20/07/2023
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING Recycling, reclaiming, reworking, reusing, repairing, repurposing, reinterpreting, representing attire
Ethical and sustainable approaches to clothing are key to socially conscious designers and consumers and both patchworked and quilted aesthetics can play significant roles towards achieving this. A compelling histor y upholds the necessity and desire for stitching together fabric remnants and scraps from well-wor n clothing. With resourcefulness and ingenuity, such materials can be made into something new and appealing to enjoy once more.
To prepare for the Alexander McQueen Autumn/Winter 2020/21 ready-to-wear collection, Sarah Burton took her team to St Fagan’s National Museum of History in Cardiff, Wales. It was here that The Wrexham Tailor’s Quilt, a mid-nineteenth century work, caught her eye. Constructed by hand using more than 4,500 fabric scraps, the quilt was made in the evenings after a hard day’s toil by military tailor James Williams. Uniform off-cuts were used for dynamic abstract shapes including diamonds, chevrons, squares amongst the depiction of biblical scenes; Adam, Jonah and the Whale, Noah’s Ark, Cain and Abel as well as symbolic motifs: flowers, vegetables, animals, birds, and local Welsh landmarks or feats of engineering. The pictorially fascinating quilt took ten years to make.
This is an edited excerpt from issue 111 Make Do available in print and digital at the link in the bio or selvedge.org. Text by Sarah E. Braddock Clarke
Image: Alexander McQueen, Autumn/Winter 2020/21
