Red Thread Studio

Made Well

I noticed this sentence this morning in "Pop Culture in the Age of Obama," a New York Times piece by author Kurt Andersen , and though the article was not about the great Art vs. Craft or Slow Cloth vs. Craft 2.0/DIY debate, it could certainly apply:

Maybe we can once and for all stop defaulting to easy categorical boundaries between high and low, and discriminate instead between the well made and the shoddy.

I think I like this idea. Mr. Andersen is talking about trends in entertainment and the cultural ideas we consume, but this sentence has something to do with the ideas that keep coming up here of elegant design, artisanry, and the marriage of beauty and functionality, or quality and accessibility, that we so admire when we see it.

I'm still juggling a busy work schedule, along with everything else life is dishing out (never mind trying to experience a little summertime), but did discover a lovely Web site for dosa inc., a clothing company using vintage fabrics that I found through Fibercopia. It's a beautiful site, and it looks like the company is very Slow Cloth-minded, with connections to the sustainable food conversation and more. I'll add some photos if/when I get permission from them.

Odds and Ends and Elegance

Lucy Collins is a contributor to the excellent Worn Through blog, and she's written a great post on fashion in France. The French way of dressing -- so envied and imitated but never fully duplicated -- is a model for Slow Fashion; Lucy writes: "But despite the longstanding relationship between France and fashion, in modern times Parisians seem surprisingly anti-trendy. That is, if we understand trendy-ness to be part of an inclination to wear anything and everything 'cool,' with a total disregard for what looks good." She's right to note, though, that there's a dimension to the way that French women dress that is so integrated into and informed by French culture that the rest of us can only be students of it:

It dawned on me, in one of those annoying moments during which an academic person “discovers” something completely obvious, that fashion (and by extension, femininity) is truly so very culturally informed. I realized that even if I spent the next three months doing nothing but observing the fashion and styles of French women there’d still be certain things I could never emulate.

One of those intangibles that we talk about with French women is elegance. There's a new book I'm eyeing called In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing. I should probably read it along with Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, as somehow I think these go hand in hand.  I think artists are often in search of elegance; it's one of those things we recognize, or respond to, even if we can't define it.

More odds and ends: I'm mentioned in Rob Walker's Consumed column in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, with thoughts about Lululemon, a clothing company with a "yoga-inspired" marketing platform. Suffice it to say I'm not a fan of Lululemon, not even a little bit. I am a fan of Rob's column, though, as well as his Murketing blog and his fascinating Signficant Objects project.

The truth is that I don't own yoga, or craft, or organic foods, or any of the things that I bemoan the commercialization of. Is it even fair for me to criticize the way that these things change and become marketing propositions? Is it just sour grapes, because I wasn't able to or never chose to cash in on these things that once made me unique? I don't think I begrudge success, but I do respond intensely to the way things I care about become "lite" to suit our (crass, non-elegant) culture.

I think it's a common ambivalence; a friend of mine, who has carried his cloth bag to the grocery store for decades, was saying that he should be thrilled now that his natural foods store is filled with people carrying their own bags; instead he finds himself irritated, just as I'm irritated by all the trendy people in their expensive yoga outfits. The feeling persists, though we know that it's good, all things considered, that people carry cloth bags and do yoga. Maybe the irritation comes from a fear of looking as if we ourselves are lemmings who just jumped on a bandwagon; we want our discovery and foresight, our decades of dedication to once-unpopular ideas, to show.

Maryam of My Marrakesh has a gorgeous Flickr page of Moroccan textiles.

Textile artist of the week: Barbara Shapiro, a Bay Area artist who explores indigo and textiles with text. Elegant indeed. 

Interview with Sewing Diva Georgene, Part Two

Part 2 of my interview with Georgene of The Sewing Divas is posted here. A big thank you to Georgene for giving her valuable time and space to this interview. One thing I want to clarify -- Georgene quotes me as saying that I loathe some junior fashion producers for what I see as their institutionalized objectification of young women, while marketing themselves as sustainable fashion. The quote is correct, but I was referring specifically to one company, and if you e-mail me I'm happy to tell you which one.

We also talked about other things that were cut from the interview, such as sewing education in the schools. I know Georgene had far more material than she could use -- there's a lot to talk about in sewing and fashion today. And I have a lot of opinions! I really appreciate the time and space she gave me, and I hope it's of interest to some of her readers. And her blog is wonderful, so bookmark it and get to know Georgene and her blog partner Mary Beth.

Meanwhile, speaking of fashion, I'm coveting these Peruvian Connection dresses and thinking about how to create some version of them, since they're out of my price range:

 
That's it for now. It's been an exhausting week and it's not quite done yet.

