1. Modular Dress
True (v) Any garment might be described as a set of disparate elements
snapping to a pre-defined configuration. A sewing pattern supplies these
elements as shapes, and their true, intended configuration. True (adj):
(1) accurate and without variation. (2) In accordance with fact. (3) In
accordance with reality. With what reality? Today I don't know what I
want. Today I want interchangeable everything. The feedsack dress, and
other garments that come about in the context of wars and depressions,
offers a pure idea: a series of shapes that affix themselves–project
themselves–on to any fabric, any material substrate that makes sense.
Trash often makes sense. I started collecting kids' sheets from thrift
stores. I quickly made a dress, adopting the dress pattern from a more
cropped example I own (from the 20's). The chest and back panels are
constructed using the pillowcases. I didn't end up taking the project in
this direction, but there's something about the kids' bedding as a
surface for advertising (much like the sacks) that I want to return to.
A modular dress of repurposed canvas, salvaged pillowcases,
I started collecting kids' sheets from thrift stores. I quickly made a
dress, adopting the dress pattern from a more cropped example I own
(from the 20's). The chest and back panels are constructed using the
pillowcases. I didn't end up taking the project in this direction, but
there's something about the kids' bedding as a surface for advertising
(much like the sacks) that I want to return to.
t-shirts, bias tape, steel snaps. The shape and silhouette (sewing
pattern) is inspired by Depression-era feedsack dresses
Back in 2020 I made this one-sheet zine about the history of
the feedsack dress. It was a good exercise for me–being forced to write about
it and photograph my collection. I was interested in this idea of
“form feeds function” and the anticipation of reuse but need to think
about this a bit more...it doesn't feel resolved.
and their connection to consumerism/consumption and advertising, war and scarcity, and creative reuse.
