Shanghai Shirt, 'Green'

By stitching second hand garments together – an old H&M sundress with a home made Shanghai shirt – this piece reflects upon the need for us to consider the disconnect that exists between the people in the supply chain TT7. The H&M Buying Office staff Earley and Vuletich worked with in Stockholm are very much removed from the decisions made by staff in the Production Offices in China. Sustainability concerns often exist within large fashion companies, but the organizational infrastructure may prevent change taking place at the speed that is required.

For this piece Earley continued her exploration of upcycling polyester shirts and exhaust transfer printing TT1 / TT3 / TT4, here using over-printing to create a quilted jacket full of symbolism and messages for a young Swedish consumer, inspired by the Hundred Family Jacket TT6. The design of dragons, horses and flowers has been hand drawn and painted by Earley fusing visual research from Dong Hua Museum in Shanghai, the Ming Dynasty artifacts at the British Museum in London and folk textiles from museums in Stockholm TT6. The jacket has been lined with the faces and names of the factory workers Earley and Vuletich worked with in China, printed onto a co-created chiffon sample. Words of advice for the young fashion consumer can be found here too – the Mistra consortium researchers sent Earley the best advice they could offer a young Swedish consumer about to embark on a life of consuming TT10.

Dodd has stitched into the print design to bind the monomaterial fabric layers together, making the sculptural garment warmer, more durable and adding more decorative surface detailing inside and out TT2. The designers wanted to turn the simple, inexpensive yellow Shanghai shirt into something of much higher value, and potentially imbue it with greater meaning, significance and emotional durability for the owner.

This piece was chosen to be exhibited in the newly re-opened Whitworth Textiles gallery.

About the Textiles exhibition:

The reopening exhibition in the textile gallery celebrates, through an exploration of green and its associations, the rebirth of the Whitworth as a beautiful, extended gallery space, its new relationship with the Whitworth Park and the green spaces outdoors.

Many cultures associate the colour green with nature and nature’s attributes, including growth, fertility and rebirth. In recent years, green has also become the symbolic colour of the environmental movement. Drawing predominantly on the gallery’s own textiles collection, which ranges in date from the 3rd century AD to the present day, historic textiles from around the world are set alongside newly commissioned work from contemporary designers that responds to environmental issues – which underlines the fact that the new Whitworth is now one of the most environmentally-friendly galleries in the UK. Artists and designers represented include William Morris, C. F. A. Voysey, Lucienne Day, Keith Vaughan, Michele Walker and Susie MacMurray.

(Source: http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/upcomingexhibitions/textiles/)

• http://www.textiletoolbox.com/exhibits/d...
• http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/wh...
• http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/wh...