Eco coat - Turangawaewae Recycled

Modelled by my granddaughter - Charlotte

It began as statement of identity as a sense of place (Turangawaewae) from the inspiration of the gay Producer Roth who commissioned a coat (with a much longer train) for an opening of the New York Metro. It became the focus for my Level 7 Diploma of Art and Creativity with a theme of Sense of Place as an identity and as a garment. It is a statement of recycling. All the fabric is reclaimed cotton sheets. The leaves eco dyed using various mordants and sourced from my garden. They are applied with gifted bead embellishments and highly quilted. I was encouraged to put it forward for consideration at World of Wearable Art and while I thought the style was too “traditional” for what they would be looking for I did submit it. It did not get past the preselection phase but i still think it is a WOW piece of clothing.

This garment began as an extended vision of personal identity as part of a series of art pieces expressing identity as a sense of place - turangawaewae. That is a sense of independences and belonging to a specific home base. Literally translated as Turanga ( a place and waewae - to stand ) turangawaewae is where we feel especially empowered and connected. It is our foundation, our place in the world, our home. The reclaimed nature of the materials used brings its own extended meaning. Sheets are a protective medium just as a garment covers our nakedness so too does this garment as to our sense of connectedness and materiality. By using reclaimed fabric the importance of sustainability and eco concerns is an underlying factor. The garment has been constructed from reclaimed cotton sheets. The leaves have been printed botanically onto mordanted cotton sheets using a variety of mordanting methods. These have them been attached first by ironing mistyfuse on the back and then cutting out and ironing them onto the sections of the coat pattern. They have then been hand stitched to the cut out sections of the garment.. They have been embellished with gifted beads and then free machine quilted to generate the effect seen on the garment The substrate is reclaimed/recycled sheets and they too contribute their story. Sheets are a universal covering that accompany us throughout life from swaddling as a baby to shrouds at the end of our days. They are part of our most intimate moments in health, in sickness, through sexual encounters and private coverings, giving us comfort .