page:
1|2|3|4|5
For
Alison, a skirt is more than just a garment – it is a work of art
in it’s own right. Made without darts, they are flat, unaffected,
timeless, classic and simple; they are the canvas on which she works,
and she enjoys adding structure and interest to them with three-dimensional
objects such as glass spheres, hat pins and lighting filters. She experiments
with various techniques: moulding and illuminating, screen printing with
paper stencils, foiling, mark making, embroidery, hand stitching, ruffling,
tailor tacking, cording and cut work with scissors to create sliced, carved,
shaved, chiselled and sculpted pieces.
Much of the inspiration for her pieces comes from the depths of the inner
city: lanes, alleys, passages, streets and terraces – places that
are neglected, ever-changing, disintegrating and subsiding. Crumbling
walls, fly posters laid one on top of the other, weathered peeling paint,
marks and stains, the kaleidoscope of colour, texture, tone, scale, shape,
proportion, pattern, line and placement. She records these images through
photography, amassing hundreds of stills to dissect then translate into
fabric samples, and later into skirts. Once the process is complete, the
finished skirts are designed and made by Alison herself. She works in
a variety of materials and is constantly collecting unusual textiles,
such as the insides of ties, hats or jackets to use in her work.
