ThisEgg - dressed.

dressed. — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "dressed." online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...8

First published in 2019 by Oberon Books Ltd

521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7607 3637 / Fax: +44 (0) 20 7607 3629

e-mail:

www.oberonbooks.com

Copyright Josie Dale-Jones, Lydia Higginson, Nobahar Mahdavi, Olivia Norris, 2019

Josie Dale-Jones, Lydia Higginson, Nobahar Mahdavi and Olivia Norris are hereby identified as authors of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The authors have asserted their moral rights.

All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to ThisEgg (). No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the authors prior written consent.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

PB ISBN: 9781786827241

E ISBN: 9781786827258

Front image by Guy Sanders

Back image by Lidia Crisafulli

Cover design by Joe Boylan

Inside images by Lidia Crisafulli ()

Printed and bound by 4EDGE Limited, Hockley, Essex, UK.

eBook conversion by Lapiz Digital Services, India.

Visit www.oberonbooks.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that youre always first to hear about our new releases.

Printed on FSC accredited paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Last year we decided to create dressed. for the women whose worlds have been shattered, and for all the friends who have helped rebuild them.

Drawing by Isabel Della-Porta

ThisEgg is Josie Dale-Jones, who self-produces, co-creates and performs shows with a variety of artistic collaborators. ThisEgg is a multi-award-winning theatre company that makes intimate theatre that connects with audiences, moving them to laugh, cry and imagine; prompting them to ask big questions about the world we live in. ThisEgg devises original work which mixes theatrical styles, celebrating different forms of entertainment.

Made My Wardrobe is a project created by costume designer Lydia Higginson. In 2016 she had the idea to create her entire wardrobe from scratch and give away all the clothes she had ever bought from shops. She now only wears clothes she has made. She started a blog to document the process and now teaches her sewing workshops all over the UK.

i stand

on the sacrifices

of a million women before me

thinking

what can i do

to make this mountain taller

so the women after me

can see farther

legacy

Rupi Kaur

Contents

From Lydia Higginson

I was twenty-three when I decided I wanted to make my entire wardrobe from scratch. The idea had been brewing for a while. My diary was full to the brim with designs for garments I would have loved to have the time and space to make. Then on New Years Eve 2015, I decided 2016 was going to be the year I made all of these designs a reality. To force myself to do it, I promised that by the end of the year I would give away all the clothes I had ever bought from shops. I bought the domain name mademywardrobe.com and started a blog with the line

One year to make all my clothes.

I woke up early on New Years Day and cycled to my studio in the Bristol Textile Quarter. The first thing I made was a turquoise lace bra and silk French knickers. They werent perfect but when I put them on the next morning they felt right.

So I kept sewing. That January I also made an embroidered winter coat, a pair of tailored woollen trousers, a corset and a quilted jumper. I was working everything out as I was going along and made a lot of mistakes with the pattern cutting, but I was learning fast and adapting as I went. In the months that followed I made jackets, culottes, camisoles, jeans, skirts, dresses, leggings, jumpsuits and lots more bras and knickers. I had weeks where I wouldnt make much at all and would wonder if the project was going to fade into the background and be forgotten about. But then I always found myself coming back to it, when I had a quiet weekend or a spare evening. I grew in confidence as a seamstress.

I began to understand more about how different fabrics work and the way they move with the body. Then I reached December and realised that if I were to keep my promise, in one months time, I would have to give away all the clothes I had ever bought from shops. I realised that I had only made one jumper and the embellished coat wasnt nearly warm enough for the depths of winter. I had also forgotten to make simple wardrobe staples such as cotton T-shirts and long-sleeve tops. So, I spent that month in a manic hive of production. During that flurry I finished all the half-started garments I had abandoned in frustration earlier in the year and made lots of essential basics.

By the end of 2016 I had spent more than a thousand hours creating over sixty garments. I gave away all the clothes I had ever bought from shops over Christmas and since the 1st January 2017 I have only worn clothes I have made. I havent walked into a shop and bought a garment since autumn 2015. Ive put a thimble on my middle finger and stuck it to capitalism, mass consumerism and fast fashion.

Before I started Made My Wardrobe I had reached a point in my womanhood where I thought mainstream fashion had nothing to offer me. No outfit I wore felt right or felt like me. Every woman I know has had a phase like this and it usually surfaces around the time the rest of her life is also in flux. I was at a stage in my life where I needed to make some big changes and I didnt feel like I could just shop my way out of this one.

I wanted to express myself directly and connect with my clothes from conception and construction, to wear and care. The clothes I made were undoubtedly influenced by the work of other designers and the way I see women styling those designs on the street. But my clothes have woven into them my own personal experience of being a woman. Fashion is about expressing your individuality, but its also about tribe. No garment comes without a rich history that can be traced back through the wardrobes of our sartorial ancestors. Clothes have a story to tell. I believe clothes are the most intimate way we have of telling the world where we have been, how we feel and where we would like to go.

When I was nineteen, I experienced what it is like to have clothes ripped from my body against my will. Laying naked on the floor, I felt completely powerless. Making my own wardrobe was my way of gaining power back over my body. If my clothes are ever ripped from my body again I will know exactly how to fix them, because I made them. No one can take that skill away from me. The capacity to mend and heal as a woman has been instilled in me through stories and stitches, howls and whispers, across time and cultures.

Next page

1234567...8

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «dressed.»

Look at similar books to dressed.. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Carrie Yodanis

Getting Dressed: Conformity and Imitation in Clothing and Everyday Life

Emma King

The Best-Dressed Knitted Bears: Dozens of patterns for teddy bears, bear costumes and accessories

Sheila Heti

Women in Clothes

O´Connor

The Happy Closet – Well-Being is Well-Dressed De-clutter Your Wardrobe and Transform Your Mind by Annmarie O´Connor

Woodward

Why Women Wear What They Wear

Freer Alison

How to Get Dressed: A Costume Designers Secrets for Making Your Clothes Look, Fit, and Feel Amazing

Bari

Dressed the secret life of clothes

Evans

Titanic style : dress and fashion on the voyage

John Bridges

A Gentleman Gets Dressed Up: What to Wear, When to Wear It, How to Wear It

Alison Freer

How to Get Dressed: A Costume Designers Secrets for Making Your Clothes Look, Fit, and Feel Amazing

Bobbie Thomas

The Power of Style: Everything You Need to Know Before You Get Dressed Tomorrow

S. J. Rozan

On the Line

Discussion, reviews of the book dressed. and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.