Spring 2022

Fashion

cover of american craft magazine featuring a model wearing a pink silk headscarf and an orange blue black and white patchwork robe

American Craft magazine celebrates the diversity of American craft and its makers. From the handmade that we use in our homes every day to the fine craft honored in museums, we cover inspiring craft being made today. We also showcase craft organizations making a difference in their communities, thought leadership in the field, and the importance of craft in contemporary American culture.

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From the Editor

Fashion. Many magazines publish their version of “the fashion issue.” Welcome to ours, which covers so much more than what’s stylish now. We explore fashion-forward craft and the materials of sustainable, slow fashion, such as you find in a handwoven jacket or a leather bag cut and sewn by an artist. We also consider how “to fashion” is to shape or give form to an artwork or object.

When planning this issue, we knew we had to include Fabiola Jean-Louis’ dresses, which she sculpts from paper and ornaments with images from the impacts of the transatlantic slave trade—images that can be quite difficult to look at. We also hoped you’d be as delighted as we are by the work of artists combining craft and fashion, including the stunning clothing born from a collaboration between the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, and designer Greg Lauren; the way Shae Bishop stitches ceramic tiles into unique menswear pieces; and how Nicole McLaughlin creates fantastical garments and accessories from objects that would otherwise go to the trash.

In these pages you’ll also find stories of how artists shape materials into meaning, including an in-depth profile of Sonya Clark and how she brings together the work of many to create visionary artworks.

I’ve been reminded by this work and these stories to again slow down to appreciate what human hands are capable of—and what it feels like to wear clothing designed with care for others and the future of the planet in mind. I hope you find inspiration here too.

textile artist blurred in motion as they work at a loom. A finished beige piece hangs on the wall behind them

Rhiannon Griego of Santa Fe at the loom. Learn more about her and other textile artists and lothing designers in "Cloth Encounters." Photo courtesy of Rhiannon Griego.

Our thanks to Roseanne G. Pereira, who helped conceptualize this issue and made many great contributions to American Craft while she worked with us.

KAREN OLSON / Editor in Chief

American Craft Council publishes American Craft magazine on a quarterly basis but reserves the right to change the number of issues in an annual term, including discontinuing any format and substituting and/or modifying the manner in which the subscription is distributed.

Feature Articles

model wearing an ornte gold paper dress standing before a surrealist painting depicting a man seated on a chair

Wearing the Truth

With her sculpted paper dresses, Fabiola Jean-Louis unflinchingly confronts history and imagines Black futures.

shelf of various books with solidarity fist symbol carved into the ends of the pages

The Connector

Visionary artist Sonya Clark fashions artworks—cosmic, spiritual, and sociopolitical—with the help of many hands.

two models wearing garments made from colorful patchwork quilt with orange black red and earth tones

Beloved Patches of Orange

A fashion scholar reveals the story of a collaboration between the quilters of Gee’s Bend and designer Greg Lauren—and the power of color in quilts.

model wearing japanese inspired orange yellow and navy clothing walking up dusty grassy hill

Cloth Encounters

Meet American artists and designers who are using the rich, resonant vocabulary of textiles to say things we need to hear.

motorcycle jacket made from upcycled soccer goalie gloves

From Discarded To Maximized

Our obsession with stuff is a problem. Nicole McLaughlin demonstrates how it could also be a solution.

grayscale photo of a woodworker splitting a log in the back of a truck

Maker: Aspen Golann

Near Boston one afternoon, Aspen Golann is hunting for a log. “You have me on a log day,” she says, explaining that she will carve the felled specimen into a replica of a 1770s settee, at Colonial Williamsburg’s annual Working Wood in the 18th Century conference. “It’s about as nerdy as it gets.”