From Gaga to MFA: Shoe Designer and Artist Thom Solo Designs ‘Wearable Sculpture’

From Gaga to MFA: Shoe Designer and Artist Thom Solo Designs ‘Wearable Sculpture’

Boston-based women’s shoe designer Thom Solo.

Thom Solo is a 29-year-old Boston-based women’s shoe designer. He attended the Museum of Fine Arts School, Boston, where he developed a love for creating sculptures using different mediums. Trained by his college professor to create wearable art, Thom gravitated to shoe design.

Thom Solo launched his shoe company ‘Thom Solo LLC’ in 2008. That same year, he unveiled his first private collection  inspired by ‘femme fatale’ that included seductive edges and silk floral textures with high stems. In 2013, Thom launched his second private collection ‘GIGER’ inspired by HR Giger which included rounded edges, muted colors, and smooth lines.

In 2014, Thom gained mainstream popularity, working with style icons and music influencers including Lady Gaga, Demi Lovato, Kelly Clarkson, Lana del Ray, and Britney Spears. In 2016, he launched his third private collection ‘Conte de fées’ inspired by archetypes in fairytales. In 2018, Thom launched his fourth collection ‘Suburban Bloodbath’ taking 1950s glamour and merging it with modern-day feminism. This collection has been worn by the likes of Carrie Underwood to Patricia Clarkson.

 

His next collection, the ‘Astral Collection’, is slated to be released in 2019, merging sleek silhouettes with the lineage of Salem witches.

WHAT:

Thom Solo’s work is now featured in a Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, exhibition, “Gender Bending Fashion”:

A century of style that dares to break the rules

From the runways to the streets, designers and wearers today are upending traditional ideas about men’s and women’s clothing. But those trends in American and European fashion are not new. This exhibition looks across a century of haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion that has challenged rigid, binary definitions of dress. It features more than 60 boundary-pushing designs, presenting the work of groundbreaking contemporary designers—including Rad Hourani, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alessandro Michele for Gucci, Palomo, and Rei Kawakubo—in the context of historical trends like the garçonne look of the 1920s and the peacock revolution of the 1960s.

“Gender Bending Fashion” examines a rich history of fashion disrupting, blurring, and redefining conventions and expectations around the relationship between gender and dress. At the same time, the garments on view can speak more broadly to societal shifts across the past century—including changing gender roles, increasing visibility of LGBTQIA+ communities, and the

rise of social media as a powerful tool for self-expression. Throughout the exhibition, individual narratives emerge, touching on issues of gender identity and expression, sexuality, race, class, pop culture, activism, social justice, and more. Gender Bending Fashion features a digital album in two formatsa large-scale video and an interactive touchscreenthat highlights ten individuals from the Boston area whose perspectives reflect and expand on many of these themes.

Featuring pieces worn by actors, musicians, and influencers, including Marlene Dietrich, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, and Young Thug, the multimedia presentation also incorporates paintings, photographs, music, and video. The works in the exhibition are drawn from the MFAs collection as well as loans from museums, archives, private collections, and fashion houses.

WHEN/WHERE:

Thom Solo’s work will be on display as part of the Gender Bending Fashion exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts (465 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115) from Now through August 25, 2019.

WHY:

As Thom Solo explains: “I was trained as an artist and see my work with shoes as wearable art. With my brand I tell a story that depicts a female character and it’s always a woman of power, strength, wisdom, and a little bit of rough and tumble. Women don’t need fashion to be powerful; they are already powerful, and these are just extensions of their power in having a moment. I design for the woman who wants to have a moment.”

Thom Solo’s client list includes:

Carrie Underwood
Lady Gaga
Demi Lovato
Avril Lavigne
Britney Spears
Camila Cabello
Normani
Ivy Levan
Donna Missal
Grimes
Patricia Clarkson
Tommy Genisis
Dawn Richard
Selma Blair
Kirstin From Pentatonix
Poppy
Justine Skye
Nikki Bella
Dove Cameron
Brooke Candy
Kelly Clarkson
Evan Rachel wood
David Lachapelle
Ellen von unwerth
Jonas Akerlund

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