Thank You, Sewing Diva Georgene (and the almost-200th-post)

Georgene of The Sewing Divas has posted part one of an interview she did with me on Slow Cloth and sustainable fashion. Amazingly, she edited my verbosity and published it while unpacking from a major move and coping with a computer meltdown. Thank you, Georgene, and thanks also to Sewing Diva Mary Beth, who referred Georgene to this blog and to me. Mary Beth also blogs at The Stitchery, and Georgene at MondoMode.

I'm calling this Post #199B, since technically it's #200 but I'm not quite ready for that festive moment yet. Still, in honor of Independence Day and the unofficial Red Thread Studio 200th post, and all my readers, commenters, lurkers and friends since the blog began, here's a big beautiful starburst firework for you. Hope your holiday has been awash in life, liberty and happiness.

Fireworks photo by K2D2vaca

SDA Conference: Speaker Highlights

Well, so much for posting updates from the road. Now I'm sitting in the airport, homeward bound.

This was my first Surface Design Association conference, though I've been a member for many years. It's been both helpful and challenging, giving me information, exposing me to some wonderful art (including, in addition to all the amazing textile work, a fantastic photography show at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) and connecting me to people whose names I've known for years but never met until now. It's also pushed me up against all my own internal issues about art and craft and textiles, where I fit in, the level of work and commitment that I've had or have not had, and where I'm going from here. Some highlights.

• Harmony Susalla was the opening keynote speaker, and she gave a fluent and entertaining talk about her own history as a textile designer and her path of creating the first viable all-organic print fabric company. I didn't know that Harmony had designed a fabric that is to this day the best-selling Wal-Mart bedding line. If the crowd of people who sought her out to talk more with her was an indication, organic cotton has a bright future yet -- and it couldn't have a more sincere and shining spokesperson.
• Gerhardt Knodel gave a rollicking, practiced speech on identifying your own neighborhood of concepts, motivations and connections through a treehouse metaphor. I'll write more on this. Opinions were divided on this talk, but I liked it. As I was looking online for more information about him for you, I came across Worn Through, a blog/journal that looks well worth exploring if you're interested in a scholarly approach to apparel and dress (probably due its own post in the near future). It's published and edited by Monika Sklar. 
• Victoria K. Rivers gave an awesome overview of her life (so far) as a textilian, a word I wish I'd invented. She's a global textile explorer of the first order, an artist, a professor, and a warm, generous spirit. While her accomplishments are dazzling, she's not even a little bit intimidating. I've written a few times about Victoria's work with mirrors, metal and beads and her book The Shining Cloth, and it was really a delight to finally hear her speak and get to talk with her for a moment. I'm always struggling with the current pressure to clear all clutter, when what I really want is an environment rich and dense with beautiful, satisfying and meaningful objects, so I liked that Victoria declared that it's okay to be accumulative; you don't have to live in a space of Zen emptiness.
• Jane Dunnewold's talk was inspiring in every way. She said: Stop taking workshops and get to work; keep working through times when inspiration seems out of reach; and take the time to do things well. Art or craft? Don't worry about it; call yourself a mixed-media artist and let the details of that be somebody else's problem to figure out -- just do your work. She wove beautiful poems through her talk, showed a visual feast of her work and process, and was so accessible yet clearly setting a high standard. I bought her book Finding Your Own Visual Language and I'll report on my experience with the exercises in the book. She also has a DVD on edging and finishing for textile pieces that's on my wish list. After meeting her it's even more clear why she's one of the most sought-after teacher/speaker/authors in the textile art world.

There you have a few speaker highlights. I'll talk more about the people, the textile art and some of the things that the conference stirred up for me later this week. Tomorrow my new job starts, so onward we go.

S-words: Sustainability, Slow Cloth, Slow Fashion

I haven't written much about the world of sustainable textiles and clothing lately, but here are a few interesting links:

• Anaka has a provocative post, Giving Crafts a Bad Name, on her Getting Down To It blog for BrassTacks Madras. Her caveats apply to everyone who makes handmade goods; quality still matters, and is too often left out of the craft equation these days. Scroll down to the April 30 entry (for some reason I'm not able to isolate a link for the post). Anaka works with artisans in India and is able to thoughtfully critique what many of us in the West romanticize about traditional textile techniques:

Most craftsmen will argue that handmade goods can never have the same perfection as a mill-made product. That is true, but there is a line (and it is not such a fine line) between the charming irregularities of a good-quality handmade product and a downright substandard job. Pressed further, the craftsmen will tell you that good quality (“the way our ancestors used to do it”) is no longer possible because it either costs too much or no one is willing to do that kind of painstaking work anymore.
With my understanding that good craftsmanship is possible (because I have seen good craftsmen produce outstanding work), it really gets my goat when traders or even some craftsmen prefer to blame the craft rather than take the effort required to improve their quality.

