The Wear Anthologies

Inspired by wear and tear, marks and stains. The wear in our surroundings that marks our history. The imperfections which tell stories: worn areas in clothing which show the way we move in our clothes, where we snag a thread, where we stretch and pull our garments. The paths worn into grass which show the routes we take, the seats with imprints. This collection champions the imperfections, and how it's the idiosyncrasies of these marks and cracks and stains that help demonstrate the importance of objects and items in our lives in helping to establish who we are, and how they reflect the minute details of how we move around the world. Inspired by Japanese philosophy and way of life: wabi-sabi and mending techniques such as kintsugi - mending ceramics with gold, highlighting the break and making a new object of beauty out of destruction - gold thread has been used in this collection, hand stitched into fabrics, mending their tears, darning their holes. Gold metallics stitched into fabrics, layering and piecing like staples. Devore and flocking printing techniques add texture and emulate the erosion of surfaces under duress and strain. Hand stitching techniques and irish embroidery add embellishment and more texture to the base layers. Matt threads and metallic threads used to conjure different surfaces. Shapes and marks have been developed as a direct response to recording from observation marks in my surroundings. Documentation and an inventory of my own wardrobe and personal belongings served to supply me with mark making and visual research, from worn down knees on jeans to moth holes in jumpers.