During the COVID-19 Pandemic, a time of severe physical isolation, individuals have resorted almost entirely to social existences via remote communication.
Through a combination of textile techniques, particularly involving knits, this fashion system reflects upon the intangible digital spaces we now inhabit (replacing our physical realities with fragmented ones) and the languages that sustain them. Its aim is to help people navigate this new world together, using physical garments to connect them directly to spaces we can share in what feels like a fourth dimension.
model BILLIE TERRY @almondmilkchaitea
the system
virtual platform
Inserted into every Stitches Apart garment is a QR tag. Upon scanning the tag, wearers are brought directly to the hidden Voices page of www.stitchesapart.com. There, an anonymous recording is available. Each week there will be a new voice - because the QR code is dynamic, it will continuously be functional until a new collection is released with a different code. Old QR codes will lead to Voice Archives. This incentivizes wearers to collect singular pieces over time, and to take good care of them.
ongoing dialogue
Should a listener wish to contribute after hearing a recording, it is easy to find a link to the Voice submission form (on the same webpage as the recording). This way, spontaneous thoughts can be contributed, and an ongoing wearer’s dialogue is spurred. These digital interactions will have physical consequences: the dialogue inspires future collections' knit motifs. It also inspires future prompts for Voice submissions.
fragments & translations
Stitches Apart plays on translations between the tactile and the abstract; for example, it compares the binaries of computing languages (zero’s and one’s) with the binaries of knits (knit and purl stitches). This will always somehow seep through visually into the brand, as well as the physical nature of the garments themselves. The discourse did, after all, begin with the exploration of remote connections and relationships between people - and these translations are what make it possible to sustain them.
