There seems to be something ironic or poetic about my approach to fashion. I aspire to slow the process down and to indulge in the experience of making, to the point whereby the use of machines are eliminated. Electricity is powered through wind and solar and our main methods of making are by hand and electricity free tools. It sets me against my usual nature which is always rushing through life. Making fashion in the way that I do is so methodical and meditative. I take fabric and cut it to strips, not tearing it from the edge but rather following it with scissors from edge to edge.
I would have assumed that such a long process would frustrate the restless mind, yet on the contrary it seems to tame it in a way. I love seeing how the ribbon lays on the hanger. I do not worry myself with what it will become instead enjoying the fabric transforming into ribbon. Mentally I tell myself, you don’t have time to learn the art of making handmade fashion, but I have been telling myself that for years.
If I had stopped talking myself out of it and instead just begun, I would have mastered it by now. It is never too late anyway to do something you adore. It is merely the process of beginning. I am not a big fan of machines when it comes to dressmaking. They feel so rigid and uniform, a bit too perfect and stiff. I like the unraveled edges of textures and the varying thickness of the ribbon. The body itself is inconsistent yet soft and warm. I want my dresses to flow like hair untamed a bit wild and liberated, yet feminine and regal. Yes sounds a bit like a walking contradiction that is me.