The Widows From Waste: The Agitator

Now the fourth Widow, he was a tricky one!

The idea driving the design of the fourth Widow was the anger of the abandoned clothes, if they had emotions, that is. The humans often buy and discard the clothes without any deeper feelings about the matter. What a lover would be happy with such a treatment? To be used and then cast away, thrown to the endless piles of waste. Experiencing that would certainly make anyone bitter.

The fourth Widow started on the paper as a moody preacher, taking inspiration from the sterner sorts of priests and popes. But as I was working on him, he transformed and became a gentleman agitator. These clothes, which he embodies, know their value and revel on it, while having a strong and serious presence. There are still traces of a preacher in him, but also those of a Casanova. He reminds the others that they should take pride on themselves and not let anyone handle them like a disposable.

The fourth Widow has a maxi length jacket, reaching all the way to the ground. The collar is high and stern, the sleeves fitting tight around the arms. All of this gives the Widow a slightly strange, strict air, yet there is more complexity to be found in him. The texture of the deep, black velvet and the shirt-like fitting of the garment bring softness to his appearances. The natural shoulders lacking the usual shoulder pads so often seen in men’s jackets, bring informality to the formal attire. The lace details give the look a good deal of dandiness, reminding perhaps the onlookers of the rococo era’s fashion. The hat with the unusually wide rim add to the fourth Widow’s mystery and threat.

As for the making of the man… The design actually changed drastically after the sewing work on him started, when the first manipulations on the velvet proved unsuccessful. Due to this the fourth Widow ended up on a hold for a while. As the fourth was getting redesigned, I was working simultaneously on the fourth and the fifth Widow. When the plan of the fourth became clear, I salvaged the materials from his first form and dived into making his revised version with my full attention. This time everything went well, even if one of the oldest fabrics used for the Widows from Waste collection proved to be simply too aged and fragile. This new setback was a minor one. The weak parts got replaced or, when possible, were supported by some extra stitching. The lace details on the jacket were set into the almost, but not quite, symmetrical patterns, which run around the fourth in an adorning way.

If there had been some trouble with the jacket, so was there some trouble with the hat as well. It seemed near impossible to find a good base to work on despite many attempts. In the end it took pieces of two hats and a good amount of packaging materials to put together the foundations of the fourth’s headpiece. The velveteen patchwork that cover the hat was also rather laborious, but gratifying to make. The fourth was the last Widow to need the velvet fabrics and his massive hat was a safe haven to those tiny strips, which still needed a new life as parts of this collection.

As mentioned, the fifth Widow was already started before the fourth Widow had been completed. Next time, I’ll write more about the final look of the collection, the Saint.

Sincerely,

Iina