• Rajboori makes beautiful, colorful silk quilts and home textiles using silk that they say leaves the silkworms unharmed. I've frequently said that I'm more concerned about human rights and labor issues in silk manufacturing than about the silkworms, but let's assume, so our heads don't explode, that people making "peace silk" are committed to ethical human labor as well. Rajboori has an interesting blog here. While they're a little self-congratulatory -- okay, a lot -- they are making beautiful products that seem to be made with a Slow Cloth attitude: "The designs would be contemporary but the artisanship would be traditional." (The link came from Fibercopia.)

• I struggle with the S-word -- sustainability. It means nothing and everything. This helps: Charles L. Redman, director of the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, where President Obama recently gave the commencement address, offers these five elements of sustainability to the New York Times' dotearth blog: 

1. Awareness of the challenges facing us and the interconnectedness of the world and of our actions
2. Creativity to deliver innovative solutions in technology, business and social relations
3. Stewardship of limited and precious natural, human and cultural resources
4. Institutions that are flexible and effective because they continuously learn, adapt and provide leadership
5. Values that enhance equity, justice and inclusiveness

•  The beautiful Resurgence magazine has published "The Tyranny of Trends," an essay by Charty Durrant, former fashion editor of The Sunday Times, the Observer and British Vogue. This is a wonderful treatise on the economic, social and psychological costs of fast fashion, and the need for a true paradigm shift to a Slow Fashion model. I'm quoting one paragraph here but I really encourage you to read the whole thing:

Modern fashion is made from many seemingly incompatible ingredients, but the cornerstones are built-in obsolescence, fear of humiliation, and sexual attraction. Warmth, comfort and personal style have for the most part taken a back seat. As the ‘trend frenzy’ deepens, we can see that fashion is no longer about style and self-expression: it is primarily about judgement – self-judgement and judgement of others. A toxic media reporting how women ought to look, and celebrity obsession further enforce this strange new paradigm. Our self-image is distorted and it is now an indisputable fact that our collective psyche is in deep pain. 

(The link came from my beloved Alabama Chanin blog.

Housekeeping:
I realize this could have been four separate posts - this week I'm going to try to switch to shorter, more frequent posts to make it easier on everyone. Also, a few weeks ago I turned off the annoying Capcha function for comments, hoping to get more of my readers to reveal themselves. Now the toxic spam is showing up, and I'm not getting any more comments than usual, so I will give it another day or two and then likely will have to turn Capcha back on. Sorry, but that's how it goes. And please do comment!

Life continues to be really strange but interesting. I think things will settle down in the next few weeks; I'll be very busy but at least the path will be a little more defined. I'm looking forward to the Surface Design Association conference, from which I plan to blog later this month; please do let me know if you'll be there.

photo of golden silk fibers by woowoowoo. Some rights reserved.

All Over the Map

Just a quick note today. It's Cinco de Mayo, and later I'll be eating fish tacos and making tissue paper flowers with my favorite six-year-old human and his lovely mama, my unofficial sister. But I'm thinking of France right now, not Mexico; my brother Roger was just there and took wonderful photographs. Here's one that's just right for this blog:

photograph by Roger Lipson. All rights reserved.

I'd love a closer look at the green outfit, and the whole scene captures something so quintessentially French. It made me smile, and made me think -- how am I going to get to France this year? And when? And with whom? I think I need a vision board for this one. I've been neglecting my job as strategic planning goddess here at Global Textile Explorers world headquarters.

It also reminds me that I seem to be running into great photographers at every turn lately.  I would love to be collecting their prints, and I dream of a new camera and someone to teach me to use it well. It's on the list . . .

If you love good photographic images, be sure and bookmark Daily Visuals, Jane Dunnewold's image-a-day practice. I also am a big fan of Deidre Adams' photographs, as well as her textile pieces -- there are always so many layers in her work -- and recently discovered Tricia McKellar's work at her note 99 blog. Marja-Leena always has gorgeous and thought-provoking photographs on her blog. I've just reconnected with my old friend Ken Abbott, a quietly brilliant photographer. I have others I like, but I'm not sure I can publicize them, so I'll hold off.

More soon.

10 p.m., edited to add:

Tissue paper flowers for Cinco de Mayo:

 

Center for Pattern Design

My flagged pages are stacking up again, so here's one link I want to share. The Center for Pattern Design/Antiquity Press has some unusual and very interesting patterns for sale, among them:

A pattern for three styles of Vionnet roses -- I love roses in any form, fabric, ribbon or real live plants, so I'll be ordering this. These are the classic, elegant silk roses you want on your bridal gown, or pinned to your cashmere sweater, a la Mrs. O:

Then there are these two dresses:

The dress patterns are not inexpensive, but they look like collector's items for garment sewers. The Center for Pattern Design also has books and supplies for those interested in sophisticated design, draping and construction. I think they're launching a new Web site soon, so sign up for their e-mail alerts if you like what you see.

