Tuesday, May 30, 2017

The Phantoms for Which Clothes Are Designed



The Phantoms for Which Clothes Are Designed
by Chase Twichell

Sewing patterns are designed for imaginary
people, based on average measurements
taken in the 1930s by the WPA

and adjusted over the decades by the Industry.

I sew a Misses 14, designed for a woman
5’5” to 5’6”, 36/28/38,

which is to say no one,

so I alter the pattern to fit a phantom of me
instead of a phantom of her.

She doesn’t need any more dresses.


About This Poem

“I do a lot of sewing (clothes). Construction is easy compared to fitting, which is basically math coupled with anticipating how a fabric will behave in 3-D. I’ve probably made a hundred dresses that are perfect on the hanger but don’t fit well enough to wear into the world.”—Chase Twichell

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joe, tell us how last week went, when you were working alone. How did you handle it?

JiEL said...

This photo of a college boy ressemble to some of my students I had in my classroom when I was teaching Fine Art in a private high school.

It was very «hard» and sometimes exciting to teach them and I must say that many are now good friends to me.
My best friend and ex-student, Patrick, is now 45yo and a very handsome blond blue eyes man.

Those 17 years in that high school where the best ones of my teaching career which was for 37 years.