Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Form vs. Function

St. Louis is home to a certain high-end sweater designer. They did some of the costuming for the Matrix movies, and their sweaters are known for being "unstructured," funky, and very expensive.


The seams are on the outside, the hemlines curl, the stitch is very loose, and the look is usually asymmetrical. They use a lot of linen.

On the hanger, their sweaters generally look like not-so-much. Certainly not at the price they command.




On the body, I generally like how they look. On other people's bodies at any rate. I can't afford these sweaters, and somehow on me the unstructured look just looks sloppy. Still, they're really popular with a lot of the gainfully-employed musicians I know.

The thing is though, I regularly get asked to repair or rework these sweaters. The stitches get pulled, the seams come loose, etc. This particular sweater is visiting me because its very artistic rubber buttons are far too small for the button holes.

So I'm off on the quest for the perfect, unstructured, yet artsy button. Wish me luck--I may be entering the matrix.

1 comment:

Carrie said...

Hmmm....interesting to learn of these workmanship issues. I've coveted many a Skif item in the past, but now their items seem a bit repetitive.

How many times can you make an outside-hemmed, asymmetrical, flowy vest look new and fresh?