Since the beginning of April, I have been working with a milliner, Michelle from the fashion world on a collaborative project linking craft persons and designers.
Modelling the project
Today was the culmination of our work, when our projects were modeled as part of the CIFD Fashion Show/ Media Day. The fashion show itself was amazing and one could only be inspired by the address and commentary of Eddie Shanahan, chair of CIFD, a truly enthusiastic and inspiring speaker. He described the random matching to “accentuate learning and ensure innovative engagement”. I worked with Michelle Kearns, a milliner from Tuam.
Michelle and I shared stories of our likes and dislikes, dreams and history to come up with a theme for the design. We also discussed different textures and shades of felt. Samples and photographs went back and forth. We finally decided on a very fine and feathery black Merino and Silk with embellishments of cerise Tussah silk. Michelle would incorporate this into a wire structure. The finished work would illustrate overcoming adversity (thick and gnarled branches) growing into more open structure with birds and blooms of hope and resilience.
In all, 15 pairs brought their projects to completion and the resulting hats, baskets, dresses, scarves, etc were amazing. The crafts of calligraphy, metal smith, lace making, felt making, basket making, crochet, textile art and embroidery were all represented.
