by Grady Mitchell | If clothes began as a purely protective measure, in the millennia since taken on myriad new and subtle meanings. In an age where so many of the life and death problems that hassled our ancestors have been handily boxed up, the way we dress has become more symbolic than strictly practical. It’s just about the quickest way to communicate something about yourself. “That’s something I’ve always been interested in,” says Vancouver designer Sara Armstrong. “The appearances we put on, clothing as armor.”

Inside her West End studio, Sara’s pieces are bold and angular. Before fashion design she studied sculpture, and the influence is clear in the sweeping, graceful cuts of her largely monochromatic garments. She has a varied artistic history –  “I could draw before I could read,” – and in addition to sculpture she’s studied sketching, painting, woodworking and welding. Clothing acts as a sort of catchall for her artistic interests. “There’s still a lot of architecture and line and form, and then there’s the great collaborations with video and audio, it’s a whole package,” she says. School gave her the technical skills, but her real creative education has been ongoing since childhood.

In a way, garments are a kinetic form of sculpture or architecture. “Your body is almost like a canvas,” she says. Utility is important to her, as is responsible design, and she sources locally and sustainably as often as possible. Inspiration comes from numerous sources: an image, person or palette, a detail or technique. Often her designs are informed by specific periods of art history, and she’s pulled on her Scottish heritage for certain pieces. “I love the way that we’ve kept certain habits, traditions I guess,” she says. “But it’s really just something that someone told us to do, and we still do it.”

To see more of Sara’s work, visit her website.

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