Fashion Professor Della Reams has been creating one-of-a-kind textiles and apparel since earning an MFA in Textiles from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) in 2005. Collaboratively developing digitally-printed fabric designs based on paintings, she makes them into pattern-focused dress designs for gallery exhibition. Reams’ work has been shown in nine countries and earned several awards. Her work has appeared in Boston Globe Magazine, Self Magazine, New York Times Magazine, Surface Design Journal and other periodicals, as well as books Artistry in Fiber Vol 3: Wearable Art, Textiles: The Art of Mankind, and The PATTERNBASE.
The artistic collaboration between Della Reams and Larry Rushing has progressed in an upward spiral of energy created by mutual muses, each adding to the other’s inspiration and work, passed like a relay between them. Rushing, trying to capture his vision of femininity, asked Reams to model. Painting from photographs of Reams and still lives of broken glass and other items, he developed his painting philosophy. Using small digitized areas of his paintings, Reams created textile design repeats, printed them on a digital fabric printer and the draping began. The painting that inspired this dress is called Grosse Femme Nue.
