Runway Collections Series
maria escote
'
Genesis
These four Art Toys were part of a series of commissions I received from María Escoté’s assistant, and they mark an important stage in my path.
The first one was actually my first professional commission. Until then, I had been experimenting with polymer clay on my own, making small figures, gifts, and personal tests.
Early polymer clay study, made prior to my Art Toy work.
In 2015, María’s assistant saw potential in what I was doing and wanted to gift her a figure based on one of her early collections. That was the beginning of a sequence of commissions that, over time, led to three more pieces inspired by different collections from the designer.
Angela Pussy
The first piece was based on Ángela Pussy, a character from one of María Escoté’s early collections. His assistant sent me the specific look he wanted, and I worked from there.
This commission pushed me to go much further with the details. The character had a street, bling-bling attitude, with big gold earrings and very expressive styling, and I wanted to keep that energy.
It was my first real commission, and knowing it was meant for someone in the fashion world made me want to deliver something solid. María loved it, and the piece also became the point where I took this job more seriously.
Sweet Cannibal
The second commission arrived soon after, this time for the Sweet Cannibal SS13 collection. Her assistant showed me the looks that could work well as Art Toys, but he gave me more freedom to choose what I felt would translate best.
I liked how it worked visually and how it could carry the outfit. The direction was to keep a sexy, suggestive language, without turning it into something sexualized but more like an elegant mannequin you’d imagine in a Parisian showcase.
For this one, I decided to create an anthropomorphic animal inspired by the cheetah prints in the collection.
Rarity - My Little Pony
The third commission came in 2016, during the collection María Escoté created with My Little Pony. The brand already has a strong toy identity, so the connection was almost immediate.
I wanted to follow the anthropomorphic animal style, as the main theme was the ponies themselves and it fitted very well in the cheetah figure. I chose Rarity as the model, mainly because of her color palette and volume of the hair. We selected the outfit that matched the art toy language best.
The technical challenge in this piece was the tail. It’s very voluminous and has shapes that slightly resemble classical sculptural curls, and it needed to hold its form during baking. I found a way to resolve it, and the result worked really well.
With this figure I allowed myself to push the movement a bit further towards sensuality, always keeping it within the fashion language.
Electric Daisy
Also in 2016, the last commission inspired by María Escoté was based on the Electric Daisy collection. In this case, I wanted something simpler and a bit more cute, even though the collection itself was quite bold. Together with the assistant, I chose the look that would work best visually: a dress made of many black daisies, which created a very nice texture on the Art Toy, just like on the original garment.
I followed the same approach as the other pieces, focusing on a balanced pose and a clean body language that matched the character of the collection.
Outcome
These four pieces represent an important period for me.
The first one was my actual entry into the professional Art Toy scene.
The others helped me explore different silhouettes, attitudes and visual languages connected to fashion, while staying true to my way of sculpting and understanding volume.
