Clothing That Sustains The Soul

Published by Celestyna Brozek under Designers

Way back when we had three or so outfits. One to wear until it was filthy, one to wear while the filthy one was washed, and our Sunday best. Clothes were investments, not disposable commodities that we picked up on a weekly basis and disposed of on a seasonal one.

Maybe fashion is not the right word. Fashion implies something that will soon be demode, something fleeting.

Maybe that’s not what fashion should be. Maybe it should be something timeless and powerful. Something that evolves with you, not something that you outgrow.

Meet two women who are asking us to look at clothing in a new light, as cherished objects that nourish the soul:

Ma Ke has designed a collection strongly rooted in her philosophy of the what clothing should be. She writes:

I yearn strongly for clothing to stand as paint does to the painter, as a simple and particular language of an individual creation which draws the audience from an appreciation of the surface to deeper thoughts and conversations with the world of the soul….

I believe clothing could be a specific creative language and has infinite possibilities for communicating ideas and transmitting thoughts for inspiring you and shaping your behavior….

The spiritual qulities which I pursue stand in complete opposition to the trends of modern fashion. What I find profoundly engaging are the primitive eras of human history when people held nature in the deepest reverence and made objects of the utmost simplicity….

Genuine fashion today should not follow the glamour of trends. It should instead uncover the extraordinary in the ordinary, for I believe that the ultimate luxury is not the price of clothing but its spirit.

Ma Ke Wuyong

J. Morgan Puett focuses on using traditional textiles and techniques as a way to re-explore the historical narrative. Her creations are as much performances as they are unique objects of art.

Mary Jane Jacob says this of Cottage Industry, one of Puett’s boutiques cum performance spaces:

“In Cottage Industry Puett takes female garments through making and through history — from designing to dyeing to sewing to marketing, from the 18th century to the present — employing extensive research and extended collaborations with artists and others from the city and region.

It centers on the creation of a multi-class, multi-part garment with which she pieces together missing social histories.

Based on museum sources, local architectural details, and everyday textiles, her “products” are a line of women’s clothing for sale and a pattern for popular consumption to do-it-yourself. Workers are on view daily in a “performative” workshop that “exhibits” the process of garment preparation and invites viewers to engage in art and art production in the course of everyday life experience.”