Scarves as Wearable Art

Lisa Kiss

Founded in 1985, Lisa began hand-painting every scarf herself, mostly onto velvet using an ancient Japanese technique. She sold wholesale to Barneys, Nordstrom, and Searle, among others. Over time, it became clear that in order to scale the business she needed to have the scarves printed and made overseas. The desire to maintain the hand-drawn and hand-painted quality in all the prints became a driving force. For the past three years, every scarf still begins as an original drawing on paper or painted directly onto the fabric, then photographed and digitally refined, making it ready for printing onto silk or velvet, or sent to artisans in India to be hand-painted onto cashmere. What sets Lisa's work apart from most other digitally printed scarf companies is that the artist's hand still feels ever-present and spontaneous, resulting in work that feels alive and expressive, unmistakably from this artist’s hand.