I’ve got some fabric I’d like to donate… is a phrase I hear a lot, and storage space permitting I’m always happy to adopt someone else’s stash.
It’s so exciting to unpack a mystery bag of big and little pieces, offcuts, half made things, yards of silk or tweed, uncut with the label still on.
More than just the fabrics, it’s the history they contain. We don’t have many things with history in our lives now. Everything is replaced as soon as it looks used. Thrown away when it breaks is is outgrown. We don’t have anywhere left to store our ghosts.
With these pieces, I’ve worked with the fabrics from one source only, one stash, one collection. I’ve tried to include the labels, the construction marks, to imagine what was being made or unmade.
Tweed and lining, satin, dresses cut out and half sewn, marked up and tacked.
The ghosts of the garments that were, or were going to be.
Alison Clawley 