Inspired by the I Spy books by Walter Wick & Jean Marzollo, the upcycled ties worn here by my lovely friends are "vignettes" adorned with keepsakes I’ve collected over the years—thrifted, gifted, swapped, found at art fairs, antique shops, eBay, and more. They are miniature treasure hunts, too!
Elements used on this page:
Pressed pansy cut-outs by @annomaria
Button cut-outs by Lesanne Onus
Needle and thread cut-out by @billionphotos
Vignettes—part feeling, part memory
a quiet morning in the living room,
yesterday strewn across the furniture,
the refrigerator humming beneath the cat's purrs...
a tribute to my Nana: her hands tending
to the soil under the sun, & stitching
a new quilt for her daughter
beneath the light of her sewing machine...
framed memories, traced by dripping wax
—the warm ache of time—
& the scent of a freshly picked bouquet nearby...
a fairytale about a knight's quest, half-remembered...
a summer night on a friend's deck,
ecstatic laughter bubbling up
as the yellow moon breaks through the clouds,
bare feet on the damp wood,
a dragonfly flitting around the lit kitchen window.
Photography: M Pease
Makeup: Zoe Gallagher
Models: Zoe Gallagher, Amani Nelson, Maria Soboleva, Elena Yeatts-Lonske, Maureen Zeufack
I’m deeply grateful to my very kind friends who helped bring my dream of giving these ties a photoshoot to life. You are living proof of how magical and special life can be! I am so grateful to the people who have carried these ties and the objects stitched onto them through time—those who made them, found them, cherished them, and let them go. I am thankful for the workers, technicians, sewers, designers, artisans, weavers, dyers, and collectors who gathered and processed the materials and made them into something new. I am thankful for the plants, animals, and elements whose gifts make up these objects: the mollusks and their mother-of-pearl shells, now buttons; the silkworms; the flax stalks; the trees; the metals; the sands; and many more. I’m thankful for the act of creation itself, the joy of placing each piece, and the stories and memories these ties hold.