Lauren Sagar’s initial thoughts on a Call for Cloth

I have been asking people to tell me about their experiences of cloth and clothing. As usual, I’ve found that people are naturally great storytellers, and love to share about significant events in their lives.

Together with the stories, people have gifted photos, drawings, descriptions and sometimes actual items of clothing that will be transformed into an artwork which will extend the personal into a shared, yet deeply intimate, community narrative.

Over the next year, the Call For Cloth art project, together with Tall Tales and artist Joanna Peace, will be travelling and building a volume of these stories and images.

As the tales of cloth, clothing and textile are shared we will post some examples of them in this blog.

Here are the first few:

” I’d had quite a traumatic birth with (my son). When I went to the post natal ward, I had such a lovely old fashioned midwife who spent a lot of time with me, supporting.Although she was really busy, she just spent an extra bit of time with me. I felt like there was an immediate bond between me and her. I felt so vulnerable at that time, really not knowing what to expect, or what had just happened, and not being able to process that I’m now a mum and I’ve got this child to look after.

I felt almost like a little girl again, but there she was, just, like, ‘I’m going to look after you, and you can look after your baby’ And that’s what I needed. So she gave me a baby grow and I loved it because it was bright and bold and cheery.”  Jennifer

“There’s a bit of me that can’t really fathom that my mum wore them at all! She just had her 80th birthday earlier on this year she’s quite frail now and to think that she was wearing these really bright florally 60’s mini dresses….. I can think of a photo of myself and my twin sister in baby carriers, and her behind with my dad and she’s wearing one or other of these….. But to think of her in it at all is something quite shocking really, because she’s quite conservative and quite traditional and this to me is a bit of rock and roll that my mum doesn’t really possess! I’m really fondly attached to them because there’s a side of her that I never saw or never knew….I’m happy that there was that side, I’m sad that I never knew it”.  Alison

“I lived in Angola. We watched Brazillian programmes on TV. I saw the the dress on an actress. All my friends and I saw the fashion on TV and wanted it! Around 1983 I told my Godmother that I would like that dress – she was a fashion designer. She made the dress in silk and gave it to me as a Christmas present. It was a surprise. I felt in fashion, I felt special. Joseph (Joseph wanted to draw the dress because she could not bring it with her to the UK as she had had to leave quickly and with very little.”  Josepa

You can follow the Call for Cloth story on Lauren’s new project site here

And you can also send your own stories into Lauren, via this project form Call for Cloth form for web site