I’ve been thinking a lot about that tweet you referenced in your recent send, in which someone said they work out not for vanity or even health, but to avoid getting lost in a world of signs.
It feels resonant with, I don’t know what to call it, a large-scale internet fatigue? Which, I think, while long simmering, has really come to an overflowing boil over the past year.
People everywhere are tired of almost exclusively inhabiting worlds of signs and symbols. We’re yearning for embodied truths.
Perhaps the same currents have pushed our collective clothing fetishes from on-the-cloth to in-the-cloth quality.
On the flip side, raw denim people have always been “in-the-cloth” appreciators, yet their little subculture was famously online.
Clearly in-the-cloth appreciation doesn’t preclude the social dimension of enjoying clothes
This was a beautiful exploration of an object’s “thingness” — have you ever read Richard Powers’ Echomaker? Has a lot of great stuff about the world of signs: “there’s nothing in this world that giving meaning makes it more” — “louder the ring, less the thing”
Playground too! Feels like it, along with The Maniac and Same Bed Different Dreams, should be required reading as we tap our way toward the technohellscape we seem determined to create. Plus the bit about the “impossibility of having made it over the finish line together” hits on so many different levels!
This is a great. Thanks for writing about this. When I opened Fancy Groceries a few years ago, I thought to myself man I don't want to just have another store full of plastic, so our whole vibe for the last 3 years has been about what's in the cloth. I only curate plastic free clothes made from natural materials. It's not easy to do, but it's worth it.
If anyone in spy nation has a large-scale strip mining operation you should really check one out! They let you see not just what's *on* the earth, but what's *in* the earth too!
As you know from the last time we spoke in person, I’ve been thinking a lot over the past year about the one-to-one parallels between food and fashion. I’m hardly the first to do so, and most of them seem pretty obvious. Fabric, like food, is primarily the product of agriculture. And as food and fashion have raced ahead to meet, and generate, an ever-increasing global demand for more product, consumed faster and cheaper,, both have come to rely heavily on synthetic inputs and the exploitation of human labor. As with fast food, so with fast fashion: a temporary satiating of hunger, leaving us starving.
Recently I’ve been thinking about how this parallel applies more specifically to our work. We are preservers of vegetables, and as preservers, our main objectives are the preservation of color, texture, and flavor. Our work is far more likely to expose issues with the source product than to cover them up or compensate for them. We are capturers of moments — there is a moment in the life cycle of a plant when it is at its peak, whatever that may mean for that specific plant, and we take it at that moment, put it through some preservation technique, then wait for another moment that highlights both the plant and the technique.
We are also recorders, for the record, of stories.For in each delivery of produce there is a story of place, of season, of soil, of the hands that tilled and sowed and harvested and delivered, right down to the microbial level, which is where the thrust of our work resides. This is admittedly fodder for a very funny Fred Armisen bit, but it is nevertheless true. And not true in the metaphorical sense of past lives being carried in the threads of a vintage work shirt — which you and I know is fact, even if it can sound a little woo-woo to those less in touch with the metaphysical — but as true as a blade of grass plucked from wool coat.
And so I’m beginning to believe the same holds for spinners, weavers, and garment makers. In the wool or cotton or linen there is a narrative, a history of time and place and of living beings, A captured moment preserved, indelibly woven into the fabric. In the hands of a garment maker who considers and celebrates and honors these stories, we have an opportunity to wear them, to carry them, to find ourselves imbued by their vital energies — and nourished.
Beautifully put, the specific points about preservation in particular. And just because it could make its way into a Portlandia script doesn't make it untrue ; )
I would counter that 'in the cloth' has been a popular idea for almost all of fashion's history- for a small subset of designers and consumers who could afford such inherent quality. The designers you listed certainly fall into that.
What I'm more intrigued by is the opportunity for 'in the cloth' to actually become accessible to a broader swathe. The Digital Product Passport emanating from the EU is top of mind for every fast fashion brand on the planet. The heart of that regulation is essentially centered around 'in the cloth'. We see massive brands driving deeper investment into regenerative wool and cotton production in order to keep pace with impact goals and reporting. We could certainly argue that any mass production erodes a certain je nais se quois one would find in a coat woven from a small flock of sheep on the neighboring hillside. Still, can better material choices actually reign triumphant at scale? There are some interesting examples of this from Sally Fox's early work with Levis and Lands End.
There's so much in the thread. I love using selvedge edged linen on all of the tea towels in my shop because it cuts my labor in half - only two edges to cut and sew. The edge has character and the drape is so much better. Faster looms and sewing machines like the serger replaced decorative and utilitarian seam finishing - my favorite part of vintage clothing is the finished inside without the ugly zig zag of threads. Viva la finished edge! Viva la French seam!
immediately thought of online ceramics new line of clothes clothes and then you referenced the graphic tees, i think they are getting it too, there's a limit to these things...less of a limit, more of a balance? the pants look nice!
