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.
Family ties
"This jumper that was knitted by my Grandmother, probably in the late
seventies I think. She knitted it using a whole lot of left over pieces
of wool that she had, so just using up all the scraps, that’s why it’s
striped in different colours. And she knitted it, I don’t think for
anyone in particular actually. And I remember, distinctly, that she
tried to give it to me and get me to wear it when I was about fifteen,
sixteen and it was hand-knitted, it’s very colourful and I wouldn’t
touch it. I wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible when I was that
age so I never wanted to wear it and I didn’t like it. And then, I think
I was about eighteen or nineteen, and I guess most girls go through
their mother’s wardrobes at about that age and try and find old dresses
and things and I found it again and at that point I really, really liked
it and since then I’ve kind of made it my own and it’s been travelling
with me and comes out in the winter, reminds me of my Grandmother and my
Mother also, and just keeps on going."
London - January 2011
Photograph by
Sean Michael
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