Concept & Approach
By stitching second hand garments together – an old H&M sundress with a home made Shanghai shirt – this piece reflects upon the need for us to consider the disconnect that exists between the people in the supply chain TT7. The H&M Buying Office staff Earley and Vuletich worked with in Stockholm are very much removed from the decisions made by staff in the Production Offices in China. Sustainability concerns often exist within large fashion companies, but the organizational infrastructure may prevent change taking place at the speed that is required.
For this piece Earley continued her exploration of upcycling polyester shirts and exhaust transfer printing TT1 / TT3 / TT4, here using over-printing to create a quilted jacket full of symbolism and messages for a young Swedish consumer, inspired by the Hundred Family Jacket TT6. The design of dragons, horses and flowers has been hand drawn and painted by Earley fusing visual research from Dong Hua Museum in Shanghai, the Ming Dynasty artifacts at the British Museum in London and folk textiles from museums in Stockholm TT6. The jacket has been lined with the faces and names of the factory workers Earley and Vuletich worked with in China, printed onto a co-created chiffon sample. Words of advice for the young fashion consumer can be found here too – the Mistra consortium researchers sent Earley the best advice they could offer a young Swedish consumer about to embark on a life of consuming TT10.
Dodd has stitched into the print design to bind the monomaterial fabric layers together, making the sculptural garment warmer, more durable and adding more decorative surface detailing inside and out TT2. The designers wanted to turn the simple, inexpensive yellow Shanghai shirt into something of much higher value, and potentially imbue it with greater meaning, significance and emotional durability for the owner.
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Galleries & Media
Front of jacket (Shanghai Shirt, Earley & Dodd, 2014)
Back of jacket (Shanghai Shirt, Earley & Dodd, 2014)
Hand painted Chinese dragon and Swedish horse, and a fusion of traditional floral motifs (Shanghai Shirt, Earley & Dodd, 2014)
Hand painted Chinese warrior on Swedish horse (Shanghai Shirt, Earley & Dodd, 2014)
Front of shirt, detail (Shanghai Shirt, Earley & Dodd, 2014)
Front of shirt, detail (Shanghai Shirt, Earley & Dodd, 2014)
Front of shirt, detail (Shanghai Shirt, Earley & Dodd, 2014)
Toolkit in Shanghai (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Hand drawing and hand painting the panel designs (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Second Hand yellow H&M sundress, used to line the jacket (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
H&M dundress details (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Painting the original jacket with archive B.Earley prints (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Archive B.Earley scarf collection used to line sleeves and edge jacket (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Anxi market scarf overprinted and then stitched together with yellow printed sundress, quilted (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Detail of back of jacket and overprinted scarf (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Quilted sleeve detail. Pattern and make, Alex Cox. (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Detail of under arm section. Pattern and make, Alex Cox. (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Third transfer print from the painting, onto H&M sundress fabric. Inside front of jacket (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
The quilted pieces back from Dodd's studio, ready to be trimmed and stitched together. Pattern and make, Alex Cox (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Field research began at the Planet Textiles conference. Clara left, becky right (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
This is it! Finding the shirt we want to work with, amidst the thousands of garments in the market (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
So many damaged and soiled old scarves. Perfect for us. 10 pence each! (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Traditional Chinese wear, the ubiquitous quilted jacket. Hundreds of them at Anxi market, but few Chinese people want to wear second hand (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Back at the flat, looking closely at the base garment (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
The other key point of inspiration, Hundred Family Jacket (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Anxi market sketchbook (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Colour inspiration (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Chinese jacket inspiration (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Organising visual inspiration (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Testing colors for the overprint (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
First ideas (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Fusing influences (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Fusing influences (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Testing quilting ideas (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Printing the paintings at CSM (Shanghai Shirt, Earley and Dodd, 2014)
Writing
Design Activism
Dr. Otto von Busch | 13 November 2012
Production contexts
Clara Vuletich | 30 April 2014