The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2021 - Issue 29

Cristina Lloyd dives into the world of costume and fashion designer Claire Fleury, who thrives on creating gender fluidity collections that stands out. bitefashion W hen you have written, directed and performed for theatre over two decades, mainly in Europe, you would likely have gained some ideas about costume design. Upon changing her career, Claire Fleury moved from Amsterdam to New York in 2011 to open an art gallery with her partner and photographer Cash Levi Exum, also known as Ale- sia. Two years later, she began designing costumes and fashion, and the following year, she and Alesia closed the gallery to focus on their individual artistic endeavours. Although Claire has, as she describes it, been “rolling into de- signing fashion and costumes” since 2013, she says she wasn’t fully committed until 2016. Before diving into acting and di- recting, she trained as a professional dancer. “I think all of that and the places I’ve lived and visited and the people I’ve met have further formed me as an artist. I am still dipping my toes into the fashion design world, as an artist more than as a business entrepreneur.” For the last ten years, living in New York City, Claire has success- fully transformed her performing arts career into making cos- tumes and outfits for the city's nightlife performers and dance companies. These include dance costumes for Antonio Ramos, Coco Karol, Jon and Larissa Velez-Jackson of Yackez, Tatyana Tenenbaum, Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith, and bespoke out- fits for avant-garde artist, composer and film director Laurie Anderson, event producer Susanne Bartsch, and her party hosts. In the beginning, Claire designed small collections, selling at Patricia Field, who incidentally styled for Sex and The City and has had designer fashion stores in NYC since the eighties. She also sold her creations at groovy pop-up shops all over the city, including SoHo, and art galleries, nightclubs and the Brooklyn Museum. The creative went on to exhibit her designs at Gibney Dance Centre in 2017 and Boston University Gallery 808, a year later, in collaboration with photographer Alesia Exum. In 2018, she was among four costume designers to be honoured at the Bessie Awards (also known as the New York Dance and Performance Awards) for dance and performance. The follow- ing year, Claire showed her collection 'XYANDZ' at The Phluid Project in NYC, and Ruth La Ferla interviewed her for the New York Times article 'Beyond Queer Fashion' which was published in February 2019. She again appeared in the New York Times in an article on Susanne Bartsch. Another collection, ‘Hello I Live Here’ in September 2019, was featured at the DapperQ annual queer fashion show at the Brooklyn Museum. In January 2020, Claire was a finalist for the Fashion Group International Rising Star Award. In June of that same year, she collaborated with Cash Levi Exum for ‘The CLAIRE FLEUR STUDIO Images courtesy of Pop PR Designer Profile