I've just taken this costume worn by PJ Harvey out of the box and
it is a very interesting costume for a Textile Conservator. I'm going to use soft arms to
make sense of the of the writing a little bit, and of the shape – the period shape – of the sleeves.
So these are soft arms made with a polyester wadding core and silk covering, and
they're very useful to give arm motion to a figure mannequin that doesn't have arms,
when all we need is to fill their sleeves to indicate a bit more of a human form.
So the first thing to do is to look at it closely – to understand the intention of the object –
in this case why it was made like that. It has to do with her personality, her lyrics,
the occasion the dress was made for, so all that becomes part of the object in this case.
This dress is very particular, with all these threads out of place apparently and
lettering which is being stitched at random across the dress,
and with these beautiful little french knots, so that's a very kind of period feature.
When we display this dress we have to
make sure it all makes sense and it retains its intended character in a way which doesn't seem
to have been manipulated too much. For instance I'm referring to the to these long threads.
It's obvious that the threads need to cross the the lettering in a random manner, but this kind of
knot probably is something I will try to unravel and lay in an organized/disorganized manner.
But this is unusual – she's a modern contemporary artist,
and this dress is obviously a manifestation of something which is very strong in her, in her
performance, as part of her artistic image, so all my decisions will have to be with that in mind.
But the long threads, all these long threads, I would probably want to untangle them to a degree
and place them in a way where they will add depth to the costume,
because I think one of the characteristics of this costume is the fact that it's
like an echo of a pas time – this element of nostalgia that it has – so from
remembrance, and I think the these long threads can add so much character to the dress.
Of course we will add underpinnings to maximize the effect of the full skirt.
The dress has an underpinning already, but we'll probably add more. It's very important to approach
something like this calmly, just the more I look at it, it begins to become clear to me,
what kind of intervention will take place, and come to an agreed display mode for for the dress.
But altogether, I must always remain mindful of the look of the dress.
It's very much based on a toile impression of a dress – the ghost of a dress.
Almost a controlled distress effect, and that has to be retained.