POLITCS OF DRESSING: CUTS ON BIAS BETWEEN DESIGN AND ART CRISTIANE MESQUITA 1 Abstract: This paper aims to briefly present the path of a PhD research "Politics of dressing: cuts on the bias" focusing on the considerations presented in the last chapter. We will present some artists works that exploring meanings through the use of clothing and/or body, by taking some of the force lines that cross the vestiments flows in the fashion field, as well as some of the concepts investigated along the thesis. In this way, we selected three works that touch on our outlined issues: Wanted me, Lenora de Barros (Sao Paulo, 2001); AZ Six Month Seasonal Uniforms, Andrea Zittel (New York, 1991‐2002), and Detachment, Marilá Dardot (Sao Paulo, 2005), which will be commented. Key words: Fashion Design; Contemporary Art; Fashion; Clothing; Body. Opening The PhD research "Politics of dressing: cuts on the bias" (Mesquita, 2008) examines some of the force lines that cross vestiments flows in different approaches and conceptual plans. Taking the concept of zigzag, as outlined by the philosopher Gilles Deleuze (Deleuze in Boutang and Parnet, 1994‐1995) as a research method and writing strategy, this article points out some considerations about the work of three artists. These issues are woven from relevant variables in contemporary fashion cartography. Firstly, we will present the thesis pathway synthesis. Searching for some similarities between the garment and the territory of existence concept (Deleuze and Guattari, 1997), the study starts from a research on a conceptual character 2 ‐ Jardelina da Silva ‐ subject of the documentary Jardelina da Silva, me myself (Diphusa, 2006), part of the thesis. The film features real and imaginary plots of 73 years old seamstress, who used to live in a small town in southern Brazil. Her history includes several admissions to psychiatric hospitals. Over the last 15 years, she had not been hospitalized as well as she was not taking regular medication, since starting to sew her own clothes. In her own words, doing that would be part of “the mission to solve my troubles and the world troubles". Dressed in her creations, she used to make performances in the streets – called by her as “dispatches" – that always ended in Photo Pan, a photography shop where her looks were registered. In the Photo Pan small studio, she used to compose the scene, positioning her body, naked or dressed by a careful composition of clothes, shoes, accessories and makeup, and then the "dispatch" was photographed. It’s possible to make analogies between some of Jardelina rituals and Fashion Design processes and Fashion images practices. In the thesis, Jardelina da Silva’s presentation, as well as the concepts articulated from her relationship with dressing is made by taking some infinitive verbs and verbal expressions related to her ritual procedures: 1) to vibrate, 2) to express, 3) to cut‐sew‐take lines of flight, 4) to dress‐become‐dispatch and 5) to register‐ 1 Anhembi Morumbi University, Sao Paulo, Brazil. 2 A "conceptual character" is in between the concept power and the affects and the percepts forces. The concept is explored in Deleuze, Guattari, 1992, 83‐87.