Diane Simpson

Diane Simpson: The structure of clothing forms has continuously informed my work, but along with that, I've been very influenced by the design and architecture of various cultures and periods in history.

Narrator: Diane Simpson.

Diane Simpson: I'm interested in the subject of the body without the body.

When I look at architecture, I isolate a section of a building like a chimney or a window, a roof shape. 

In the same way, I concentrate on a particular section or detail of clothing. A turn of a collar, a shape of the sleeve. I'm interested in the seamless shifting from body to architectural form in the melding of the wearable with this structurally unwearable.

I concentrate on a particular section of the body rather than the whole body.

Narrator: In some of the works on view here, Simpson was inspired by peplum, a cinch-waist, flared style that became popular in 1940s dresses.

Diane Simpson: With the peplum, I was just thinking about the area around the waist―I like the idea that it's so unnecessary and it's just this little added flounce.