New Projects, New Goals, and the Process of Growing as an Artist Through Fluxus

As I work my way through my new collection, I grow more and more interested in focusing on the minute details of the clothing, in addition to the overall picture that the outfits will create and the story they will tell as a collection. I have special plans for this line, hoping to introduce it as the new Petey, the better Petey, the learned-good-shit-at-design-school-before-I-peaced-out-of-there Petey. The whole reformation is going to take approximately a year, including the design, construction and completion of each outfit I've got in mind. The collection will feature both men's and women's clothing and will include both practical, wearable pieces as well as art clothes.

In addition to the new plan is a new name, or rather, a simplified version of the old name. I'm just calling it Petey. Plain and simple, with the demise of the Troll alongside my old approach to my own designs, my business sense and my knowledge of clothing construction, pattern making and fabric.

When I start my new blog, it's going to be basically the same thing, with a little more structure and a little more consistency. I've been writing in this blog for over two years now and cherish it as my little online diary, containing my thoughts on fashion, business, art, history, life and of course, my own work and progression in this field. For me, this whole transformation is coming with a new outlook. Basically, I'm sick of sitting around on my ass, not being a fashion designer. It's who I am, it's who I will always be.

Another thing that I am and always will be is a collector of friends with extraordinary talents in arts of all kinds. I've been very lucky with the people I've met over the years and these include oil painters, wedding photographers, dancers, actors, directors, costume makers, musicians and writers. Thus, I've decided to incorporate a lot more different kinds of arts in my discussions of clothing and fashion in the new blog as well. I'll be considering music as an inspiration, contemporary art as a backdrop for design and reviewing other fashion commentary with the intent of participating in the ongoing dialogue within the national and global fashion industry.

It may be cliche to say, but my life long dream has always been to co-found and help run an artist collective. A “collective” sounds so socialist, but that's exactly what it is. It's artists doing favours for each other for the benefit of the whole group. It's print makers making screen prints out of designs made by Photoshop masters on t-shirts representing a clothing company who is styling local musicians. Right? It's a lovely idea and continues to be a goal of mine over the next five years (pending the apocalypse, of course...)

Lots of big things to come and more structure is needed to do it. I feel the need to push forward with my business, my art and my life.

Check out my new blog – Le Couturier, Mademoiselle Petey: Fashion, Toronto and Everything About Clothes, debuting on Friday, February 10^th at http://mademoisellepetey.blogspot.com/

Thank you all for reading as always!

VanessaPeteyHughes

“Women in Pants” - The Earliest Examples of Gender Defiant Fashion for North American Women

“Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than to merely keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world's view of us.”

This quote by Virginia Wolfe is the opening line of the Introduction to a book I'm currently reading called Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls and Other Renegades, which was brought to my attention by my roommate a couple of weeks ago. I found it perfectly fitting, seeing as the theme of the book is not just to tell the stories of the courageous, unique women who dared to step out of what was considered acceptable for the time, but it is also to shine a light on the fact that clothing, does indeed have the power to change our outlook on the world, just like clothing also defines who we are to the world around us. It makes a statement, one way or another. It's like that fantastic Coco Chanel quote I love so much:

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”

What must be understood about the book is that it is not suggesting that, these women in the photographs provided were out in public walking around in pants on a regular basis. The Introduction alone, makes it clear that the majority of women would have been in conventional female attire of the time when they were outside their homes. Inside, however, they felt comfortable enough to wear pants, dress “like men” and have only the camera as their witnesses. That's what makes it all the more fascinating to look at these pictures – they are mysterious in that they were never originally meant to be seen. The book goes on to discuss all of the different types of women who would have been wearing pants and other garments considered only for men's apparel in years as early as the 17^th century in North America.

The most obvious and most identifiable types of women to me are those in the 19^th and 20^th centuries in America who were of working class status, doing the same work as men, and wearing the same clothing. Unfortunately, for single, working class women the options were obviously limited in terms of jobs any time prior to the mid 20^th century. Some women would wear men's clothes if only to escape the fate of prostitution and find a man's job. Many women also dressed as men so convincingly, that they were able to seek out positions in mines and factories and in some rare cases, even some such positions as train conductors, fisherwomen, farmers and house-painters – all of which required their employees to wear pants for reasons none other than simple mobility and safety.

There are also several recorded cases of women enrolling in the army in wars as early as the American Revolution and certainly in the Civil War and World War One, who would have worn the same uniforms as their male counterparts. “Often as good, or better shots than any man, these women proved themselves as “men,” when confronted with the horrors of war. They fired rifles, wielded bayonets, and carried up to 50 pounds of equipment which included firearms, ammunition, blankets and mess kits.”ⁱ

The other type of fascinating woman I came across in this book was none other than the legit, true cowgirl, found only in the 19^th century south western United States. The main character in this American legend is called Calamity Jane, a bonified cowgirl right down to her chewing tobacco. There were plenty of cases such as these, many examples depicted in the book.

When the Great Depression happened, followed quickly by the hardships caused by the Second World War, it became more and more common to see women in pants going to work in the fields or the factory. Since then, obviously times have changed and the world we live in (here in middle class, big city, North America....) and women have more options than they did in the past in both working life, as well as in fashion. The 40s gave us Rosie the Riveter. The 50s was a little bit of a step back, but there are still some cases such as Audrey Hepburn wearing clam diggers and dressing like a boy. I've already mentioned Coco, and when the 60s came, obviously all hell broke loose and women everywhere were getting into jeans and stepping away from all possible conventions.

The thing about clothes is that they define who you are. Even if that definition is not more than “guy who doesn't care about what he looks like,” (as unfortunate as that may be...) it's still a definition, which has been decided based on the choice of clothing the wearer has chosen for whatever reason it may be. People think fashion design is an unconventional art form, and I agree. Fashion design is more than creating art – it's creating lives.

Until next time!

iSmith, Catherine and Cynthia Greig, Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls and Other Renegades, Harry N. Abrams Incorporated, New York, 2003. pg. 62