This week I finally got around to photographing so many of the pieces I’ve been working on for months. The THEN & NOW project has been slow going, with small yields, but here are a few examples in depth and a bit more on how I arrived here...
My studio neighbors are vintage resellers. They’ve only been in the building a year or so, but we’ve become close, and these young men are a real source of inspiration. Their reverence for beautiful old objects rivals mine, and we always find plenty to fawn over. When they had pieces that were too worn or not quite right for their customers, they offered them to me to reimagine, and THEN &NOW began to take shape.
I’ve long worked with vintage and antique fabrics, but this is something a little different. I’m not just making something new out of the fabric. In the most successful cases, I’m responding to what’s already there.
This GORG OLD DRESS...
I laundered this dress a few times and let it hang on the line, and each time I walked by I tried to imagine what it should become. I particularly loved the tiny ruffle around the neckline. I carefully removed it, keeping all the wear and color fading, and reimagined the dress as these double-layer jackets. I hand embroidered them to make them feel that much more special.
I saved every scrap to make more pieces, because that soft, worn-in-but-not-worn-out quality can’t be replicated in anything new.
Another... the BLUE DOT...
This delicious, nubby cotton dress was torn at the waist, filthy, and in need of a lot of work. There was a ton of sun fading, plus spots and areas I had to repair, but there’s magic in all of that. The history, and dare I say soul, of this dress comes through. I kept some of the old seams while moving and changing others, and the result shows off all the natural fading that’s happened over the years.
I have more in the works and will be adding more THEN & NOW pieces to future collections, but there’s one last project I can’t overlook...
