MycoAnna and Recycled Fabrics

While in Montrreal for a visit with my brother (who was staying with mutual friends), one of my friends suggested that I go and visit the MycoAnna boutique on St-Laurent. Although she didn't quite remember the name, when I finally found the shop, the name rang a bell, although I couldn't remember from where or when. Well, it turns out this is a company that started in Quebec City, right down the road from where I live (no wonder the name resonated!). I was stunned by the garments showcased on the store in Montreal. This is the first time I've really gotten excited over the aesthetics of using recycled fabrics (no doubt from personal ignorance - I haven't gone out of my way to find out more). Interestingly, MykoAnna has been in business for 15 years, long before the current interest in recycled fabrics developed. It seems that the store hit mainstream only about 8 years ago and has been expanding ever since.

I've always considered working with recycled fabrics to be an interesting but challenging task for a beginner sewer, and one that I would eventually explore but would leave until I mastered better some of the basic techniques. MycoAnna uses a majority of stretch fabrics in their designs, which is another area I have "left for later", although working with stretch fabrics is one of my spring projects this year. I don't understand much about stretch fabrics, but I was as much impressed with the shape as well as the eclectic colors and textures of the MycoAnna designs. Since different fabrics have different stretch properties, sewing these fabrics together higgly-piggly would no doubt leave a garment with odd shaping properties - their garments obviously do not do this. I also noticed that their fabrics are sewn without apparent attention to the grain, even when non-stretch fabrics are used. I'm sure this apparent inattention is an illusion, but it seems to me that doing this kind of sewing well would require a lot of knowledge and know-how about how fabrics work together and drape. One can shape a stretch fabric by changing its flat pattern seam shapes. It would be great to better understand this process.

The saleswoman in the Montreal boutique mentionned that these garments work well for both older women and for bigger women - the color contrasts draw the eye in interesting ways that result in a strong appearance for women across a range of sizes and body shapes. I get it, looking at the garments, even though the models on display on the runways are the classic thin models.

Anyway, MykoAnna turned me on to the possibilities of working with recycled fabrics. And I shall certainly check out the Quebec store. This is a story to watch as it unfolds. See MycoAnna Creations for more on their collections.

Has Corsetry Really Disappeared?

I have been reading an absolutely fascinating account about the history of corsetry : "The Corset, A Cultural History" by Valerie Steele. Ms. Steele argues that the corset was a primary foundation garment for women's fashion (although also for men to some extent) for over 400 years until its apparent disappearance at the beginning of the 20th century, despite controversy that existed almost from its beginnings. The corset did not "disappear" because of arguments over health, since such arguments were present almost from the time of its introduction in the late 15th century, nor because of the feminist movement per se. Therefore, she suggests that corsets served a range of needs for it to have survived so long.

She further argues that the corset, or the needs it served, hasn't really disappeared. We've replaced the "answer" to these needs in other ways - through plastic surgery, diets and a focus on exercise, all aimed to "trim" the figure towards our cultural ideals of beauty, and through a range of bras including the reintroduction in the 1960s of the "push-up bra", which filled a function formally served by the corset. In some ways, plastic surgery is as draconian a response (and as controversial!) as was the tight-laced corset, not to speak of the pain and sacrifice that result from many dieting regimes. She notes that if the corset itself was less present in the 20th century, the girdle was still a main shape-influencing element until the 1950s and 1960s, and following the decline of the girdle, the corset has begun to enter into fashion again, both as an outer and an inner garment, and to some extent also for men.

If the corset is controversial today, this is in line with its long history of controversy. Fascinating!

Smart tapestries

Along with my collaborators, our ideas about the use of smart textiles are beginning to find root. We are going to work on a number of tapestry-like objects which react and change. In one, the tapestry will present a kind of physiological portrait of a person, in another, the tapestry will react to being touched in a variety of ways. In a third initiative, we are going to be constructing organic-looking forms that react and change shape over time. All of these are initiatives being developed in support of kids with disabilities, to provide them with environments that are more responsive to their often limited physical abilities than are the environments we usually have around us.

Some of these ideas may also be eventually incorporated into garments. We have now obtained some workable samples of the Nitinol shape-changing wire and we are progressing on the development of some simple examples of the wire in operation. At the same time, we are developing designs for more ambitious pieces. Along with the conducting thread, the Lilypad computer board, devices such as heartbeat monitors, accelerometers, and so on, as well as LEDs and fiber optics, the projects are beginning to take shape. It is all very exciting!