the annie and jessie shirt
this piece responded to a brief in which i was to develop and design a shirt concept in response to a provocation in the form of australian artists tom roberts' shearing the rams (1890).
each summer of my childhood included a trip to beàrnaraigh. the journey took six hours by car and three by ferry and was a normal part of school holidays; something that has since proven very useful for australian road trips. the island’s youth hostel was our holiday home. it consisted of two black houses, one of which was used as the living area and the other for sleeping. it had an open coal fire for heating, original stone walls, bunk beds and a couple of showers with enough creepy crawlies to send me into the atlantic for a rinse. the hostel attracted the most interesting collection of individuals from far and wide, many of whom returned year after year. the buildings were originally a main home and a cow byre, built by a distant relative in the 18 th century. we would visit annie and jessie every time to catch up with what had been happening on the island while they fed us with their home-made scones and pancakes. it was impossible to leave without having a £5 note thrust into your palm. they would wave us off from their doorstep as we wound our way across the bumpy, grassy machair in our car, watching and waiting until we reached the road.
annie and jessie had been raised on their father’s five-acre croft and when he died suddenly in the 1930s without a male heir, the croft passed automatically to them, forcing them to abandon school to take care of it. they were only 13 years old. as difficult as it was at such a young age, the roles came naturally to them. they had grown up helping with all the tasks they now had to do alone. what did not come naturally was the idea of women owning and working the land. constantly undermined by men on and off the island unaccustomed to female crofters, they were forced toughen and always felt lucky to have one another. they would plough the land – initially with horses, then tractors - for potato fields, and kept hens, sheep, ducks and dairy cows. they killed and skinned their own animals and spun their own wool from the sheep fleece. sheering sheep was rare for women then and was something they gladly left to others. much like all other croft work, as roberts so beautifully depicts, sheep shearing was a man’s job. with my shirt design, i wanted to capture the contrast between the femininity of annie and jessie, the connection they had, and how important it was for them to be there to support one another, and the raw harshness of working on a croft. v
details
material
i chose to use a second hand white cotton floral damask tablecloth. the colour symbolising purity, and the design aligning with femininity.
bodice
historical princess seams contrast a cropped bodice, acknowledging styles that challenged traditional ways in which women were expected to dress. the exposed seams provided an appropriate contrast, incorporating the raw and messy nature of farm work. this was further visually depicted by rubbing the lower half of the shirt in dirt, a personally cathartic activity.
the shoulder seams were bound with bias binding, honouring the care these sisters had for one another in contrast to those around them.
buttons
the style and positioning of buttons was inspired by bridal wear. by locating the buttons on the back of a wedding dress, the bride must be buttoned up by another, traditionally someone emotionally close to her. of the two sisters, only jessie had married (and widowed early, bringing both sisters to live together again), and i thought this design and traditional practice again reflected the connection the two sisters had.
sleeves
the gathered sleeves were inspired by blouses throughout history, cut to a 3/4 length as a way to more literally mirror the act of rolling ones sleeves up to do manual work.
photoshoot
photographer - morgan w. @muttcapture
model - toni richardson
director - elana marks
the berneray youth hostel in all its glory (with me as a teenager rolled up in a blanket)