We All Will Be Received

For reasons I cannot explain

There's some part of me

Wants to see Graceland

And I may be obliged to defend

Every love, every ending 

Or maybe there's no obligation now

I have reason to believe

We all will be received

In Graceland. 

paul simon, graceland

This song has been running through my head for two days now. The best part of this strange interlude here in Washington is walking through the city in the mornings and evenings to go to the office, headphones on, getting the whole visual city experience with my own soundtrack. When I get to work, it's hard to leave my rich sensory universe and return to the present reality of an office and a (not Macintosh) computer. 

And I like being between the worlds on that walk, where no difficult decision about moving is imminent. It's not so much that I don't want to leave Boulder under any circumstances; far from it. But I'm not sure at all that this scenario is the right one to move for. I'm still hoping for some compromise that will allow me to do the work from home for a while, and that may even be best for all concerned.

It's raining here today again; it rains so rarely in Colorado that it's usually a fine excuse for what I call an introvert's day, a day when there's no pressure to go out and be perky while engaging in athletic activity (something I usually ignore anyway). While you probably couldn't call retreat like that on every rainy or gray day here, I'm in need of an introvert's day, so I'm laying low. A good day for blogging.

We all will be received.  I've been working a lot with the idea of receiving - how hard it can be sometimes to simply be open to what's available to you, and let it in. And also to be received by others, for them to let me in, to trust me. How to let people know what you need, and that you need them, without being, ugh, needy. I never saw a moment of a model for that in my parents, two people as closed off emotionally as they could be, and as determined to shut down any expression of my own emotions. Some days it seems as if all of life is about healing what happened in the first ten years, and then making amends for all that you unconsciously did after that. 

My traveling companions

Are ghosts and empty sockets

But I've reason to believe 

We all will be received

In Graceland.

Back on topic . . .

Back on topic, Suzy Mendes, the fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, wrote a column about the Sustainable Luxury Conference in New Delhi that echoes a Slow Cloth and Slow Fashion manifesto:

But suppose that luxury were separated from fashion, with its constant desire for change and built-in obsolescence? Then the essence of the luxurious would be a private joy in something that was crafted to last.

The sari is a fine example of the enduring power of a piece of cloth . . . at its most tranquil and beautiful, the sari is an object of desire that is nurtured and passed on to the next generation. It has an image that any luxury company would long for.

The spirit of the sari is not the only thing that India has to offer high fashion. How can powerful brands teach anything to a country that understands the luxuriant greenery of a Mogul garden or the delicate craft that goes into a hand-loomed shawl?

Two different strands are converging in fashion: a yearning for lasting value and an urge to know more about the way that fabrics are sourced and clothes are made. This is the sea change in a fashion world where the fate of the planet is becoming more of an issue than the latest foibles of  celebrities.

You don't have to subscribe to a lot of hyper "eco-chic" marketing to understand this. I think this sensibility bodes well for every artist and designer working with cloth, whether in the context of fashion or art or just making beautiful and interesting things. 

Craftsmanship, artisanship, is a source of joy and beauty and meaning; it can be a lifelong pursuit on its own merits, encompassing all the soul and authenticity we yearn for, without having to be the ugly stepchild to Fine Art or anything else that's mostly a construct of society, if we can only restrain our egos that want something different.  (photo, right: Russell Boyce/Reuters)

The designer Manish Arora with models during Wills Fashion Week in New Delhi. 

(J. Adam Huggins for the International Herald Tribune )

 

You Can Leave Your Hat On

The good news is that I finally got a shiny new toy computer -- a beautiful aluminum MacBook -- and the bad news is that I have to be my own IT department and figure out how to transfer files and update everything. I haven't worked on a laptop in a long time, so there will be some adjusting. More good news - I'll have this computer with me for my next four weeks out of town, so I'll blog from Washington. I'm looking forward to MUCH less frustration for the foreseeable future, and much easier blogging about the world of textile art, craft and culture.

And - hats! Here is a terrific slideshow from the NY Times of Mr. Song Millinery, now famous for the beautiful and dramatic Aretha hat at the inauguration. I'd love to see hats come back. I think I could look back and measure my confidence level at any point in my life by the hats I wore, from floppy hippie hats to Joni Mitchell Hejira-era berets - didn't we all want to be as cool and alluring as Joni on that album cover? Now I just try to avoid looking like those Red Hat Society ladies -- someone seriously please stop me if that happens. 

photo of Mrs. Cohen's Hats, another Detroit hatmaker, by Maia