‘It’s awfully hard to keep a line between the past and the present’ (Edith Bouvier Beale a.k.a. Little Edie)

EMBEZZLER

This collection is about the decay of glory, the fall from grace. About showing off what is still left, as veils of our memory. I was inspired by the story of ‘Little Edie’, as told in the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens. Edith grew up in a privileged American family, but eventually they lost all their wealth. The only thing that remained was the estate ‘Grey Gardens’ in East Hampton, where Edie lived with her mother in a ravage of cat food cans, ice cream buckets and treasures from the past.

My garments are ‘built’ with numerous layers of worn out found materials, wools and shiny fabrics, all merged together in voluminous pieces. Thick blankets are wrapped around, with all the excess volume gathered in the front. Parts that got lost along the way are restored or dipped in a haze of colour. It is unclear whether pieces are constructed by layers of damaged fabric or by desperately recovered ones.