This is my starting point...........and all the rest flows from it.
An image from the latest British Vogue magazine I have purchased. It is a Joseph Altuzarra design, (who I am not familiar with) and is described as "a rugged tapestry dress, which is hand-woven in New York and inspired by the bold textiles of American artist Sheila Hicks." I love it.... An image from this A/W 2014 collection shows it in full front view....
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| I could be wrong, but this strikes me as a strong inspiration for the dress. It is from Sheila Hick's 1970s work, which was what inspired Joseph Altuzarra. |
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| This is Sheila Hicks with some of her wonderful textile works |
Sheila Hicks is a very exciting textile artist who thinks big!
Check out her website, and take in the interesting films. They show Sheila working through massive textile exhibits. She obviously loves working with fibres/yarns and fabrics, and works to inspire the same passion in others....The following article, from 'Fibre Arts', describes an activity when she worked with junior school children...it's such a lovely concept she shared with the students. I think she referred to it as Soft Stones. I love the colours and the yarn wrapping, and that idea of wrapping up memories.
If you check out this link , you'll come across a great lesson plan that connects with Sheila's work described in the above article . It is a great way to encourage children to develop a love, experience, or, simply develop an understanding of textiles...textiles are such a strong aspect of our human history.
I'm not sure, now, when I first discovered Sheila Hicks, but this fabulous book I have, provides interesting aspects of her work.
I love this book. It was published in 1997, and discusses all sorts of things relating to "cloth". Take this paragraph from the introduction, for example....
"whole cloth is planar and pliable; it can be given volume. One can animate cloth: drape, crumple, and fold it; compress, pleat, and tuck it; festoon, swag, and swaddle it; bunt it and cut it; tear, sew, and furl it; applique, quilt, and fabricate it. Cloth is ductile; it expands and contracts. Cloth can be embellished with stitches, dyes, or print. Cloth can be burned or scored. It is for each generation to expand the vocabulary of approaches to cloth."
Doesn't that sum up cloth, and what you can do with it, just so well.
I have always liked this huge curtain Sheila created. That idea of stitching things together is me.
It is titled "Khaki Uniforms Immobilized (United Sates, Europe and Middle East), and was established in 1985-86. Hicks worked with cotton army shirts from various armies, cut and reshaped them, creating a statement about men and women brought together during wartime.
Want to know any more..check this site
Another artist,Jean Shin, has worked with similar themes. Here are 3 images of her work. The one in the middle is titled "Armed". It is made up of used pieces of American military uniforms, Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard. Again, it is a great statement about people brought together during a variety of wars, particularly one America has been involved in. A canopy is formed by seams, collars and cuffs that are stitched together. "Cut outs and Suspended Seams" is on the left and "Dress Code" is the right hand image image.
The canopy reminds me of my "Growing Shirt",
and when I was looking through Jean Shin's web site, I discovered she has created similar work. She calls her ones "Skeleton Shirts".
Two other images that appear in the Whole Cloth book, which connect with, and appeal to me, are from two other artists who used cloth in their works of art.
left, Cesar (Baldaccini) created this work in 1975. He compressed a pile of jeans into this cool pattern. The book described the work as, taking the symbol of youthfulness ( symbolised by jeans) and mixing it with the affluence of the 70s designer jeans, which was interpreted as the transformation of rebellion into "expensive, chic, fashionable dress". It is considered an acknowledgement of the power of jeans.
right, Masakazu Kobayashi called this work of art," Treasure". Whole Cloth book considered it a marvellous takeoff of "furoshiki". Furoshiki is the wrapping of objects using cloth. The corners of the cloth are drawn up and knotted into a handle. A lovely idea. Cesar's work is considered simple in colour and composition. It is held together by the knot, tied right in the centre and Cesar placed his signature on the outside, where normally it would be on the underside. The colour combination alone is very Japan.
Here are some variations of the traditional furoshiki wrappings
They come from this lovely book my Mother gave to me, years ago now. It has wonderful ideas for wrapping presents. The Japanese are highly skilled in this field..
I love wrapping, and the master of wrapping is.........Christo!
