The Columbus Museum of Art’s Beaux Arts Auxiliary presents the Horst in Bellows fashion event at the Museum on April 20. The premiere event takes place during the annual Art in Bloom exhibition and kicks off with a luncheon followed by a fashion show featuring the brilliant young designer Thomas Horst.

The scene for the Horst Paris salon-style fashion show of 60 dazzling garments is the Bellows Room at the Museum. Charles Kleibacker, renowned fashion designer and Adjunct Curator of Design at the Columbus Museum, is involved in the production of this event.


Thomas Horst’s art is a celebration of innovative design that has been featured in galleries and museums across the United States. Using felted Falkland wool, Horst is acknowledged as one of the top felters in the world. Through the action of heat, moisture, chemicals and pressure wool is made into felt. 

Horst manipulates both the wool fiber and the felted cloth in ways that defy conventions. His medium, wool, has been widely used since prehistoric times and yet few artists today choose to face its challenges. Armed with a strong love of color, sculptural shapes and the natural world, this artist reassesses primitive techniques to create a new and exciting body of work.

Horst is a native of Akron and was introduced to felt making while enrolled in the master’s degree program of the School of Art at Kent State University. Horst has been able to create an energetic body of work with great artistry, originality and humor. From gowns with hundreds of chicken bones in a neo-CroMagnon style to skirts of sprouting organic buds reminiscent of sea anemones, Horst’s garments are moving sculptures that surprise and fascinate.

Tickets are $125 each; table of 10 is $1,000. Order online at www.columbusmuseum.org or send checks to CMA Art in Bloom, 5561 Rockport Rd, Columbus, OH 43235. Credit card orders by phone, call 614-629-0309. All proceeds benefit children’s programs at the Columbus Museum of Art.