The Artist’s Hand: Art through the eye of the needle
Article originally appeared in Sierra Lodestar
Stepping into the big airy shop at the Sonora School of Sewing and Apparel Construction on North Washington Street in Sonora, I was immersed in an oasis of couture. Sewing machines gleamed in rows at tidy workstations. Bolts of fabric waited to be unrolled and cut on the big tables that run down the center of the room. Spools of thread rolled a rainbow of colors across the exposed brick walls. Although the radio played music and students chatted as they stitched half-finished garments, there was an underlying silence of concentration.
In a world where – artistically speaking – anything goes, I find elegance in arts that are based in craft and created with skills developed over time. Art isn’t just paint and canvas; art is also created on a dress form draped in fabric and stitched with linen thread.
The mission of the school, run by Director Karen Burns Griffin and coordinator and instructor Megan Houseberg since 2011, is to preserve and teach traditional methods of clothing construction and apparel design.
“We try to suit the needs of what we think the community would like to learn,” Houseberg said.
Classes first instill basic sewing skills, then progress to advanced classes in which students can practice their tailoring artistry.
All ages are welcome; kids as young as 4 learn to sew and adults come in to practice their skills. The school offers classes tailored specifically to teens. Kara Wessel is one of them. She’s been sewing since the age of 7.
“I made clothes for my American Girl doll with my grandmother,” she said.
She enrolled in a Basics of Sewing class at 14. Now 18, she has finished her first collection of designer clothing and started a second.
Wessel is already an accomplished young woman, not only designing wardrobes but also holding the post of editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper, The Cave. Her writing is relaxed and charming, and the clothing collection she designed is a bright, breezy selection of dresses, slacks and a red and gold jacket that would be a standout in the teen department of any clothing store.
“When I first started, I really enjoyed the idea of designing,” Wessel said. She added that she likes “being able to be hands-on and have an image or a vision in your head and go through hard work, problem solving and design to get to an end product. And be able to actually wear it. To me that’s really exciting.”
“Sometimes you have these visions, but you can’t actually do them because you don’t have the skills. This class helps me build my skills so that I can get to that end product.”
Wessel’s end product – a wardrobe of six pieces – is the result of the Youth Collections Class, a course designed by Houseberg.
A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco, Houseberg said, “I wanted to take what I learned in school and try to condense it into a class so that people would get an introduction to what it would be like to be a fashion designer. It goes beyond just knowing how to sew. There are so many other elements.”
The course takes students through the steps of designing a complete wardrobe, from skirts and shirts to jackets and trousers. To start, they research a target customer and gather inspiration, then make sketches of their ideas, manipulate patterns to build their pieces, choose fabrics and create bespoke clothing. They build a cohesive fashion line that, in theory, could be sold as a complete collection of garments.
Despite not having traveled much beyond California, Wessel is intensely interested in the world.
“I wanted to learn more about other cultures,” she said. “I realized that my everyday life is completely different from everybody else’s, especially in places like India and Africa.”
Her collection was inspired by those two cultures, but particularly by the modern Indian woman. She said learning about the problems of gender inequality in rural India shocked her, and she designed her collection as a way to counteract that.
“I really wanted to inspire any woman to have her own power,” she said. “I wanted to inspire that through my clothing.”
Designing a collection is not simply sewing straight seams. Wessel had to research her initial inspiration in order to create her designs. For instance, the woven baskets carried by African women inspired braided strips of fabric that decorate a black tube top.
“The rest is inspired by Indian culture. Rich colors like reds, blues and golds. Lots of gold. I noticed they had lots of detail in their clothes, especially for weddings.”
While the lines of Wessel’s designs are confident, simple and clean, the fabric is printed with a wealth of colorful patterns.
Wessel learned more than clothing design in the class. Last year the girls in the teen class helped create a “look book,” a professionally produced booklet that profiles three of their collections and tells the story of the school as well.
While working on the book, Wessel learned other skills, like page layout (which was similar to cutting fabric into pieces then sewing it back together to create a garment) and computer programs. She also had to direct a photoshoot of her work, which taught her managerial skills.
“That taught me a lot, managing a photoshoot,” she said. But it was challenging for her. “I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries and be like, ‘Hey, you, go over there.’ I didn’t want to be too bossy. But it really helped me. I realized they were there to support my designs and help me complete my vision.”
Wessel thinks that clothing is a form of art.
“Designing clothes – the idea of taking a scrap of fabric or a vision and creating it into something you designed – I think that’s art. You’re putting your own perspective and your own twist onto something.”
She admits that cutting-edge fashion – Avant-garde fashion – is like having an art piece that you can wear, although you probably wouldn’t use it every day.
“Ready-to-wear – what we do, the more wearable stuff – even with that, you can still make it art,” Wessel added. “You’re taking your vision and you’re doing design, which is art, and you’re making an end product. Like with painting, they start with a vision, and they use the canvas, and they have an end product. It’s very similar.”
Does Wessel see herself going into fashion design as a career? Probably not.
“It’s very hard to be successful in fashion design.”
She envisions working in graphic design or advertising instead, and sewing on her time off.
“Fashion design and sewing are more of a hobby. But who knows? It might flourish into a career one day.”
In the meantime, the sewing school is an oasis for Wessel, where she can get away from the stresses of high school and concentrate on the art of clothing design and construction.
“School is scheduled. When I come here, I’m relaxed. I can put things together and make an end product without interruptions.”
She admits to having way too much fabric in her closet, a common problem for any artist in any medium.
“But the fabric speaks to you,” she said, “and you know what you want to do with it.”