Costume designer Christian Joy's studio is in her apartment, deep in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on a street where, inexplicably, every house is bedecked with an American flag. Most known for her eccentric designs—a skeleton with spilling guts, various witches, spacemen and jokers—for Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead singer Karen O., Joy's designs are anything but traditional. She briefly produced her own line before deciding to focus entirely on art and costumes, and recently had her first solo exhibition, The Visitors Must Be Amused, at Audio Visual Arts in New York. And truly, making crazy, out-of-this-world stuff is what Joy does best. We recently stopped by her studio, which is filled to the brim with inspiration photos, sewing supplies and old costumes ("That's the first ever dress I made for Karen," she says, pointing to a tattered blue prom dress, "It's really nasty.") to take a peek and get some tips on making some crazy shit of our own.
Shop DIY
Click a photo to view
Christian Joy in her studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
"I used to rework a lot of vintage stuff, because I worked at Antique Boutique and every time something would come through we'd be like, "Psshaw, we could make that." So finally, we had a contest to see who could actually make something, and I made a really random T-shirt and a friend of mine wore it and someone saw it and wanted to buy it. I don't do that much anymore, but this is just an old men's shirt that I painted for a party."
"Karen used to come into Daryl K all the time when I was working there, and then she started Yeah Yeah Yeahs and I started making these clothes at the same time. I was making these shredded prom dresses at the time, and I didn't even know how to sew so I was just figuring it out. And she'd ask, ‘Can I have a costume for tomorrow morning?' So I would run home and make it."
"Karen takes better care of the costumes now. It used to be that I would be standing there and she'd pour a full beer on it or spit on it. One of the first costumes I made was made out of paper, and I went go over to her house and it was wadded up on the floor in a corner, and she's like, ‘Oh, my cat peed on it.' And I was like, ‘What? Karen, you can't let your cat pee on the costumes!'"
"I basically taught myself how to sew, and then taught myself to make patterns. I still have the first sewing machine I ever had. My brother bought it for me. I still use it a little bit, but it's kind of falling apart."
"I buy a lot of solids because I like to print everything. Or I'll go to Spandex House in New York, it's like two floors of spandex, which is completely insane, and it has any kind of spandex you could ever possibly dream it. But I like the weird, off-the-wall kind of places where you can find some really interesting stuff."
"These are the shoes Karen wore in the 'Zero' video. The studs are done with kind of an industrial bedazzler. Karen's jacket for that video had between 2,500 and 3,000 studs on it, and you have to do them one at a time."
"Whenever I'm kind of stuck for inspiration, I'll just go online and look at David Bowie or Kansai Yamamoto. I love David Bowie, so he's my favorite. Right now I am into magic and spiritualism, a little more psychedelic, because I think that's where things are going. I'm also really inspired by the silent film Aelita: Queen of Mars—the costumes are all Russian Constructivist, and the sets are insane."
"I'd like to keep doing exhibitions, because you can really take it to whatever level you want and it doesn't have to be wearable. I did one recently where everyone wrote a story, and I made a costume based off of it. This is netted, and then each piece of fabric is tied to the net."
"I make my own clothes here and there, but usually by the time I'm done making a costume, I don't want to make anything."
"I've read a lot of books on how to make patterns. I started dating them to see where I was at in my pattern making. So if it's "Mar. 25, 2009," I know it'll be a pretty good one. If it says "Feb. 2006," I can throw it away."
"This wall is where my interns write me notes and make me drawings, and I have pictures of my family. I love this wall, it's comforting. I have really great interns, and I love that they all make me things."
"This is done with a Print Gocco, little shrimp with violins. The shrimp I drew and the violins are something I found. And I also sewed all these sequins on by hand."
"I have an industrial straight stitch sewing machine for the wovens, and then for the jerseys, I have an interlock machine. You kind of have to have a couple of different machines. I used to do it all on one, but then you don't want a zig-zag stitch on jersey. But if you have a machine that has a zig-zag and straight stitch, you're probably going to be fine."
"The most labor-intensive costume I've done for Karen is the skeleton one. The fringe is all embroidery thread that is put on one at a time. It probably took about three or four weeks to do. My first intern wore this while I painted it. Later, she told me 'I was really sick that day!' and I made her bend over and stand in weird positions."
