Christian Joy (b. December 22, 1973 as Christiane Joy Hultquist) is an American costume designer and artist best known for her stage costume designs for

Yeah Yeah Yeahs The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O (born Karen Lee Orzolek), guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complem ...

lead singer

Karen O Karen Lee Orzolek (born November 22, 1978) is a South Korean-born American singer, musician, and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist for the indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Early life She was born in Seoul, South Korea, the daughter of a Ko ...

. Using found articles and occasionally eschewing thread and print for glue and marker pens she has influenced contemporary fashion with

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

stylings.

Career

Christian Joy was born in

Marion, Iowa Marion is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States. The population was 26,294 at the 2000 census and was 41,535 in 2020, an increase of 58%. The city is located next to Cedar Rapids and part of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...

, US. She started designing in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 2000. With no formal training in fashion design, she started creating one of a kind hand-painted/hand-sewn

t-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...

s and re-designing old prom dresses. She met Karen O in 2001 and the aspiring singer soon became her favorite model. As the Yeah Yeah Yeahs began playing shows Joy designed a fresh outfit for each occasion. As the band's fame grew so did Joy's reputation and, in September 2002, she mounted a solo show ''Brat Style'' during NYC Fashion week. As the Yeah Yeah Yeahs achieved international success Joy was able to pursue her designing work full-time. In 2007 her costume designs were featured at the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London as part of the ''New York Fashion Now'' exhibit. In 2008 Joy took on dressing UK band

Klaxons Klaxons were an English rock band, based in London. Following the release of several 7-inch singles on different independent record labels, as well as the success of previous singles " Magick" and " Golden Skans", the band released their debu ...

persuading them to give up their trademark neon outfits. She collaborated with

TopShop TOPSHOP (originally Top Shop) is a British fashion brand for women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It was part of the Arcadia Group, controlled by Sir Philip Green, but went into administration in late 2020 before being purchased by ASOS (r ...

on three limited-edition collections, and released her first personal

ready-to-wear Ready-to-wear (or ''prêt-à-porter''; abbreviated RTW; "off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual use) is the term for ready-made garments, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothing ...

garments. In Feb 2009 Joy had her first solo exhibition, ''The Visitors Must Be Amused,'' at the AVA gallery in NYC. Joy asked associates to write a description of a female being and then designed a costume representing each definition, including one of an alien goddess gown with a whip. In September 2009 Joy costumes were featured in a

Where The Wild Things Are ''Where the Wild Things Are'' is a 1963 children's picture book written and illustrated by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak, originally published in hardcover by Harper & Row. The book has been adapted into other media several tim ...

pop-up shop Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to catch onto a fad or scheduled e ...

in Los Angeles. In 2011 Joy created the costumes for ''Stop the Virgens'' a "psycho opera" created by Karen O and KK Barrett In May 2012 Joy presented ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Shrimp?'' at the Diesel Art Gallery in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. The exhibition was a combination of past Karen O costumes, new "Kite Costumes", videos featuring Joy's designs and poster and textile prints. In November 2012 the exhibition was moved to New York City, where it was held at Picture Farm Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Joy has also created costumes for

Santigold Santi White (born September 25, 1976), known professionally as Santigold (formerly Santogold), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. '' Billboard'' presented her in 2022, saying: "Spanning punk rock, hip-hop, and dance music, S ...

and Danish singer/songwriter

Oh Land Nanna Øland Fabricius (born 2 May 1985), better known by her stage name Oh Land, is a Danish musician, singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. Early life Oh Land was born in Copenhagen, the daughter of Bendt Fabricius, an orga ...

. In September 2013 Joy mounted an art installation show ''Bok Joy'' at Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn.

Press

Joy received her first major press in the June–July 2003 issue of

Nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from petro ...

magazine in a feature article - 'Even Odds' written by Johanna Lenander - on her Karen O wardrobe. In August 2003 Joy, in a ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' profile, scoffed at her

It girl An "it girl" is an attractive young woman, who is perceived to have both sex appeal and a personality that is especially engaging. The expression ''it girl'' originated in British upper-class society around the turn of the 20th century. ...

status. In July 2004 Joy and her designs were a key element of a ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' Sunday magazine feature about the growing influence of

Indie Rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

on fashion. In June 2005 Joy was again featured in Nylon in an article entitled 'Quiet Riot'. December 2005's '' ELLEgirl'' introduced Christian Joy as a guru of 'DIY' Fashion. A follow-up piece in April 2006 re-inforced her status. In 2008 Joy contributed to Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's book ''Cherry Bomb'', mentioning

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his Cinema of Transgression, transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamin ...

as a style inspiration. In January 2010 Joy's costumes appeared in a photo spread in '' The Blocks Fame issue. In the accompanying interview, Joy discussed abandoning mass fashion for the DIY approach of using Etsy as her exclusive store. She is also featured in German fashion blog Two For Fashion. In February 2010 Christian Joy was featured on the cover of ''Time Out New Yorks, Most Stylish New Yorkers Stop the Virgens Press: T-Magazine, "The Look of Karen O's Psycho Rock Opera" by

Katie Chang Katherine Chang (born May 3, 1995) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Rebecca Ahn in ''The Bling Ring'' (2013), Ellen Reeves in ''A Birder's Guide to Everything'' (2013) and Claire Connors in '' The Outcasts'' (2017). Early li ...

, Photos by Ioulex Do Androids Dream of Electric Shrimp? Press: The Japan Times, "Totally Wrapped In Joy" by Misha Janette and Samuel Thomas, Photo by

Nick Zinner Nicholas Joseph Zinner (born December 8, 1974) is an American guitarist for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a record producer. Zinner is an accomplished photographer. Musical career Before forming the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs with Karen O and ...

Career

Press

References

External links