Heritage and Hands

There is a deep and substantive power in a skill learned. An ache in many to master a craft, to become so proficient in our work as to almost cease to think about the necessary steps to complete a project. This yearning and refinement of craft exists in many places, and one of the regions that have built entire communities around this idea is rural Appalachia, where I grew up. Berea Kentucky is the folk arts and crafts capital of Kentucky and has built its long history around the master artisans and craftspeople that have lived there for generations. Through this collection, I will explore what it means to make functional clothes that walk the line of form and function that the artistic and visual traditions of the region walk themselves.

Allowing the input of the craftspeople to inspire and inform what it means to make a functional garment. All the while respecting the tenets of land stewardship and the grassroots organizing of the region to uplift voices that are infrequently heard on a national stage. This collection continues the important work of recognizing the forebears and teachers of these skills, including quilting, carpentry, glassblowing, weaving, and broom making, which in many instances of the region have a deep matriarchal history. It is also deeply sculpted by my own experiences of growing up in this community as a young queer person, raised in the rural south, and invites others to reckon with the complexities of the places we call home.