Open and Adjust
Garments can be reworked to meet changing needs. The knowledge and skills to open up a garment and adjust it to fit enrich and embolden society. They remind us about ingenuity and resourceful possibility and help replace consumption with action.
Three stage jacket
“I call this my three stage jacket. It began about forty years ago as a very slim waistcoat that was given to me. So I put a [knitted] panel into the back just to be able to fasten it together at the front, you see. And then about fifteen years ago I started going to sessions of an international folk dancing group in Chorlton, near Manchester. So in order to have a jacket appropriate for the Balkans, I added sleeves, a collar and some trimmings. And then, only about five years ago, I became a bit too big to button it up so I added latchets across to it, you see, and that’s how it is at the moment."
Bollington, Cheshire - June 2009
Photograph by
Fiona Bailey