Intriguing! And I get it - especially when you see the substandard version of everything as prices go up, and quality goes down. But this verges a little bit into Stars-On-Thars territory (Sneetches, check it out). The impossibility of buying a coat made of grass, or flying to Paris for the ultra cool pants… well. That’s kind of for the Star Bellied Sneetches, if you know what I mean.
had to google a synopsis - not a seuss i've ever read, but i'm curious to do so - if I follow your point, i think it's what i'm alluding to with the thing at the end about intricate cloth becoming its own kind of sign & fetish....
when i think about this topic generally I often consider the parallels with organic farming, which in the U.S. exists broadly / effectively as a luxury category, because that is where the market wants it, whereas in countries with a healthier regulatory apparatus (among other protections) you find higher quality food at greater scale and lower cost
Yes Re: fetish. But your point is a great one. We create the demand by altering our buying habits. But the profit motive of an industry is a very big ship to turn, as you know. Right now, the “top of the line” ($$) women’s wool overcoat at J. Crew does not have a lining. It’s basically crap. Will we reach a point when no one remembers that coats should have a lining by the time that ship has turned?
Spyplane, check the Burton mine 77 merino kit with the alligator camo Engineered Knit. These are 100% merino wool and are woolmark certified manufactured in Japan.
I’ve worn religiously since they’ve arrived in the frozen tundra that is nyc the last few weeks.
With regard to thingness, materiality and care, I'd love to shout out my dear friend Elaine Goddard's new line of women's wetsuits, Basalt, made in Japan from sustainable limestone rubber and designed with a curved front zip, and panelling mapped for women's bodies. I've been watching her work for years on creating a design that improves her own surfing experience and welcomes more women into the water. They just launched in January and it's a really special project to keep your eye on.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that tweet you referenced in your recent send, in which someone said they work out not for vanity or even health, but to avoid getting lost in a world of signs.
It feels resonant with, I don’t know what to call it, a large-scale internet fatigue? Which, I think, while long simmering, has really come to an overflowing boil over the past year.
People everywhere are tired of almost exclusively inhabiting worlds of signs and symbols. We’re yearning for embodied truths.
Perhaps the same currents have pushed our collective clothing fetishes from on-the-cloth to in-the-cloth quality.
On the flip side, raw denim people have always been “in-the-cloth” appreciators, yet their little subculture was famously online.
Clearly in-the-cloth appreciation doesn’t preclude the social dimension of enjoying clothes
yes 100%, this essay sprang directly from that "world of signs" / "world of things in themselves" dichotomy in last week's plane
you could argue that, in a way, in our current "in the cloth" era we are all selvedge denim appreciators now :)
This was a beautiful exploration of an object’s “thingness” — have you ever read Richard Powers’ Echomaker? Has a lot of great stuff about the world of signs: “there’s nothing in this world that giving meaning makes it more” — “louder the ring, less the thing”
have only read Overstory, thanks Geoff
Overstory is gorgeous.
Playground too! Feels like it, along with The Maniac and Same Bed Different Dreams, should be required reading as we tap our way toward the technohellscape we seem determined to create. Plus the bit about the “impossibility of having made it over the finish line together” hits on so many different levels!
Adding Same Bed to my list
This is a great. Thanks for writing about this. When I opened Fancy Groceries a few years ago, I thought to myself man I don't want to just have another store full of plastic, so our whole vibe for the last 3 years has been about what's in the cloth. I only curate plastic free clothes made from natural materials. It's not easy to do, but it's worth it.
Yung Plane your points about fabric and really getting down to what's inside it resonated with me so much!
It got me thinking about my employer Caterpillar's 798 AC Very Heavy Mining Dump Truck: https://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/equipment/off-highway-trucks/mining-trucks/15970073.html
If anyone in spy nation has a large-scale strip mining operation you should really check one out! They let you see not just what's *on* the earth, but what's *in* the earth too!
hahhaha very conflicted... i don't think we're a pro-strip-mining sletter, and yet...
a. we do love looking into giant holes in the ground and
b. that is a very handsome piece of equipment
As you know from the last time we spoke in person, I’ve been thinking a lot over the past year about the one-to-one parallels between food and fashion. I’m hardly the first to do so, and most of them seem pretty obvious. Fabric, like food, is primarily the product of agriculture. And as food and fashion have raced ahead to meet, and generate, an ever-increasing global demand for more product, consumed faster and cheaper,, both have come to rely heavily on synthetic inputs and the exploitation of human labor. As with fast food, so with fast fashion: a temporary satiating of hunger, leaving us starving.
