Online Update...

Two recent online events showed the variety that the C&TA has to offer its members.

​Theorising a New Methodology – Recording Historical Pattern Drafts 
 
In our February talk members were treated to an online presentation given by Anna Deacon, a Costume Pattern Drafter and Historian.  Anna has had a long career working in the top echelons of theatre and film as a senior pattern drafter and tailor. She describes the skills that she acquired in these industries as being those of ‘an architect for the body’.

(C) Anna Deacon

​However more recently Anna has once more been directing her considerable experience and skill towards research focused on the construction of actual historical garments, undertaking a Master’s in Historical Costume via correspondence with the Arts University Bournemouth.  In 2023 she was the recipient of a substantial research grant from our very own C&TA in the shape of the Geoffrey Squire Memorial Bursary, and it was this that enabled her to put into practice her ideas for developing a new, practical method for using accessible modern technology for drafting paper patterns for fragile historical garments, using the extraordinarily rich collection of eighteenth century textiles in the Tamaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum, where she is now a Research Associate.
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Anna used her own vast collection of photographs to illustrate her talk.  She had been involved in helping the museum to make thorough digital records of their beautiful collection, and it was a joy to see the detail of a large range of these garments, many of which came over to New Zealand stored in the luggage of the first European settlers.  The close up pictures really allowed us to appreciate the craftsmanship in these clothes, including complex seam constructions, elegant shaping and exquisite embroidery.  Anna then went on to give a detailed and fascinating explanation of the painstaking processes by which she has been able to create incredibly precise paper patterns based on three key garments in the collection: all of them beautiful silk brocade dresses.  

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​Obviously the ability to explore and then reproduce facsimiles of these garments allows historians both to further their understanding of historical designs and techniques, and also to put on show more robust versions of costumes now often too fragile to display at all.  Anna explained that in the past such an approach has often depended heavily on paper documentary evidence, which has many limitations, and more practical, ‘hands-on’ methods using the garments themselves in ‘PAR’ - Participatory Action Research – has recently become to be seen to be preferable and to produce more accurate, insightful results.  However, of course, these garments are incredibly delicate and cannot be handled extensively or the fabric manipulated to examine construction.  Obviously, modern technology that can help to produce 3-dimensional records is now available, but often prohibitively expensive and not a practical way forward for curators lacking both funding and the access to technical expertise.

(c) Anna Deacon

What Anna’s research has focused on is a way of using the pattern on the fabric of the garment to help to map, very accurately, the key points of construction by close observation and careful external measurement, and by reference to many, many photographs of the garment.  Using this painstaking approach she was able to map these points of reference onto a flat acetate reproduction of the fabric design and then gradually to shape her pattern pieces until she was satisfied that they could indeed be made up to emulate the original. 
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At this point, she enlisted the help of a colleague to print a precise copy of the original fabric design onto lengths of cheaper, more robust calico.  Then began the process of experimenting with the pattern pieces and placement of the design to explore how these garments might have been cut out.  Anna made many interesting discoveries about garment construction as she was working: one fascinating point that she explained was that while we might today have expected that because fabric such as this silk brocade was so expensive, pattern cutters would have prized economy over pattern placement in their layout, and indeed they did design with minimal waste.  However it also became increasingly clear to her that they would often have favoured a more generous – and expensive - layout in order to achieve optimum placement of design elements in the centre of a bodice or to match sleeves precisely.  

​Having perfected her cutting layout Anna had then gone through the process of actually making each garment.  She was at pains to stress that this approach was NOT chiefly about creating a ‘pretty garment to wear’, but that the making process was a vital part of the research itself, designed to give her as much insight as possible into the details of the original construction.  She attempted at all times to be ‘honest’, trying to reproduce every detail precisely, including the mistakes!
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I found Anna’s explanations of the advantages of working with robust toiles of garments really interesting.  She explained the way in which finally getting a garment onto a mannikin can really help the researcher appreciate the way in which the cut of a garment enhances its hang, or to appreciate the effects of pairing a piece of clothing with contemporary undergarments and observing the different effects, getting a better idea of fit and movement.  For one of the dresses she used as a case study, she had been motivated to copy and slightly adapt an old design for a breathtakingly lovely corset to be worn underneath it.

