Christabel Couture

“Tall green tea please,” says the creator, designer, sales and marketing department, and model of Christabel Couture, Chris Cunningham.  Yes, I concur, the name does sound like a famous movie star.

 Dressed in dark washed jeans, layered jacket, stripped scarf, topped off with a poor boy’s hat, he stirs honey into his green tea.  The cool jazz styling of Ella Fitzgerald sets the canvas to his I just threw this on outfit.

 Cunningham is a friend of mine.  We met by fluke two years ago when both of us were training to be a flight attendant.  Clearly that gig didn’t take off due to bogus allegations and we’ve been friends since.  So, it excited me to hear that this Toronto fashion darer is finally showcasing his eccentricity along the runway of Toronto Alternative Fashion Week. (FAT).

 When asked on Cunningham’s thoughts on FAT, he said, “It is a great vehicle to promote up and coming artists.  This is an alternative fashion to what is happening mainstream – it is a rawer and edgier pulse.”

 As we talk about the costumes Cunningham is working on, he rubs his neck and explains that the pain is from sewing all day.  Cunningham begins, “The costumes are new, but the concept behind them all is the same.” He clears his throat, “My passion is in the obscure!  Out of this world couture.  I translate my warped perspective into something that can be worn.  Sometimes it’s comfortable, and sometimes you just have to watch how you walk in it.”  He chuckles – such an infectious sound.

 Laughing and sipping tea, yes like two true fashionistas, I pose the question of how Cunningham has found himself intertwined in this vicious web of design.  “Well,” he says conspicuously, “It started with mommy’s Sunday dress and dad’s suit, with grandma’s hat.  Soon enough when mommy’s pantyhose just didn’t do it for me it was the toilet plunger as a hat and pots and pans around my neck.”  We start laughing really hard because we both know that he still does that.

 “I love obscuring gender, human form and playing with lines and contours.”  Cunningham justifies.  Where do the ideas flow from, I ask?  “I get it from a the deep dark Netherlands within me.  It’s usually a 2 or 3 man trip and someone always gets left behind.”  I almost spit out my chai.  Interpret that answer as you wish.

Photo by: Nika Belianina

 Cunningham has just finished the costume design for a movie about a midget who falls in love with a stripper.  Along with FAT he is also working on a film called Butterflies of Trip City.  “The costumes are surreal,” Cunningham says.  “It is organic and earthy.  Cellular mitosis, cocoons and metamorphosis’ish.”  I see why Cunningham jumped all over this opportunity, as he did a show called Cellular Mitosis last summer at Circa Night Club.       

 As I watch Cunningham’s animated head movements and hand gestures I realize why he continues his career of in betweens and petite glitterati, but also why he remains such a great friend to me.   He is a constant reminder to those who naturally flock to him that there must be art in our lives and why the phrase “why not” needs to exist.  As Cunningham says, “You just have to go for it and do what speaks to you.”

 He reminds me and all of us that in those moments where we feel our craft is taking us nowhere; it is in fact allowing us to achieve the hardest goal in life, satisfaction.   As Cunningham says, “You have to push things to the side and unfortunately work on projects for free in hope that someone picks it up.  You hope it makes money and you get a piece.”

Cunningham continues to talk about his aspirations of one day working on a movie like Hellboy or Hellboy II, he adds that the story line was not so good, but the costumes – “Well done”.  Maybe one day George Lucas will allow him to design a creature of the galaxy and that Marilyn Manson or Björk take notice.  But at the end of it all, even if you don’t become famous, where Cavalli is asking you for design techniques, or rewarded by getting next month’s rent from your latest creation, “Continue to perservere.  You have created something.  You are living a life of creativity.  This is you.  You tested the limits and took a chance.”  Cunningham continues to live a passionate life with his, “You won’t find this at Winners” designs and his constant need to obscure the norm.