Beer cans, opera, art: Guess how they come together

By Deborah Kyvrikosaios

ATHENS (Reuters Life!) - Beer and opera don't usually go together unless of course you add a costume designer inspired by diva Maria Callas.

New York-based Greek costume art designer Nikos Floros sliced 20,000 soda and beer cans into strips and used them to create shoes and costumes inspired by the famous operas in which the late singer starred for an art exhibit in Athens.

The flowing, puffy gowns of silver, red and green, with collars and tassels, all created with tightly woven strips of aluminum can fool the eye into thinking they're fabric.

One rippling silver gown from soft drink cans was inspired by the opera Tosca, another by La Traviata and both made with beer cans and using beer caps as tassels.

"I wanted to do something with consumable products, because I believe our modern temples today are supermarkets and malls, where you feel you exist, in other words, "I consume therefore I exist," said Floros.

The designer's works follow in the tradition of Pop Art, associating fashion, art and commercialization and reminiscent of Andy Warhol and his Campbell's soup can designs.

Some of the pieces took a year to complete, as Floros sat for more than 10 hours a day cutting cans into strips, weaving them together by hand and attaching them with staples.

It took more than five years to complete the 14 piece collection, with the artist receiving raised eyebrows from restaurant owners where he went to gather boxes of empty cans. A large portion of which he bought himself.