(c) Anna Deacon

(c) Anna Deacon

​As a lay enthusiast who enjoys a bit of amateur (and amateurish!) dressmaking, this was a more clearly academically focused presentation than I have really delved into in the past, emphasizing the process of research more than its findings.  But as such, I found it fascinating, and it has genuinely made me reflect on the construction of my own clothes and those of my ancestors a little more – I have found myself musing over the odd dart or cunningly engineered corner over the last few days, and have been back online to study some of the breathtaking detail in the garments in the Tamaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum collection.  And it has really emphasized for me the key role that the Costume and Textile Association plays at the truly academic end of the textile history spectrum – isn’t it vital that we do explore and learn more about the incredibly skill and artistry of our forebears before we lose that opportunity altogether?  I really admire the patience and hard work of researchers like Anna who devote so much to affording such respect to the makers of the past – and in her case, to making it a much more accessible field for the researchers who come after her by thinking practically around more effective methodologies.  And I will be first in the queue to buy the book that has emerged from her research and is now with the editors, which will be called ‘Hidden in the Archive – Heirloom Textiles’.  

If you would like to find out more about Anna’s work, and see pictures from the Auckland collection, you can find her website at annadeaconcouture.com
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If you are interested in applying to the C&TA for support for research in an area of historical textiles, you can read more about the Geoffrey Squire Memorial Bursary here.  The closing date for applications this year is 14th April 2025.
Costume and Textile Association Geoffrey Squire Memorial Bursary

From The Secret Garden installation (c) Pippa Lacey

It’s All in The Jeans – the Incredible Denim Art of Ian Berry

In March online subscribers were treated to an inspiring presentation by denim artist Ian Berry.  Although Ian comes originally from Huddersfield and now lives in London, his incredible hyper-realistic art work, created from surplus and cast-off denim, is still better known in mainland Europe, Australia and the US.  However members may be familiar with the denim collage animations that he created for the Clap for Our Carers campaign in 2020 during Covid, and more recently his incredible immersive soft sculpture The Secret Garden was on display at the Garden Museum in London throughout the summer of 2024.  This was originally developed for the Children's Museum of Art in New York and has travelled round the world, captivating adults and children alike, educating them about textile waste and encouraging them to think about recycling.

Ian explained his process to us, using a generously wide range of his own videos and photographs.  After a training in commercial advertising he was seeking a cheap resource from which to create his own art, and began to experiment with collaging scraps from his own worn denim jeans and those of his friends.  He has spent years developing his technique, creating images of incredible realism and detail using purely the colour shading of the denim scraps he selects and sticks down himself onto a stencil created from his own initial photographs.  Ian has created portraits of a wide range of iconic figures from the worlds of fashion, film, music, sport and politics, but has also produced stunning outdoor landscapes and more intimate indoor scenes such as a series from 2016 entitled  ‘Behind Closed Doors’, exploring the idea of fame and the intrusive publicity which can now come with that.  

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​Ian says that his aim is ‘to make denim shine’, and I cannot be alone in my admiration for the way in which he can use the variegated fading quality of this everyday cloth to capture nuances of light and shade – he calls it the ‘fade gradient’.  It is only when looking really closely at the detail of his pictures that one comes to realise the complexity and nuance of the colour and the skill with which he selects the precise piece of cloth to create such realistic monochrome images.  This skill has been widely recognised by other artists: Ian says that all his work has come from recommendations, and he has become part of an art movement based around textiles called ‘Art Materialism’, which is well worth exploring.

​Ian spent some time talking about the social and political issues surrounding his work: he sees denim as a socially ubiquitous material of our time and values its roots in rural history as the cloth worn by the working poor.  He obviously wrestles with darker issues surrounding his art: the links between the cotton industry and the slave trade, and the fact that although good quality denim can be sustainably manufactured, so many varieties of it are environmentally damaging.  He admitted that his choice of materials originated not in a desire to create sustainable art, but from financial necessity, and is uncomfortable with what he called ‘retro-fitting’ a sustainability message to his work.  But he clearly now also understands that he can use his art to encourage debate about textile waste and the importance of recycling, and has undertaken some projects like the ‘Secret Garden’ installations to lend weight to environmental campaigning.  He also mentioned several times his growing unease about the clear links between the history of denim and the US; at a time of major shifts in the political climate of the US, he explained that he has been thinking deeply about the ethics that might be seen as being associated with his work.  

​And it was this aspect of Ian Berry that really struck me the most as we listened to him speak.  He is a friendly, funny, self-effacing man with a slightly throwaway manner, and at first glance his images may also seem instantly recognisable, casual, easy on the eye.  But as we look at them we become aware of the incredible skill and attention to detail behind their creation, and of the hours and hours of demanding physical work involved.  And listening to him, I also began to understand the deep thought and careful consideration that had gone into them.  They are well worth a longer look, and perhaps some deeper thinking, from all of us.

Further views of The Secret Garden installation (c) Pippa Lacey