Nina’s Story

The following story was told to the artist by Cynthia Thompson, 2003.

Nina was kind to my brother and I. She didn't have any children and she did not have children of her own. I imagine that was sad for her. She had a dachshund dog, "Toby,” that she doted on. I remember her as being very glamorous, and she wore designer clothes. She was petite, and met her husband when she was a swimsuit model. I fit in her clothes to give you an idea of her height, but I imagine she was even slimmer when she was younger. She was very blonde with bright blue eyes and a European accent. This was her jacket.

Marian’s Story

The following story was told to the artist by Roxann Stettler, 2013.

My Mom had many talents. Sewing clothes for her family was one of them. She made matching dresses for me and my sister (we were not twins) for special occasions. She could create patterns for her own clothes. Mom made my brothers’ shirts. She was a mender of socks and could tend to a loose button or snap in a minute. She did all of these things out of necessity and out of love for all of us. She took pride in her work. She always stitched a personalized tag marked ‘original,’ on the inside of each garment she created. Like the one on this muumuu, the tag indicated that the garment was made by her, complete and could now be worn.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Charlene’s Story

The following story was told by Glenn Grishkoff, 2018.

Early on in Char’s teaching career, she taught her students how to make their own shoes from leather and from a multitude of found materials resulting in one-of-a-kind wearable fashion statements. I was one of her lucky students. This intimate approach to hand-sewing and the design process captivated us. Through it, we discovered that wearing what one creates becomes a highly unique, personally defining experience.

Char ignited in me what became a playful passion for shoemaking. Because of her teaching and her ongoing mentorship, my confidence as an artist and educator blossomed. To this day, not only is shoemaking an integral part of my practice, but also, I teach my own students the craft of making shoes from leather. My handmade shoes are a unique extension of my own physical body. When someone sees me wearing them and realizes that I made the shoes, I hope that they feel connected to the primal instincts we all have to become one with what we wear on our bodies.

Charlene gave me the gift of learning how to teach my creative soul to fly, inspiring me to view art making and teaching as a way of life. In Char’s eyes I was an artist and not just another student passing through her classroom. Charlene lived her life day by day with a sense of fearless wonder and discovery. Her infectious love of clothing and adornment was her passion and a major expression of her artistic aesthetic and stoic confidence both as an artist and educator. She instilled in me the idea that success of any type is achieved through hard work, a positive attitude, perseverance and the sense that I have a purpose in the journey of life.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Ursula’s Story

The following story was told to the artist by Susannah Cremer-Bermbach, 2013.

My mother's red and white striped dress: My mother's dress shop held a great attraction for me as a child. I could spend hours trying on and off her dresses, skirts, blouses, scarves, belts, shoes, hats, bags in ever-changing combinations (and usually left a big mess afterwards, much to my mother's annoyance).  And I made up stories to go with it.

I first discovered the red-and-white-striped dress in a photo taken in the early 1950s: a summer picture with my light and buoyant mother in her mid-twenties, on the arm of her cousin, who was always very elegantly dressed. By the time I was born in the late 1950s, she had long since stopped wearing the dress. But she had kept it. I discovered the long-forgotten dress many years later in an old dresser and immediately fell in love with its pattern. My mother gladly let me have it. The dress fit halfway, but the cut with the wide swinging skirt typical of the 1950s didn't look so good on me.

Sometime in my mid-twenties, I began to cut off the skirt and sew it unruffled to the slim-fitting top. Since my sewing skills didn't extend very far, the makeover was only half successful. Also, the light fabric had already become very friable in some places. I wore the dress only a few times and then put it aside. 

When I met Jane Brucker and learned her “Memorial Project,” I quickly realized that I wanted to participate with this dress. Because here it is not about the garment in its function, but in its uniqueness as the bearer of a story, a relationship, a dream, and is expressed as such.

* * * * *

Das rotweiß-gestreifte Kleid meiner Mutter: Der Kleiderschank meiner Mutter übte auf mich als Kind eine große Anziehungskraft aus. Ich konnte stundenlang ihre Kleider, Röcke, Blusen, Schals, Gürtel, Schuhe, Hüte, Taschen in immer wieder neuen Kombinationen an- und ausprobieren (und hinterließ anschließend meist ein großes Durcheinander zum Ärger meiner Mutter.)  Und dazu dachte ich mir Geschichten aus.

Das rotweiß-gestreifte Kleid entdeckte ich zunächst auf einem Foto, das Anfang der 1950er Jahre aufgenommen worden war: ein Sommerbild mit meiner leicht und beschwingt wirkenden Mutter in ihren Midzwanzigern, am Arm ihrer stets sehr elegant gekleideten Kusine. Als ich Ende der 1950er Jahre zur Welt kam, trug sie das Kleid schon lange nicht mehr. Aber sie hatte es aufbewahrt. Ich entdeckte das längst in Vergessenheit geratene Kleid viele Jahre später in einer alten Kommode und verliebte mich sofort in sein Muster. Meine Mutter überlies es mir gerne. Das Kleid passte halbwegs, aber der Schnitt mit dem für die 1950er Jahre typischen, weit schwingenden Rock gefiel mir nicht so gut an mir. 

Irgendwann in meinen Midzwanzigern begann ich, den Rock abzutrennen und ihn ungekräuselt an das schmal geschnittene Oberteil anzunähen. Da meine Nähkünste nicht sonderlich weit reichten, gelang die Umarbeitung nur halb. Auch war der leichte Stoff an einigen Stellen schon sehr mürbe geworden. Ich trug das Kleid nur wenige Male und legte es dann beiseite.

Als ich Jane Brucker kennenlernte und von ihrem Memorial Project erfuhr, war mir schnell klar, dass ich mich mit diesem Kleid daran beteiligen möchte. Denn hier geht es nicht um das Kleidungsstück in seiner Funktion, sondern in seiner Einzigartigkeit als Träger einer Geschichte, einer Beziehung, eines Traums, und wird als solcher zum Ausdruck gebracht.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.

Story Coming Soon

Story coming soon.