Rag Tag (unfinished)
A deconstructed shirt turned into scraps of fabric. Some are braided and coiled in a loose spiral on the left. Other remaining bits are arranged flat on the right. A Braid-Aid box in the middle. The fabric has red, orange, white, mint, black, green and yellow stripes. “Christian Dior” is embroidered in white above a stitched-on label, and “Lord + Taylor” in black.
Rag Tag (unfinished)
A deconstructed shirt turned into scraps of fabric. Some are braided and coiled in a loose spiral on the left. Other remaining bits are arranged flat on the right. A Braid-Aid box in the middle. The fabric has red, orange, white, mint, black, green and yellow stripes. “Christian Dior” is embroidered in white above a stitched-on label, and “Lord + Taylor” in black.
Artist
Sarah C. Byrd
Medium
Synthetic (acetate? To be tested…)
Technique
Braid
Dimensions
172” x ½” and misc parts
Time Period
source material (shirt) c. 1980, braid 2020 -
Statement from the Artist
This piece began as a Christian Dior ready-to-wear blouse from the early 1980s. It's from a lower-priced line that was not designed by the Paris couture house but by a design firm, likely in New York City. A friend pulled it from a "going to the trash" bin, and I loved the stripes. I took it to a dry cleaner, and it didn't survive the chemicals, leaving the fabric with shattered, unwearable sections. I kept it as a teaching aid, but I decided to change its lifecycle again for another project during the pandemic. I recorded the process of ripping the shirt into strips and then braiding parts into the coil here, and I'm waiting to find out what it wants to do next!