In the first Fashion Exhibit (see Archives), the history of Dan Zen style was presented through the early years often relating to musical genres of interest. Part 2 shows examples of constructed fashion and brings us up to the current Dan Zen style ala 2015.Future Girl 2020, Madeline Zen 2006 ▲ Dan Zen's daughter, Madeline, poses with Zen's headdress, sundial wristband, space gun and medallion communicator. The shoot was animated with Moog sound and drone voice by Zen in Zen Picture (Pan Zoom) which requires Flash (move your cursor in the direction you want the pictures to go - click and pull to zoom, drag to pan and double click to go back to normal size. This was the predecessor to the Orbit Zoom tool): ZEN PICTURE
Madelware ▲ Dan Zen made a wooden model for his daughter and they cut Japanese paper to make various themed outfits. The pieces can be seen at MadelineZen.com in a Zen Picture with exciting backing sounds found on the Web (Requires Flash). EXPERIENCE MADELWAREMedallion Party ▲ There is nothing Dan Zen likes wearing more than medallions as we will see further on in the exhibit. These mini-medallions were made one night in the workshop for a medallion party! They marked people's glasses and were taken home as tokens.
Futuristic Headdress ▲ Created for an Artist Inc. auction, artists were to make headdress from a given cheap plastic mask (sigh). Still, the resulting headdress is quite stunning and very comfortable! The wire workmanship is subtly simple through buttons in the compact disks.
Future Girl 2021 and 2022 ▲ Two more Future Girl Madeline Zen sets were made with focus on OLED technology in Fashion. Again the sets were put to original Moog sounds and drone voice in Zen Picture requiring Flash 2021 | 2022Necklaces ▲ Dan Zen made a series of sixteen necklaces for RoseAnne's birthday. It is certainly handy to have an eclectic workshop for these types of projects. SEE BIGGER
Button Buttons ▲ Dan Zen shot a series of the body as landscape and other experiments. Here we have a button in the belly button! And, well... sometimes, we just don't need to explain art!
Headdresses ▲ At left is the classic Gnostics space rock band helmet with spinning communicator (not propeller) as Dan Zen plays Moog in space cape. To the right are Gnostic goggles with eye fins with Zen sporting a bright orange cravat in an oil drop lightshow he projected on the band. Below that is the space beret made with paper mache, hand-cut vinyl stickers for the Sci-fi 48 challenge - also blinged-out with Hangy, Zen's wearable computing mobidallion and invisible grid interface app. Wearing orange, Zen dons the communicator helmet created for the Zach Automat show in Kensington Market, Toronto. And then the Trippy helmet made from shoebox on a bicycle helmet as Zen looks through the camera of a mounted tablet and has effects applied by his mobile app, Trippy.Costumes ▲ Dan Zen has many opportunities to dress up and he often goes haute couture! Pictured here is Zen as a storm cloud with lightning, a steamed out steam punk alien visitor, Professor Y wearing a patterned plastic Y tunic and the Sun with carrot medallion. DRESSUP EXHIBITGnostics ▲ Another opportunity for style have been the music scene and in particular when Dan Zen was in Thee Gnostics a spacerock band from Hamilton. Zen routinely wore a variety of space outfits and often had accessories such as capes, space guns, hypnotizers, communicators, etc. In the picture above, Zen is at back with the eye fins. He also designed and constructed James' visor at back right. THEE GNOSTICSMedallions ▲ Dan Zen wore the convex mirror to Necropolis - a goth/noise club. Goths preened themselves well into the dark morning. He wore the board to an art party at the Artist Inc. (he was board). He often wore the Kula Pu idol (Mysteries Exhibit). And fashioned this medallion for Andrew Wood for the Medallion party. The one-way arrow makes quite a statement. These are a few of the more outlandish medallions. Zen has dozens others he has crafted and wears often.Hangy ▲ Dan Zen extended his medallion potential to the infinite by wearing his mobile devices as medallions he calls mobidallions. Zen electrical taped his Blackberry Playbook to a necklace of black string in five minutes. The device easily lasted through a weekend of very active usage at the Hamilton Supercrawl - you can see footage. He also shows how to poke a couple holes in gels to hold a device like an iPod. Hangy is Zen's mobile app that lets the wearer choose from a variety of animations, messages and pictures to suit their mood. These can be magically changed with an invisible grid interface. HANGY SITEGlasses and Moustaches ▲ a creator and collector of accessories - here we have blue