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.
Comfort knits
"This sweater I made myself, and I made it originally for my ex-husband. But when I finished it, the sleeves were too short and I can't quite remember why that was. It was either that I was impatient to finish it, but I think it must have been because it was something like a Christmas present and I ran out of time.
Anyway, because of the short sleeves, he never wore it. And then it got - this is probably about twenty five years ago - and then it got put away, and we separated and divorced. And I went to live in Asia where I didn't need a big chunky sweater. And I think it stayed in England, and somehow it came back to me. And I now wear it.
And it’s just really comforting. And I don't think it has any particular emotional association with my ex-husband, who, unfortunately passed away, but it just obviously has that memory of that story. But also, sometimes the seams come undone, I don't think I sewed it very well, so I have to sewn it up again. And it’s very comforting, just to be able to work on it from time to time. Just sort of regular, you know, things… it is very soothing to sew because it is really big and chunky… So, it's that sense of, it’s just a relationship that’s continued, and almost continued despite itself."
New York - January 2013
Photograph by
Ellinor Stigle
