It’s a mouthful.  But then, people (especially Southerners) do have an undying love for the complexity of words, stories, and the beauty of textiles.

Last Tuesday night at The Standard, East Village, we were riveted by Jessamyn Hatcher’s stories of processing unwanted clothing in a clinic format.  Today in New York City, you have the rare and amazing opportunity to experience Human-Textile Wellness first-hand with a stellar team including Jessamyn, Professor, Global Liberal Studies, NYU; Hanna Astrom, Designer; Sarah Scaturro, Textile Conservator, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (and incoming conservator at the Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art); Michelle Zahabian, artist and co-owner of JEM; and the fascinating Emily Spivack, Creator and Editor, Worn Stories (wornstories.com) and Sentimental Value (www.sentimental-value.com).

Run, don’t walk:

You are invited to attend a

HUMAN-TEXTILE WELLNESS POP-UP CLINIC

Sunday, May 20, drop-in from 11am-3pm

@ JEM Fabric Warehouse

 355 Broadway, between Franklin and Leonard

BRING A PIECE OF CLOTHING TO REPAIR, ALTER, OR TRANSFORM AND A WORN STORY TO SHARE

The Human-Textile Wellness Center is a research lab run by Jessamyn Hatcher that documents people’s relationships to their clothing, and a place where you can come to repair, alter, and transform your garments, and share stories about textiles that are meaningful to you.

Meridith McNeal, “Palm Portraits” (used with kind permission of the artist)

William “Billy” Reid grew up in Amite, Louisiana, just south of the Mississippi line, where his mother operated a women’s clothing boutique in his grandmother’s one-time home. Launched in 2004, Billy Reid is the designer’s brand of men’s, women’s, and accessories collections with standalone retail stores that embody the designer’s modern approach to American work wear and cultured Southern dandyism. GQ and the Council of Fashion Designers of America awarded Billy Reid the Best New Designer in America Award in February 2010; in November of that same year, Billy won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award, becoming the first ever designer to win both prestigious awards in the same year. A son of the South, Reid designs his collection in his flagship shop and studio in Florence, Alabama, and employs artisan factories in Europe and America.

billyreid.com

Andrew Wagner is the current Editorial Director of Krrb, a hyperlocal/mega-global marketplace run by design agency Area 17. He hails from California by way of Connecticut. After graduating from Connecticut College with a degree in environmental psychology he jumped headlong into his editorial career in San Francisco helping found Dodge City Journal, LIMN, and Dwell. In 2006 he headed back east, this time to New York City, to help reinvent the august publication, American Craft. Prior to joining Area 17 he served as the editor-in-chief/chief brand officer of ReadyMade.

He is the current “What You Make of It” columnist for the New York Times in which he digs through the refuse of New York with the goal of turning trash into treasure.

Andrew has also penned the forwards for Princeton Architectural Press’ Handmade Nation and Chronicle Books’ It’s Lonely in the Modern World: The Essential Guide to Form, Function, and Ennui from the Creators of Unhappy Hipsters as well as chapters for Phaidon’sVitamin Green series. When he’s not working on Krrb’s global domination you can probably find him playing second base for the semi-professional baseball team, the Downtown Bulls.