by Lori ZimmerDeath By Drone are a powerhouse of creativity, in the guise of two, tiny, sweet 24 year old ladies. Moving beyond the mega trend of the screen-printed t-shirt, Death by Drone adorns their whimsical narratives all over custom made, girly dresses. Their work tells stories of lovely ladies cavorting in forests and folklore, with candy thatched huts, strawberry short cakes, scottie dogs and balloons. All the things a girl loves…
Now working on their second Spring Collection, the girls have expanded beyond the dress, and have included t-shirts, totes and prints. I sat in Deb Kaplan and Tiffany Ang's shared home/studio in East Williamsburg, dying to find out more about the girls who are inspired by both unicorns and vomit.
Lori Zimmer: How did Death By Drone come about?Death By Drone: We suppose that it all kind of started when we first met at school 5 years ago.We started to hang out and discover new things together and somewhere along theway we realized that we had a very similar peculiar sort of creative sense and thoughts. When we met we both already had the love for children's things and the cute and absurd and over time, they blossomed and turned in Death by Drone! Our senior year at Parsons is when we finally started the line. We were/are both very into psychedelic rock and the sound of drone and this is where our main inspiration and name grew from.
LZ: Are you both illustrators and seamstresses? Or do you each take one part of the project?†
DBD: We both do it all…we started out wanting to do design and then realized that we were also illustrators. We believe in the philosophy that artists should spread their talents across many disciplines and that is what we do. We each have our hands in all parts of Death by Drone, from concept development, illustration to photo-shoots, garment design and screen-printing.
†LZ: What inspires you?
DBD: oh so many things! Lately and increasingly so.. it's mainly been nature. We have been itching to leave Brooklyn and take trips upstate or California. We are planning a trip to the national parks this spring. There are lots of nature and organic themes in our illustrations--trees, vines, flowers, etc. It's just a very inherent part of us and our work.† We are always inspired by children's books and certain illustrators such as Henry Darger, Mary Blair, Tove Jannson, and Edward Gorey, amongst a whole other medley of authors, writers, artists, foodists, heroes, misanthropes..... larry david and leon. For the silhouettes of our clothing we take inspiration from vintage lady-like silhouettes, usually inspired by 1930's-1960's stuff...those women knew what was up.†And of course--our records and live shows! Psych rock music creates a sound that allows our brains to travel to those places where the stories we create can grow and where the characters live. haha..it all fits together…
†LZ: Your collections are whimsical narratives! How do you come up with the stories? Have you considered writing children’s books?
DBD: Of course, the music helps, and it's always some crazy story/film playing out live in our heads. They grow organically out of who we are and our past experiences. A lot of it relates to nostalgia from childhood and when we discuss our ideas or go freewheeling, more bizarre situations and stories emerge. We always think about writing books and that will definitely be coming in the future. We have some ideas relating to characters of ourselves with our pet stuffed dog Jacques and tons of berry jam. You can see our writing in the poems that go along with all of our dresses.
LZ: I love how your illustrations are juxtaposed onto frilly and girly frocks, what made you decide to incorporate dresses, rather than just traditional screen-printing on t-shirts for your collections?
DBD: Because if you can have that shit on a tee why not have it on a dress??! It just makes it a million times better...we love dresses. The market is loaded with millions of graphic tees already so we wanted to do something new. Illustrations on a tee are kind of just placed there, but with the dress all of the themes can be better incorporated. It comes down to an artistic and aesthetic vision really, and making a deeper, more dimensional connection to the wearer. A dress vs. a tee will further bring the wearer into that fantastical world.
LZ: what’s on your ipod when you're designing?
DBD: Mainly psych rock---13th Floor elevators, Dead Meadow, Sleepy Sun, The Black Angels, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, Brian Jonestown Massacre. Also, Sabbath and Zeppelin, bluesy stuff, heavier stuff, lighter stuff! and there's always good ole' Le Tigre... All of which will play some part one way or another, in our future short film!
LZ: Where can we buy your pieces? DBD: In small boutiques around NYC--such as Subdivision (L.I.C), A Tempo (Upper West side), and Legacy (Soho) and you can always email us to buy through our website:† www.deathbydrone.com † † LZ: What’s next for Death by Drone? (next collection theme or product etc?) DBD: Our next collection is on its way...look out for lots more crazy! Also, like we mentioned we'll be doing a short surreal film...
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