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In the past 100 years, the world population has quadrupled.  This means that there are more people competing for fewer resources.  And since we all wear clothes, our attire, more than ever before, expresses our politics and our ethics.  That’s why, in the spirit of Demeter, the goddess of regeneration, we need to give life to old clothes by making them new again.

The standarization of mass production of clothing requires new materials.  However, if individually made, old materials can be used.  Not only would this mean saving materials, it would also mean we could wear clothes that express our own individuality as opposed to expressing aesthetics made for the masses.  Our clothing is not only a form of shelter, it’s also a manifestation of who we are.

I am an artist who no longer focuses  on painting canvases but, instead, on making clothes.  Collectively, these clothes are called Muy Marcottage. Marcottage is a French term used for plant propagation–taking one plant to make another. But it’s also an art term used to indicate a sculptural composition that’s been made using pre-existing elements. In other words, disassembling one thing to create another. Rodin’s “The Fallen Angel” is an example of marcottage.

Initially, I wanted to call my production of reconstructed clothes simply “Marcottage” but one day, while listing to The Kumbia Kings, I decided to add the “muy” meaning “very”. Thus “Muy Marcottage”.

Muy Marcottage is made primarily from discarded clothing that’s been cut up, reassembled then handsewn into place.  Often they are like giant collages where fabric is used instead of paper and thread is used instead of glue. Muy Marcottage dresses are narrative in that all have “titles” (words or phrases) stitched on them giving each one its own identity.

Threads unite.

Cynthia Korzekwa © 2010

Some examples of Muy Marcottage HERE!