Suitable for Women For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a man. Not a boy but a man. Growing up I don’t think I really knew what that meant, but there are a collection of...
Didem Caia
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textile message
Claire Wellesley-Smith
The Cardigan The cardigan was very basic: black cotton fine knit, long length, buttons, a masculine cut but bought in Top Shop - I wore it for years. Then the pockets developed holes...
Anne M Carson
The textile I want to describe is from The Lady and the Unicorn, a series of six 15th Century tapestries considered medieval masterpieces. I found an embroidery version of...
Hanife Melbourne
After 18 months of living in covid-induced slob-gear I’m here to share my clothing memories, adorations, hauntings, and dreams. I have loved reading Textile Message posts from...
Susan Bradley Smith
After finishing undergraduate studies in Sydney I spent the 1980s in London as a young journalist. Part of my job involved turning up at formal functions, and one lunchtime my...
Leila Lois
Since I can remember, textiles have provoked feelings of comfort, wonderment and desire. Like most children I had a comfort blanket, a cotton sateen pillow, printed with meadow...
Emilie Collyer
I find the textile message prompts existentially confronting. What does it mean to claim something as ‘favourite’? Is it a statement piece, like this yellow coat dress I found in a...
Fiona O’Connor
Where I went to school little girls learned to sew. In 1968 the school inspectorate praised the girls of Belgrove National School in Dublin, ‘for the neatness of their handwriting,...
Claire Rosslyn Wilson
I don’t normally dress boldly, I prefer the convenience of having an easy-to-match wardrobe, but I have a secret love for loud colours and complex patterns. Perhaps because of this,...
Mira Robertson
A piece of clothing that haunts you? The coat was olive green, knee length, and made of hairy wool that gave it a somewhat shaggy appearance. To my current-day eye, stylish and...
Clare Archibald
Your favourite piece of clothing? Textiles are so interwoven in my mind with the colour language they offer it is perhaps not surprising that my favourite piece of clothing is one I...
Miranda Edmonds
I was so pleased when I found these alphabet ribbons in an old box as they took me straight back to being young and having fun ribbons in my hair (before the horror of the blue...
Anne Marsella
Among my favorite pieces of clothing are my aprons, this one in particular, with its mock Catholic iconography, its Little Bo Peep plays the Virgin Mary theme. Most importantly it...
Rowena Mondiwa
The drawstring has long since been lost but the bookbag is still intact and I keep it folded up among my belongings. I often think about how it's my oldest possession, the one thing...
Tanya Huntington
Your favourite piece of clothing or textile object? Your dream outfit or textile object? A piece of clothing or textile object that haunts you? After giving this some thought, I've...
Natasha Lester
Natasha Lester’s third book, A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, will be published by Hachette Australia in April 2016, with her fourth book, Her Mother's Secret, to follow in April 2017. She...