Last term I used the Club to run an Infinity Scarf workshop for my colleagues. There is a wonderful company, known as 'The Sewing Republic', and I received their flyer about the construction of an 'Infinity Scarf'. I thought it looked rather fab, so I sussed out some suitable fabric samples, teachers who were interested told me what they wanted and away we went. Lucy made one for herself, Cath made one so she could show her daughter how to make one, and Anne- Marie got a great idea for creating presents for her family living in the northern hemisphere. They are "easy peasy" to make, google the Sewing Republic, if you think you might be interested.
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Cath & Lucy at work Lucy's Infinity Scarf |
Anne-Marie & Ashley making their scarves
I made my one from a beautiful silk tartan chiffon. I made it extra long so it can be doubled over for a shorter style or worn longer for a different effect. I'll come back to this because I want to take up on the tartan theme.
When I was running the workshop, Stacey told me about a web site she'd come across, which demonstrates how to knit an Infinity Scarf with your hands! Have a look at it.
Years ago I used to knit big string bags with huge wooden knitting needles, lots of creative fun, 'cos it was quick and easy.
Rei Kawakubo has often worked with tartan. In her S/S 2006 RTW 'Lost Empire' collection, tartan fabric was very evident. RK described the collection as an exercise in cutting without a pattern. Apparently all the pieces has been draped on mannequins, creating fabric bunches around shoulder lines, wrappings of tulle for tops and tartan for skirts. I loved how she worked pasifika prints and tartan together. Some reviewers thought it was RK having a bad day (good to know even the best do!). Sarah Mower described it as a "homage" to Vivienne Westwood's Royal collections.
(In 2008 the Viva supplement published an interesting article about Copyright (a grey area in the fashion industry at the best of times) and it commented on homage as..."the designer has paid homage to something - anything from artists to film-makers to other fashion labels. The phrase indicates some sort of loving servitude; the designer admires the creativity of someone so much that they've paid them the ultimate compliment and worked it alongside their own themes." )
I can't really image Rei having 'loving servitude' for other designers, but I'm sure she recognises their work in some shape or form...what designer doesn't?
In Rei's A/W 2010 RTW collection, tartan was evident again. This time Rei described the collection as "inside decoration", rather conceptual, but that's RK. It was described as an exercise in pure form, meaning what exactly? Padding was placed on shoulders, hips and backs, creating wonderful shape and structure. I found it reminiscent of her infamous S/S 1997 RTW collection 'Dress meets body, body meets dress'. That particular collection upset a lot of people, as there were padded sections creating weird shapes that were considered unflattering and very non sexy. In my opinion, that's the cool thing about Rei, flattery and sexy are 2 features she has never pursued in her designs. For a start, she never sends a model down the runway wearing stilettos!
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| S/S 2006 RTW |
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| A/W 2010 RTW |
Now, here is my "homage" to Rei's collections using tartan...........
It was such a great way to use up big pieces of tartan and pasifika prints I had collected. And the idea to blend them together was stimulating. I worked the skirt without a pattern as Rei's '06 collection had done. Basically it's a big rectangle, the 2 pieces stitched together, a fold/pleat here and there, gathered onto elastic and away I go. The t-shirt was constructed years ago but works really well with the skirt, as does my tartan silk infinity scarf.
The shorts are lined, which folds up the hem as well...kinda like those "puff ball" skirts....The jacket is the same tartan I used for the shorts pockets, which were cut on the cross. A pasifika floral front with cuffs & waistband being an interesting black/white check elastic I'd picked up some where, and every button is different, same size but different. I like this concept....that's why I purchased this set of drawers!!
Rei worked with tartan in her FW2000 and FW2003 RTW collectuions. The 2003 one was known as "Lone Traveller". It was a cool concept, cloth bag pack containers were built into some of the constructions, and some of the garments had quotes printed on them e.g. Kierkegaard "The majority is always wrong". Gene Krell "Conformity is the language of corruption" "Viva, the one percenters". Look them up, they are interesting dudes.
I don't know the theme of the 2000 collection and there are not many images available. I love the ruffles cut in the tartan and again she mixes colours and tartans.
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| FW 2003 RTW |
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| FW 2000 RTW |
I found some cool tartan covered shank buttons for the red jacket/cardigan...someone had been cleaning out their workroom...and they worked perfectly...the pockets are different in size and that works as well...does for me anyway. The sweater has 3 really good safety pins attached, they are old ones 'cos you don't find them like this today, well I don't anyway, and I sewed neat buttons on to help hold the scrunched fabric in place. Again, these buttons are oldies...that same person who was cleaning out their workroom.
If I had more scrunched fabric I would like to have worked it round the left sleeve, kept the line going..I think that would have completed it nicely, but never mind.
My top was inspired by this CdG one, which is quite wild, some people probably wouldn't handle this too well. It would be interesting to know when it was made, because it probably related to a collection, which would help explain it. Crochet has become a popular design feature of late, using crochet peggy squares in some form, great idea.
Think that's it for now. Love tartan and always will. Lots of creative types love tartan. In fact the study of tartan is massive research on it's own...so....go to Scotland young thing, go to Scotland!
SLTSLTBsigning off.
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