Cutting edge paper thing The New York Times has uncovered a thriving underworld in Brooklyn, full of women who have taken up needles and thread for this thing called — what is it called? — sewing? Apparently, these sewing wonders, make their own garments! At home. By hand. This is a trend, this people making their own clothes thing. Crazy, I know. The Times agrees, and found the time to profile Sarah Kate Beaumont, who sews clothes out of her Park Slope apartment. Sarah Kate, who “majored in English literature at Bryn Mawr College, where she rode a unicycle in leggings and a skirt,” sewed several items of clothing “as an experiment of self-reliance and artistic whimsy,” and now it’s “a way of life.” Some (the Times actually) might say Sarah Kate’s “whimsy” and “self-reliance” are just reflective of Brooklyn’s independent spirit, its burgeoning, itching (like an STD) desire to be seen as an separate entity from Manhattan. Yes, because Brooklynites are always living their lives as a metaphor. But others (again, The New York Times, natch) might argue that the back-to-sewing movement is simply an extension of the “back to the land” pioneer movement. We say: this is not a trend. Women be making their own clothes since the beginning of times, idiots. Next week, in part two of the Times series on The Sewing Trend, a little show called “Project Runway”! [NY Times] Keep reading »