Recently I’ve been thinking about how this parallel applies more specifically to our work. We are preservers of vegetables, and as preservers, our main objectives are the preservation of color, texture, and flavor. Our work is far more likely to expose issues with the source product than to cover them up or compensate for them. We are capturers of moments — there is a moment in the life cycle of a plant when it is at its peak, whatever that may mean for that specific plant, and we take it at that moment, put it through some preservation technique, then wait for another moment that highlights both the plant and the technique.
We are also recorders, for the record, of stories.For in each delivery of produce there is a story of place, of season, of soil, of the hands that tilled and sowed and harvested and delivered, right down to the microbial level, which is where the thrust of our work resides. This is admittedly fodder for a very funny Fred Armisen bit, but it is nevertheless true. And not true in the metaphorical sense of past lives being carried in the threads of a vintage work shirt — which you and I know is fact, even if it can sound a little woo-woo to those less in touch with the metaphysical — but as true as a blade of grass plucked from wool coat.
And so I’m beginning to believe the same holds for spinners, weavers, and garment makers. In the wool or cotton or linen there is a narrative, a history of time and place and of living beings, A captured moment preserved, indelibly woven into the fabric. In the hands of a garment maker who considers and celebrates and honors these stories, we have an opportunity to wear them, to carry them, to find ourselves imbued by their vital energies — and nourished.
Beautifully put, the specific points about preservation in particular. And just because it could make its way into a Portlandia script doesn't make it untrue ; )
I would counter that 'in the cloth' has been a popular idea for almost all of fashion's history- for a small subset of designers and consumers who could afford such inherent quality. The designers you listed certainly fall into that.
What I'm more intrigued by is the opportunity for 'in the cloth' to actually become accessible to a broader swathe. The Digital Product Passport emanating from the EU is top of mind for every fast fashion brand on the planet. The heart of that regulation is essentially centered around 'in the cloth'. We see massive brands driving deeper investment into regenerative wool and cotton production in order to keep pace with impact goals and reporting. We could certainly argue that any mass production erodes a certain je nais se quois one would find in a coat woven from a small flock of sheep on the neighboring hillside. Still, can better material choices actually reign triumphant at scale? There are some interesting examples of this from Sally Fox's early work with Levis and Lands End.
There's so much in the thread. I love using selvedge edged linen on all of the tea towels in my shop because it cuts my labor in half - only two edges to cut and sew. The edge has character and the drape is so much better. Faster looms and sewing machines like the serger replaced decorative and utilitarian seam finishing - my favorite part of vintage clothing is the finished inside without the ugly zig zag of threads. Viva la finished edge! Viva la French seam!
Love a clean seam 👍🏻
This really resonated for me in terms of makers, intentionality and care and appreciation of beautiful and functional clothing.
Picked up the Dana Lee Brown sweatshirt on your recommendation and not sure if I could’ve survived this NY winter without it. A new favorite/staple
it's a beast in disguise
immediately thought of online ceramics new line of clothes clothes and then you referenced the graphic tees, i think they are getting it too, there's a limit to these things...less of a limit, more of a balance? the pants look nice!
Intriguing! And I get it - especially when you see the substandard version of everything as prices go up, and quality goes down. But this verges a little bit into Stars-On-Thars territory (Sneetches, check it out). The impossibility of buying a coat made of grass, or flying to Paris for the ultra cool pants… well. That’s kind of for the Star Bellied Sneetches, if you know what I mean.
had to google a synopsis - not a seuss i've ever read, but i'm curious to do so - if I follow your point, i think it's what i'm alluding to with the thing at the end about intricate cloth becoming its own kind of sign & fetish....
when i think about this topic generally I often consider the parallels with organic farming, which in the U.S. exists broadly / effectively as a luxury category, because that is where the market wants it, whereas in countries with a healthier regulatory apparatus (among other protections) you find higher quality food at greater scale and lower cost
Yes Re: fetish. But your point is a great one. We create the demand by altering our buying habits. But the profit motive of an industry is a very big ship to turn, as you know. Right now, the “top of the line” ($$) women’s wool overcoat at J. Crew does not have a lining. It’s basically crap. Will we reach a point when no one remembers that coats should have a lining by the time that ship has turned?
Spyplane, check the Burton mine 77 merino kit with the alligator camo Engineered Knit. These are 100% merino wool and are woolmark certified manufactured in Japan.
I’ve worn religiously since they’ve arrived in the frozen tundra that is nyc the last few weeks.
https://www.burton.com/us/en/c/mine-77
With regard to thingness, materiality and care, I'd love to shout out my dear friend Elaine Goddard's new line of women's wetsuits, Basalt, made in Japan from sustainable limestone rubber and designed with a curved front zip, and panelling mapped for women's bodies. I've been watching her work for years on creating a design that improves her own surfing experience and welcomes more women into the water. They just launched in January and it's a really special project to keep your eye on.