If you are in New York and have never been to the open studios at the Museum of Arts and Design, go. More specifically, and even if you have been, go next Saturday, the last day of Xenobia Bailey’s residency. I’d argue it’s impossible to spend 15 minutes with her without inspiration infusing every cell in your body. Her wisdom and humour are a bonus on top of her passion for her work. The exhibitions on there right now are great, too, but I think Xenobia alone justifies the entrance fee. Clear? Go.

As an aside, I noticed MAD is hosting a talk with Antonio Azzuolo, on American menswear.

If you’re in Sydney over the next fortnight, head over to Books Kinokuniya. Starting this Thursday, Zoë Sadokierski has an exhibition of photographs, illustrations and books there. Due to distance I’ve not seen most of the work and I am happily biased: this will be awesome. Page Screen Studio provides further context. Of course Zoe’s work is nothing new in these here parts. Going back a while, actually.

Dress Practice Collective
Parsons The New School for Design

Editors: Alessandro Esculapio, Sara Idavacage, and Laura Peach

Call for Submissions on Fashion & Healing

The Dress Practice Collective invites you to submit to the first issue of our new publication exploring the subject of “Fashion & Healing”. We are looking for original pieces of writing and visual media. Content may include (but is not limited to): photography, drawing, painting, poetry, interviews, fiction, non-fiction and academic writing.

We invite contributors to address the following questions:
How does fashion heal?
How do fashion and healing intersect?

Submissions must be received by April 15, 2013 via e-mail at: DressPracticeCollective@gmail.com
Notice of acceptance/request for revisions: April 20, 2013
Publication Date: May 16, 2013

Contact: DressPracticeCollective@gmail.com

Mission Statement:
The Dress Practice Collective is a New School student-run organization aimed at joining elements of visual culture, fashion theory, design studies and personal practice through a variety of media. We hope to spark conversations and initiate collaborations between students, faculty and members of the greater community. The organization was founded in Spring 2013 for the purpose of presenting exhibitions, organizing workshops, hosting film screenings and publishing original content.

The above of course reminds many of us of Wangari Maathai of Kenya, and the Green Belt Movement she established.

I stumbled on this train of thought on a Sunday evening after Carmen Artigas, who runs the Ethical Fashion NY Facebook page, among countless things, posted about Jadav Payeng, who created a 1,360 acre forest in India. It reminded me of a TED talk by Allan Savory that I watched a few days ago, that focuses on restoring grassland habitats and reversing desertification with the aid of strategic livestock grazing:

It seems that Savory’s ideas haven’t received unanimous support – and the comments are quite impassioned. To be clear, I’m posting because the idea of revitalising damaged soil inspires me. I was equally inspired when I read about terra preta for the first time, in Charles Mann’s ’1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus’. And it all reminds me of grandad. In the late 1950s he bought a plot of forest on a lake in Finland, as so many Finns have done. When time came to plan and build the house, he marked every single tree he wanted to save on a map. Now that I’m the guardian of that place with my sister, I feel utter responsibility for those trees. Almost all of them still stand. We still have grandad’s map.

So what is it about trees? For me, they ground me in time; they give me perspective. The trees on grandad’s map were mature 50 years ago. They are likely to be there 50 years after I’m gone. Any of the things I stress about, worry about – they pale in significance when I’m amongst those trees. And so, all men and women who plant trees, I thank you.

“We buy too much of everything because we can and because the market is geared towards high volume and low costs, as we have heard from many other speakers. We have largely forgotten how to value, restore, maintain and sustain the clothes that we wear. We are shamefully and shamelessly profligate.

This is a difficult issue for Governments of all complexions because the prevailing economic orthodoxy says that consumption equals growth, and growth is the only game in town. I can see that we have got problems but we should surely be wondering whether that model is itself sustainable. I rather doubt that it is.

Fashion, of course, is very much about novelty and therefore inevitably about consumption. However, at its best it is also about beauty, craft, skill and durability, and it is often about small businesses doing one thing really well.”

Thank you to Craft of Use for sharing this on Facebook.

Photograph courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum.

Back in November, despite Hurricane Sandy, I exhibited twin outfits at the Fashion Art Biennale in Seoul. Created in the lead-up to the election here, this was my illustration:

I cannot therefore describe my gratitude to Glynis and all of the incredible people at the Powerhouse Museum for making this possible:

Photograph courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum.

Australian politics have not left me untouched, even if I’ve not lived there for three years. It’s an election year, and I hope for progress on social justice. Once again, thank you Powerhouse Museum, Glynis and everyone; your enthusiasm and patience along the way have been remarkable and touching.

The crepe tartans were a donation from Pamela Vanderlinde in Chicago. They are based on Sonia Delaunay’s printed textiles from the 1910s and 20s, and were woven by Lochcarron of Scotland for Vanderlinde in 2001. Thank you Pamela!

Here are the patterns for the two garments (typos and all):

Also thank you to Arti Sandhu at Columbia College Chicago, for allowing me to use an updated version of the essay I wrote for the catalogue of Zero Waste: Fashion Re-Patterned, which Arti curated for A + D Gallery two years ago.