Connections
The link between a person and a garment can never be planned for, but has lasting impact when a garment becomes a life-long companion. It reveals the potential for change in each individual and often marks that in the associations with a piece, for single, small actions can have big effects.
Handmade diversity
"This scarf is entirely handmade. I know that when I put it on I feel
dressed even though everything else I’m wearing is completely
industrially made. I put this on and I feel a little spirit of the
makers in it… What is inspiring about this scarf to me is, well… it’s a
very deeply considered product. The cotton is grown locally,
organically. It’s spun by women who had previously been unemployed. The
yarns are hand-spun using hand-crank machines from the nineteen-fifties,
maybe even earlier. The machines are Gandian era… it’s dyed using
leaves. I just kind of recently learned that using leaves rather than
roots or bark [as dyestuff] is more sustainable because it doesn’t
damage the plants and allows the plant to be more productive. And then
the part that makes it good for me is that I think it’s beautiful. I
mean all the other things I just said wouldn’t be enough for me to put
it on but I think it… shows diversity; meaning imperfection,
eccentricity."
San Francisco - April 2011
Photograph by
Paige Green