Isn't this the coolest way for his portrait to be taken....
and one of his wrapped masterpieces, The Reichstag, Berlin. Just image the detailed planning and delivery that went into this creation, phenomenal.
This is Jeanne-Claude wrapped, Christo's wife. They were a truely personal and working partnership. They were born in the same hour, on the same day, in the same year. Amazing. Sadly, Jeanne- Claude died in 2009.
This is a "wrapping", Marist College style. At the end of the school year, the Yr. 13 students have a bit of fun, carrying out various pranks. I really liked this one. If I remember correctly, that was the year the school van was totally covered with post-it notes. It looked amazing...I just thought of the time and effort that went into the delivery! Kinda on a par with Christo.
Talking about work on a big scale, I always wanted to decorate the London Eye, the way we used to decorate our bike wheels with crepe paper.
Eric thought it was a bit ambitious, so I worked in this scale instead.
Going back to the compressed jeans image, I love this concept, which was used to portray fab. clothes, in one of my favourite magazines, 'Wallpaper'. The artist/stylist played with the compressed idea to really cool effect.
I remember going to a Royal College of Art students end of year exhibition, and one of the students presented this fabulous piece that revolved around 3 items of clothing compressed into huge sheets of laminated plastic. The student had composed a fantastic storybook that related to the 3 items of clothing. It was handwritten, with beautiful sketches, and I think, it was a story about lovers. I loved it, but have nothing tangible to remember it by, it is simply held in my memory.
Another cool series of images from Wallpaper, connect with the "uniform pieces", Sheila Hicks and Jean Shin have worked with. It is such a creative way to feature the jeans they wanted to display.
I have another wonderful book of fabric and yarn.
It is full of wonderfully creative activities to share with students, to encourage their understanding and appreciation of fabric and yarns, kind of similar to what Sheila Hicks did with Soft Stones.
Love this hat...one year, when working with a Yr 7 class, I got the students making pom poms. They loved it, and one student created this super cool beanie. She just wouldn't stop creating pom poms...aren't they fabulous. I love her creativity, and hope she never loses it.
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Another appealing image from the "Having Fun with fabric and Yarn" book.
These images are all about transforming a cushion into soft sculptures and using the imagination in a fab. way, which takes me to some cool styling from a "Dazed and Confused" magazine. It was about billowing shapes inspired by the Comme des Garcons A/W 2010 collection. I've touched on this collection previously. I showed some images in my 7th blog, which related to historical influences in contemporary fashion. There were also some images in my 5th blog which had a focus around tarten. Here are some garments from the collection. It related to "inside decoration", and was described as padding pillows on shoulders, hips and backs which added bulk. This is a concept she had explored before, and hopefully, will again in the future, 'cos each time it's slightly different.
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| This is my take on Dazed & Confused's "Inflate" spread! Woven rag rug and fat shapes. |
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| This skirt is inspired by the CdG collection mentioned above. Shirring elastic in the bobbin. Lots of fun. Another time, I would be much more random.
The "monstery" cushion I used in my "Inflate" images was inspired by this one on the left. It is a photo from a fabulous book about cool and creative interiors. I loved this image, so whipped the furnishing velvet type fabric off an Elizabethan costume I had made, and created my own one. Cut according to the cloth I had available. Such a lot of fun!
  Time, energy and things on a big scale...I just want to throw this in. Years ago I was inspired by Kaffe Fassett. I loved his tapestry vegetable series. I decided to do one in cross stitch. So plotted out the pattern on graph paper...I must have had a lot of time on my hands! I had to key the thread colours, etc. Great planning, great idea at the time, but I never got it off the ground. I found all the bits and pieces a couple of years ago, and thought what do I do with this now......so......I shoved it into a frame, as a memento of ......having the idea,... having the perseverance to prepare the template.....having the patience to plan out the thread and the colour.......and then discovering you could buy a tapestry kit for the same design!! 
Well, I started with Sheila Hicks and I'm going to finish with Sheila Hicks.
Check out this Youtube link. This is an absolutely beautiful book, and the superb photography makes Sheila's weaving work look so real. What a joy it must be to hold a book like this in your hands, and, oh, so, carefully turn each page. |
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