Talking Textiles Issue 7

As if to counteract a loss of passion for dressing up and indulging in textiles, the creative community is working hard at keeping the memory alive with extraordinary characters created from scratch, waste, and shreds. Dressed by contemporary fiber artists and textile designers, these characters are extremely expressive and use a maximum amount of material, making them endearing and frightening at the same time, as many dolls as devils in disguise. They run the gamut from primitive shaman to independent robot and all the variants in between, such as the carnivalesque opportunist, the recycled activist, and the outsider artist. Shamanism has persisted all over the world since its inception in ancient native cultures and is now a source of inspiration for constructing the wildest of clothes. Young graduates have especially taken to the task of divining identity and have used the pandemic years as a pause to understand their innate needs for expression. The results are daring ideas of hiding and seek that lay bare the soul as much as the body. Performance art, dance, and video are often part of their world. It is clear that their need to become the other is crucial to our times and expresses a deep-rooted sense of intuition that has been forgotten for ages. And now makes for an incredible inroad to shake up society.

Chances are that this outburst of expression will inspire textile designers and garment makers to indulge. Will it lead to a revival of fantasy in fashion? We hope so!