Born in San Francisco, Wong grew up in Chinatown. Throughout his impressive yet brief career, Wong created garments for cultural icons including actress Angelica Houston as well as singer Elton John, bridging a prevalent gap between the hippie movement and an era of glam-rock. Ghesquière admitted he was influenced by Wong and said, "I did it - yes.
I've always said I'm looking at vintage clothes.”
#whatisrememberedlives#theaidsmemorial#aidsmemorial#neverforget#endaids @ San Francisco, California
Kaisik Wong
Musings
Art / Fashion
Kaisik Wong with Muse Merle Bulatao
Image by Steven Arnold.
I'm very flattered that people are looking at my sources of inspiration.
As a close friend and frequent collaborator of Salvador Dali’s, Wong created countless costumes for the Spanish surrealist and his wife, Gala; enjoying each other’s unique and bizarre elegance.
Kaisik Wong
San Francisco designer Kaisik Wong was the pioneer of wearable art, and his work remains incomparably exquisite and dazzling!
His pieces, mostly entirely handmade without patterns, were brilliant statements of escapism during a tumultuous time and era when handmade clothing became popular as an expression against materialism; a celebration of uniqueness. At 14 years old, he was silk screening fabrics and making his own clothes including shoes, hats and belts. and as can be proven by their viewing these decades later, truly timeless!
Betty Davis wearing a Kaisik Wong design for her 1974 album They Say I'm Different
| From the restrospective exhibit of Wong's designs, presented by Cameron Silver of Decades in Los Angeles, 2002 |
| "A still from the incomplete film project Monkey, which was to be a collaboration between Steven Arnold and Kaisik Wong, pictured here in make-up and costume as the story's protagonist, Monkey." |
"I think the whole body should be a jeweled, radiating beauty."
Kaisik Wong: 1950-1990
Other articles & posts:
Living Dreams of Visions - LA Weekly
Kaisik Wong: Still Dazzling - LA Times
Steven Arnold Archive
justoneeye.com - Kaisik Wong Wearable Dreams
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His work gained further visibility over a decade following his death when Nicolas Ghesquière showed a group of garments in his spring/summer 2002 collection for Balenciaga that were nearly identical to one of Wong’s most distinguished designs.While further examples exist of Ghesquière referencing the work of Kaisik Wong – such as in a jacket for Balenciaga’s 2010 Resort collection – the case from 2002 still stands as a preeminent example when discussing appropriation and copyright infringement in the arts, most specifically relating to fashion. Wong once wore a costume he had made for himself while visiting Dali, one that he referred to as his “Monkey King” persona, which served as early inspiration for an incomplete film collaboration between the progressive designer and filmmaker Steven Arnold, an avant-garde artist who was one of Salvador Dali’s most notable protégés.
Spain, 1974
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the Bay Area was a hotbed for counterculture and hippie movements occurring along the West Coast. "He really bridged the gap between the hippie movement and the glam-rock movement," wrote Jon Alain Guzik, author of Radiate: The Life and Work of Kaisik Wong.
Wong designed extravagant costumes that channeled ancient (and future!) civilizations: combining kimonos, tunics, tapestries, piping and padding, layers of sequins, embroideries and appliqués, shapes of ancient Egypt, Mayan and Chinese textiles among others, to concoct a magical fusion of fashion.
Kaisik Wong
“Vest”, 1973; Miscellaneous stuffed fabrics
Balenciaga
Spring/Summer 2002
Balenciaga
Spring/Summer 2002
Balenciaga
Spring/Summer 2002
It was later said that a design assistant of Ghesquière’s initially came across Wong’s work in a book called Native Funk & Flash from 1974, comprised of images exhibiting various hand-crafted artisan fashions from the era.
He dropped out of high school a year later and studied for three years at San Francisco's Pacific Fashion Institute.
Wong who handmade most of his pieces, cutting them free form had a retail outlet in @henribendel and was the co-owner of his own fashion label, MuunTux. This is how I work.
Salvador Dalí in Kaisik Wong
At his Theatre-Museum, Spain, 1974
Steven Arnold, Pandora (wearing Kaisik Wong) and Salvador Dali
Wong has often been noted as ‘infamous’ due to his garment’s unusual shapes and odd use of materials, and grouped with designers described as ‘counter-couture’ by the mainstream fashion world.
Posted May 21st, 2018By Colby Mugrabi
Wong employed fashion as a medium of escapism during an otherwise tumultuous era; living in his own fantastical realm and believing that the body should be a bejeweled, radiating temple of beauty.