Millies

  

Journeys in Design commissioned illustrator Sue Shields to create a tea towel tribute to the working women of the linen industry. The design includes a cut-out pattern and instructions to assemble our Linen Millie doll. These dolls are a focus for crafting skills and memories old and new, all part of Our Linen Stories.

Female linen mill workers 'Millies' were the backbone of the first industry to emerge from Scotland and Ireland and much of Europe: hard-working, multi-tasking and super-skilled. At the peak of linen trading in the early 20th century, tens of thousands of women were employed to support the economy of a continent. There is still a working mill here in Kirkcaldy that makes incredible fabrics.

If you would like to get involved in this project please contact info@ourlinenstories.com

These historic images and 'Millies' were exhibited at Kirkcaldy Museum.

Riccardo Maria Chiacchio I

 

"Chille ch’e’ ncuolle a tte n’e’ rroba toja” (What you’re wearing isn’t yours). 

So goes the chant sung by the washerwomen of Napoli, in one of the earliest examples of Neapolitan song, dating back to the late twelfth century.

This is a project about connections.

Mothers connecting to their sons, bodies connecting to fabric, faces connecting to their ancient features.

All clothes have been washed in the Mediterranean Sea and been exposed to the ashes of Mount Vesuvius.

All clothes will preserve the memories I have given them.

All subjects were born and raised in Napoli. Riccardo Maria Chiacchi 

Alice Starmore

Alice Starmore is a Scottish artist, designer & author who transforms ideas of traditional knitwear. ‘Flights of Fancy’ where she knits intricate feather designs in her costumes.

Millie Jenkinson I

Millie Jenkinson is a current fashion student at Plymouth College of Art, she has been working with insect, chrysalis themed designs and textures. I love her exploratory collage illustrations. 

Isabelle (Il est un air)

Isabelle of 'Il est un air' uses sashiko techniques and embroiders these wonderful patches composing shapes and patterns. Sashiko is incredibly relaxing and having been ill immediately after a workshop on it many years ago, I found even thinking about it calmed my mind, it may be a good time to revisit this technique as a way of dealing with these troubling times.

Mimi Haddon and Katie Green

Costume collaboration between photographer and costume creative Mimi Haddon and mask maker Katie Green.

Bus Vipers

A collaboration between Honey Long and Prue Stent for Dan Ahern (Bus Vipers) using latex cast faces as part of the costume and imagery for the video CSIRO Weeds.

Nicole Banowetz

Nicole Banowetz makes inflatable costumes, inspired by nature from bacteria to large mammals, exploring growth and decay, defense and disease. Above is 'Distended Defense' and below a piece inspired by the spotted hyena.

Alex Schlegel

Alex Schlegel creates these incredibly realistic and startling illustrations using 3-dimensional modeling.

Garrett Huxley

Garrett Huxley's Mardi Gras costumes for the theme ‘What Matters To You’.

Laura Thompson II

“There was a particular tribe which was able to see Venus in full daylight, something which to me would be utterly impossible and incredible…Later on I looked into old treatises on navigation belonging to our own civilisation and it seems that sailors of old were perfectly able to see the planet in full daylight. Probably we could still do so if we had a trained eye.” Claude Lévi-Strauss, Myth and Meaning. 

 'Senseless Sight', a full-body costume constructed from Compact Mirrors by Glaswegian artist Laura Thompson.

"Based on various anthropological and scientific studies, it has been observed that as people have become more dependent on modern technology and science, people’s senses have gradually dulled and become dislocated with our natural surroundings. Sociologist Richard Sennett states that urban sprawl and technological advances in transportation are some of the many ways in which our advances have made us more and more detached from nature and even other people, creating a passive culture that has led to the deprivation of our senses." Laura Thompson. 

Daniel Egneus II

Further beauty from the talented illustrator Daniel Egneus. 

  

Daniel Egneus I

Daniel Egneus has a delightful loose painterly style in his fashion illustrations. 

Li Ching Kathrin Wang and Harriet Riddell

Together, Harriet Riddell based near London and Li Ching Kathrin Wang based in Switzerland have set up an international stiched art project using the theme of 'home'. They would like people to explore the idea of what home means to them. The piece must be around 16/20 cm or 16/16 cm on white cotton using only red thread in your mother language.
If you would like to participate, the deadline is 1st April 2020.