely is an item handled exclusively by one maker. Collage and reiteration is inherent to their style of joint invention.
In the designers’ words: “We share a love of laboring over something, the propelling of a single technique or idea, caring for a process or material, working in a trance. Ideas will float between us and then there's often a non-verbal communication in the space we share, through tactility, attitude, color, collage. Materials get treated, released and let go to the other person, re-invigorated. It becomes a visual and physical exchange. Working with our hands grants us a shared warmth and sustenance. This work keeps us in a focused, connected, and joyful zone.”
The pair’s new book contains images from their Spring/Summer 2024 collection, which debuted in September of 2023. Runway stills, process and fitting snapshots, and scans of clothing are aggregated in the label’s signature fashion: a poetics of collage. It was designed in collaboration with Patrick Slack and Benjamin Schwartz, containing photo contributions from: Thomas Slack, Noah Emrich, Andres Altamirano, Martin Tannenbaum, Owen Dodd, Gabriela Cavanagh, Kayhl Cooper, and Cub. It is printed in editions of 168 and available for $45 a copy at Theta.
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