‘Dress’ has always interested Carmen.  She believes women are constantly absorbed with how their bodies look, what they wear, what other women think and how men see them. This can create an overall feeling of, or lack of, confidence. Carmen feels ‘dress’ can often be the deciding factor in many women’s sense of composure when gazed upon.  Carmen’s glass dresses are tactile, yet delicate objects.  They are frozen pieces of fabric that give a cloaked impression of, and briefly describe who that woman may want to be at the time she slips the fabric onto her body.

Featured Work: The Apron Series: Fern #5 of 6

The ‘Apron Series Dress’ are slightly ragged 1900’s styled dresses with glass bustles and metal aprons that pay tribute to the strength and beauty of the colonial woman: a time when new beginnings meant sacrifice and a reinvention of her past self. The ‘Fern’ dress celebrates our New Zealand woman, wife and mother.  The colours and lace patterns that embellish her skirt reflect the New Zealand bush and landscape, with her pewter apron and brooch symbolizing her colonial past.