Recycled Fashion

Patchwork is very well-known as a traditional technique to stitch small pieces of fabric together to create a larger textile, often a quilt, but sometimes items of clothing such as skirts, or household furnishings, such as tea-cosies. It probably originated as an economical reuse of parts of clothing or textiles which had become worn in places and might be cut up to provide small pieces of fabric for the small templates used in quilting. It has always been associated with America, where quilting parties formed a significant and traditional social occupation for rural women from the early eighteenth century.

This dress was made by a 16 year old "hippy" teenager to wear for the 1968 Isle of Wight Music Festival. She remembered that her mother hated the dress so much that she refused to let her daughter use the front door of the house when she wore it- not, of course, that this particular "fashion victim" was at all deterred! This type of patchwork, known as "crazy", has no set pattern and in this case, the dress has hearts and other shapes appliquéd on as well, and is trimmed with broderie anglais at the hem.

Full item descriptions:

"dress" [1979.212], White, Miss Irene
"pocket" [1947.1262]

Related Themes:

1960s Fashion