feather moustache and the brass moustache, popsicle splint spectacles with colored tape and trinket adornments. This broken and fixed pair of glasses was proudly worn on Dan Zen's half century celebration. A pair of old welding glasses - zen took the support off to simplify the look. A pair of glasses from the 1920's worn for the Alien Juice Gnostics' dance video.Turbans ▲ Through the cold Canadian winter, nothing is warmer and more stylish on the head than a scarf turban (no cultural disrespect intended). It only takes a few seconds to wrap and tie in place. Dan Zen has been chided a few times by family and friends - but don't knock it until you try it - it could become the latest fad! Patchwork Overalls ▲ Not created by Dan Zen - but bravely worn by him! It took the launch of Zen's World's Longest Eel launch at Art Crawl to provide Zen with an opportunity. Here he dresses like some bizarre fisherman and uses a pylon as a megaphone to announce his hose bead window sculpture one one of the finest buildings on the burgeoning James Street N scene. EEL VIDEOSStuff ▲ Dan Zen tends to travel alone through the night life but he often does have an entourage of stuff! Thought clouds (another artist), a walking staff (dislocated knee), and anything that might be hanging around! He then flutters around from group to group, place to place like a social moth or perhaps a pollinating bee.Berets ▲ Dan Zen, standing by a lamp he and Elliot made, is always on the look out for berets and has taken the brim off caps to get that artist beret look in blue and in brown. His most prized beret is a red, white and blue wicker beret signed by the bass player of the Specials ;-) here in a dramatic shot by Todd and gang when Zen stumbled into an active photoshoot. And... then some more stuff as Zen plays with his hanging marketing sculpture for the Mad Science Maker Fair.
Mad Science Fair Maker Showcase 2014 ▲ Video footage of Dan Zen at the Maker Showcase in Hamilton demonstrating his wares like the chewing powered strobe goggles, Rolli, and many more.Tales From the Purple Box ▲ over a dozen stories told based on objects found inside a velvet purple box. Dan Zen wears a variety of his outfits.Daisy Chain ▲ Dan Zen wearing his SanFransisco Guru robe and round sunglasses.Magic Trick ▲ A good view of the red, white and blue wicker beret signed by the bass player of the Specials.Harlem Shake ▲ Another view of the beret in the Harlem Shake video along with a few props around the room - wait for it!Hollander Maui ▲ An example of Dan Zen out and about - here at the opening for his Focuso show at the Focus gallery on James St. North in Hamilton.Cape ▲ Dan Zen wears his Gnostics cape for a short video to be projected at Super Crawl.Playing Touchy ▲ A Seerssucker suit is always fun to wear out and about on summer days.New Media Predictions ala 1974 ▲ Dan Zen had fun with this one pretending he was in the seventies predicting the future of new media - Zen often dresses in original sixties and seventies attire - here his Dad's mustard shirt with Oleg Cassini tie and multibutton double breasted jacket.
Mild to Wild ▲ From mild-manored white bow tie, worsted wool jacket and pinstripe Silver Tab Levis to fine Italian Mountainware.Highlands! ▲ Ready for a blustery game of golf, Zen wears serious check pants with his grandmother's knit sweater (begged from his mother) with flared sleeves and elven hood.Summer! ▲ Moving to summerware - Zen hangs with a variety of Hawaiian shirts to lighten the day!Fashion District ▲ Here Zen is pictured visiting TVO's archives when he did a spot on what TVO means to him and then over to the Toronto Fashion District during a Fall Tour Interactive through the interactive studios nearby.Turtle Necks ▲ an frequent wearer of turtle necks - Zen finds it strange that more people do not wear them. Zen's shocking blue sweater, the gray turtle neck shown here and the cream shirt in the first section above, he has had for over thirty years.Ur an us ▲ Zen is pictured at the Young Rival video shoot as an extra wearing a bright orange cravat and purple spectaclesPurple ▲ Purple is Zen's favourite color - here Zen sits at a cafe at FITC, one of the world's largest technology and design conferences and dancing for the Alien Juice Gnostics video. Art Galleries ▲ Zen is a fixture in the Hamilton art scene - here he wears a cyber medallion and philosophizes with his friend Ted at the YouMe gallery on James St. North just a few weeks before this exhibit thus bringing us to current times (2015) in the life and styles of Dan Zen. Make sure to see the first part of the exhibit here. We hope you enjoyed the creations, accessories and care that Zen takes in his wearings. FASHION EXHIBIT 1
Fashion 2
