Vice Style

Virginia Beach-based art collective Dearraindrop—artists Joe Grillo, Laura and Billy Grant and engineers Owen Osborn and Christopher Kucinski—have, for the past seven years, been crafting some of the most insane installations we’ve come across; like that huge color explosion of a sphinx you could walk into, and, if you played its ribs, a machine turned the sounds into psychedelic visuals projected from the sphinx’s eyes onto the opposite wall. Their shows are often called things like Magic Brain, Totem Tom, The Wet Rainbow, Sci-Fi Classics and Riddle of the Sphinx. Dearraindrop also design a line of outlandish clothing, for kids and adults, with patterns so intricate even an avant-garde designer on an acid trip couldn’t dream them up.

Vice: Hi, how did Dearraindrop come about?
Laura Grant: Billy is my brother, and the rest of us met through different schools. Each of us possesses a unique talent – painting, sculpture, clothing design, video making or crafting musical instruments – so when we put on a show, it’s a crazy-fun experience for all the senses.

No one could accuse you of being boring, that’s for sure. Why did you start making clothes?
I got a sewing machine when I turned 13, which I thought was such a lame gift, but I started playing around with it years later, altering and customizing Joe’s existing clothes, and realized what a great tool it was. Joe and I met in art high school, he had such crazy style, I fell in love! We made our first line of 50 handmade t-shirts in the summer of 2000. Joe and I make the clothes, but everyone in the group wears them.

How long do you spend on each piece?
It varies depending on the garment but, generally, they take a few hours to complete. The process involves sorting through boxes of trimmings that we've collected over the years – mostly found at yard sales – then cutting them, pinning them to the garment, and sewing them together.

Do you value the clothes you make as highly as your other art?
I see the clothes we do as artwork because they’re each individually handmade. You definitely have a different kind of interaction with clothing; the shape it takes on the body, how it moves, and even how it looks in different social settings. I think it's pretty cool how each person wears them individually, integrating their own style with the Dearraindrop aesthetic. I like that clothes are utilitarian and how, when people wear our clothes, they bring our art to life, like our own personal sculptures with minds of their own.

Is there a story or theme behind each garment? Mine has Smurfs and NRA patches on it.
Just like our painting and sculptures, they’re about showing the influence of pop culture. So it’s nothing specific.

Are you influenced by drugs or do you just have an extremely vivid imagination?
No, we’re not on anything. Creating these clothes is like putting together a puzzle, figuring out how each trimming or patch might interact and how it'll take shape on the human form.

How do people usually react to your clothes?
I don't think many people have seen appliqué work like we do, so at first glance, people might not like it or understand it. It's not until they look at the details and see the kitschy items as part of the collage that they begin to enjoy them.

Has anyone famous bought any garments from you?
Hmm. Not yet, but we're hoping Jay-Z and Beyonce will. At the moment, we’re in the process of making costumes for a music video for George Clinton—the king of wild style—and Lady Miss Kier of Deee-lite!

Do you care about fashion?
I definitely pay attention to it but I'm not someone who needs to wear the 'in fashion' of the moment. I just make a t-shirt or an evening gown, whatever the occasion calls for.

Do you only sell your clothes at your exhibitions?
No, we also ship internationally through our online shop, and we sell at The Hole Gallery in NYC, where we have a show on at the moment together with Kenny Scharf called Hot Glue Hullabaloo.

MILÈNE LARSSON