Art to Wear by Dan DeSantis

Name: Dan DeSantis
Background: Carnegie-Mellon University BFA degree in painting and art history, and then some! I have been involved in theater, ballet, fashion design and interior decorating. A “Jack of all Trades” and a “Master of More than a Few”
Work Time: Design...Design...Design
Down Time: More Design...More Design...More Design
Just kidding. I have some outside interests. To be good in the fashion world you have to have interests outside of it. You need to have an interest in the world. Fashion is not the domain of the very wealthy. For that there are expensive clothes (some good, some bad and some downright ugly). No, fashion is much more democratic than that. Fashion belongs to all the people. Everyone has different needs in their lives that have to be addressed. That is why I am here...to see that at least some of those needs are met. If nothing else, I’m versatile. Evening clothes, hats, purses (the Design Dujour!). I don’t limit myself in what I create....and what I can create is limitless.
The world has become so mass market, so volume oriented. I’d like to be that bridge between the World of Art and the Sister World of Fashion. A place where they meet, merge...creating an amalgam of the two, to put out “Limited Editions”, to give people the experience of owning “Something special...something not of this cookie cutter world...a landscape where we all see ourselves coming and going like so many automatons...to have something of your own..to step back from the crowd...to say “This is me, this is mine and I have a voice too!
Design as a way of life or life as a way of design? How do you answer that question? Well I don’t know about everyone else but I don’t even try. Life/DeSign...Design/Life...like two pieces of different colored clay marbled together never to be separated again...so it is with me.

For myself art and fashion are sometimes practical, yet at other moments frivolous, totally, unabashedly frivolous. You need that balance - we all do - in all parts of our lives. that is what I try to achieve and it pretty much sums up my fashion philosophy...No, make that life philosophy. Whether conservative or totally off the wall you need a balance to make the look work. Balanced life...balanced diet..balanced closet..that’s what I say. I’m a guy who likes colors. they can be bold, brash or baby pastels...all I ask is that they be clean, unmuddy hues. I’m not a slate blue or mauve boy. give me sky blue or cotton candy pink, that’s what I like, I think..not that others stink..It’s just my preference (says I with a wink!).

Like my designs I am at time conservative and at other times I’m rather out there (but not so far out I’m over the edge) Remember - Balance! I can be reclusive and moody or be the best time you’ve ever had.

I like Junk T.V....I like PBS
I like paperback mysteries and thrillers...I like 20’s and 30’s English humor writers.
I like history......I like mass market magazines
I like pizza....I like to sit and eat with more silverware than I need
I like my C.K. jeans, crisp cotton shirts and little boy shoes
I like getting dressed up, neckties, scarves, hats and shiny shoes
I like red (and pink, turquoise, green, yellow...and yes the whole rest of the spectrum)
I like to laugh at movies....I like to cry at movies
I like music...I like silence
I like sun, wind and flowers....I like storms, lightning and thunder
I like to believe that I still believe in magic and miracles...and that there is always hope for all things to-morrow.

Either - you’ve learned a lot about me - or you’ve learned nothing. All is relative...Life depends on your point of view....and on that note I’ll sign off for now!