UPCYCLING THE LOCKDOWN: WHATS APP GREEN TAILLEUR

MORNING/AFTERNOON (WHEN HE ENTERS THE CHAT)

My green enlightenment.

BOLOGNA, lockdown 2020.

WHATS APP GREEN  VINTAGE TAILLEUR, HAND-FINISHED, EMBROIDERY ON ORIGINAL ARTISTS’ DRAWING ON THE BACK.

During the days before coming back from France, there was a unique thought  making me feeling good, and even happy despite not being able to work and earning my  living. The possibility of creating sustainable and  sartorial fashion, inunterruptly for at least a couple of months during the lockdown. This bright break-through suddelny vanished. The only opportunity was, to get  from the studio the material I could have work on from home. So, I took  along the 80’/90′ Vintage Tailleur, on which I was already working on. An industrial  piece, with several measurements errors, witnessing rush and  lack of LOVE.

Either way, this garnement had 2 stylished  assetts, making worthwhile working on it.  First, the COLOR: such a vibrant and smart green, that reminds  one springtime green grassfields just before they get covered by daisies, after a couple of sunny days.  And then, second, an half faded marker drawing on the back of the jacket, created by the artistic couple Cuoghi-Corsello. They were the ones who offered me this Tailleur as a gift, to start with.

Well, I decided then, to work on an up-cycle basis, instead of recicle. I could adjust some of the errors, not all of them though. I changed the volumes and removed some ripetitive details while adding some other, which could either emphasise the lines, or enhence the brightness of the color. I basically entirely refinished the whole, by hand- sewing, with only 2 exceptions. I didn’t do go for it as a virtuosism, infact I simply cannot work by machine from home due to lack of space ;).

In the meantime, I intensified the original drawing, with a hand stiched embroiderie, on most of the missing/empty parts of the line. The true  challange was, being consistant with it, by replicating in a way, the effect of a quick hand sketch, while using a very slow technique such as embroidery.

Then one day, the boy I’ve been liking for a while, just showed up in a group chat on WhatsApp.

I realized, the sense of happiness I feel just because he’s around, even when not matching my feelings, is the same kind of state of mind I have while working with fabrics. It’s like being in a different dimension, out of time really, that makes you instantly  forget about all kind of sorrows: what about you? Do you have any these days? me personally I admit  having a few :).

It was right this moment that made me think at a personal interpretation of  “Mattina” (in Italian, Morning in English; is the title of a poignant short poem from Italian writer Ungaretti). A morning moment of the same color of the object on on which I ended working these days, and that lifetd me up during the lockdown. Because, regardless whether  is reciprocal or not, LOVE will always be a creativity fuel, the greatest aspect of life.

ALOHA!