An old friend

An old friend

By Katie Brittain

The aim of this work is to demonstrate how visible repair techniques can add to a piece, telling the story of the clothing’s history. I hope this piece encourages you to repair clothes with materials you have at home, creating your own stories and pieces of history.

When we visited the Salisbury Museum exhibition, I was instantly drawn to the great coat worn by Mayor Howard Harris. Harris wore this coat during the Crimean war when he was hit by a shrapnel explosion creating a rip down the back of the coat. Hand-stitching is visible where he repaired this rip and also on the collar and buttonholes of the piece, showing how well-worn the coat is. 

I knew I wanted to represent this story through my work. The embroidery detail I have used on the back of the coat recreates the image of the explosion that damaged the piece. The use of straight embroidery stitches was inspired by the original stitching where Harris had repaired the coat by hand. I also created a shrapnel piece from second-hand materials to mimic the piece which damaged the coat. 

Keeping sustainability in mind, I made the piece entirely out of second-hand materials. Harris referred to the coat as an ‘old friend’, possibly made out of a blanket. Inspired by this I used an old fleece blanket to create the piece, to further tie in key elements of the original piece and the its story.