If You Like, You Can Repair My Pantihose

When asked, it is often difficult to say for people why they collect certain things. They just have to have them. I collect a wide variety of things. And I can say, the common denominator amongst most of them is that they come from a time or an era that has become extinct now and that they were used in activities that people do not do anymore. This links directky to the fact that I am absolutely fascinated by handmade things and traditional crafting techniques. When art was daily bread!

Stranded Darning, specially prepared for your fine silk hose! Found in East London in a second hand shop.

I remember hearing my grandmother say, that she was taught as a child by her mother how to mend a pantihose or silk stockings..

That must have been around 1920.

Magic Fabrics

I was taken by a friend to a shop in Southernwood, that reminded me of my childhood and the years I have spent with my grandmother. My grandmother was an amazing seamstress. She was capable of sewing a ballgown from an old curtain within four or five hours, should the need arise. It would be a ballgown that could be worn on the red carpert in Cannes and that would fit you perfectly.

Shops like this factory shop in Southerwood have become rare. People do not sew that much any more in many places of the world. 

But they still sew in South Africa. 

My grandmother learned sewing when she was fourteen years old and she had refined her skills throughout her whole life. She designed the clothes for her daughter and later for her grandchild, me. At one point in time she used the left over fabrics pieces, because they had just the right size, to make small dresses for me when I was three or four yeasr old. 

There are many photographs in old albums, showing my aunt and me in " partnerlook". 

Making a garment for someone is something special and has a certain serenity to it.

It is an act of creation.

Like the feel in this shop.

Beautiful fabrics spread magic around them.

When I shoot a portrait I  take pictures in a sequence. I talk to the person until he or she is comfortable and  forgets that I have a camera in my hand. The result has similarity with a short movie film. 

Every second a person's facial expression changes.

And I like to show the pictures in that same sequence.

Of course there are always people who wonder and ask themselves what is there to see in such a place.

The world is just my private playground

And I think others feel the magic too.

My Rheingold

Let me introduce you to the ' RHEINGOLD "

Let me introduce you to my " Rheingold De Luxe" a 1956 Sewing Machine, a genuine German make, complete with all needles and accessories in perfect working order. Purring like a baby kitten.

Actually I thought I was buying a small desk only, that was inexplicably heavy when trying to carry it to my car, but inside was hidden this little treasure.

Admittedly I was not able to figure out through which ones of the hundred little hooks to winde the thread. But that's what friends are here for. And I have a very good friend, Annegret, who can be named the mother of all seamstresses.

Frorm a designer stand-point of view it has to be added that this design can not be topped-not in your wildest retro dreams.

And this pillow case serves as living proof for my words.

Made from a variety of South African traditional ShweShwe fabrics and vintage borders.