Leif and Tooya

[cerfas]

Young New York City label, a husband and wife duo. Their names are, yes, Leif and Tooya.

refinery29.com

 

[cerfas]

They make their clothes by hand twisting fabric...they mostly use cotton...sculptural, very beautiful to see in person




electricitypond.com

 

[cerfas]

Their stuff is sold at Art Fiend Foundation in the Lower East Side

 

[cerfas]

 

[cerfas]

from steslsinc.com

leif & tooya ritchey
this husband and wife team are new york based artists. both have extensive design skills – leif was one of the founders for m.r.s., and was the company’s head designer for four years; tooya has years of knitting, crochet, and hand-dying experience. they draw their inspiration from nature, and to that end, use environmentally friendly materials and earth-toned color palettes in their line. each piece is hand draped and dyed to make clothes that are individual and fit beautifully.

(I think this is a store that stocks them in Boston

 

[cerfas]

from antioch-college.edu
around 2002

Leif Ritchey is an artist and fashion designer who builds his visual language from the ground up. His recent work is constructed out of scraps of paper, thread and fabric collected off the streets and from the floor of his job at a New York fashion house. He transforms these found materials into vibrant, shrine-like compositions, held together with yarn and clear packing tape. Ritchie compares the process of gathering materials from his immediate environment (and putting them to use) with the ecological aim of “using the entire animal.” New York is Ritchie’s “animal” at the moment, an endless source of potentially useable objects and fragments.
Ritchey began altering, adding to and “collaging” clothes in high school as a way of “customizing himself.” In addition to clothes, books, mix tapes and visual art, Ritchey creates one-of-a-kind shoes, usually with specific individuals in mind. “I try to embody a person or a vibe by designing shoes to fit it.”
Most recently, Ritchey has been designing clothes with his partner and long-time collaborator Tooya Deas. He collaborated with Tom Hohmann and Zach Miner on a recent installation built by simulating the temporary nesting patterns of apes. Constraining themselves to a two-mile radius surrounding the gallery space, the artists gathered indigenous materials and sculpted them into five sofa size nests where visitors were invited to relax. In this project, as in much of Ritchey’s work, organic forms and inorganic materials manage to coexist. The two go together for Ritchey as “both plastic things and natural things are extreme at this point.”

 

[Arturo21]

Mmm..beautiful. Thankyou for bringing this to our attention It's always nice to here of these very independent designers . I must say, when I saw the first picture I wasn't impressed at all...but the next pictures after that are beautiful

I like the close up pictures - and the entire concept of this.

 

[Spacemiu]

It looks intresting, I'd like to see it on a person.

 

[satin chic]

Interesting indeed. Somehow reminds me of Chloé.

 

[travolta]

i'd like to see more of the work. esp. the pieces using clear packing tape.

 

[cerfas]

Internet information on them is very scarce.
You're welcome, arturo!
In person, it's stunning, you can see all the work and love that went into it...the clothes have a significant, noticeable presence.