The project
About a year ago this smart suede jacket came into my possession courtesy of a friend of mine, George Clarke, who gave me authorisation to do with it what I would, that is, give it a good trashing.
The jacket is actually quite nice if you like brown suede. Two buttons, pockets without holes in. NEXT quality, no less. Not too shabby. It undoubtedly looked the business on George before he decided to throw it my way but it’s been sadly neglected this past year. It is partly with this regret in mind, and with the genuine belief that something interesting could develop in the process, that I have decided to wear this garment every day for the next few weeks, whilst customizing its appearance with the same regularity.
Although it might sound like a project conceived in the offices of Vice magazine/somewhere selling overpriced pints of lager in Hoxton, this idea was actually put forward by another friend of mine, who proposed the notion in a noble attempt to rid me of my current creative inertia, for which I am hugely grateful.
Ultimately however, the process and outcomes are mine, though are undoubtedly, and exhilaratingly, straddled between grand conception and total chance. I want to create an evolving and constantly changing piece of clothing that grows, incorporating some of the same aesthetic motifs I often employ and juxtapose, as well as open the door for new ideas. In a way, it can take on a life of its own, both embracing and putting two fingers up to its presumed lifetime as premium-quality jacket, by both my embellishing it on Monday and tearing the shit out of it on Tuesday.
I vow to add something new to the jacket every day, whether that means pinning a button or crisp-packet badge, applying paint, embroidery or ring-pull armour, re-tailoring the innards, and maybe even tearing the sleeve off it in a heat of anger or frustration.
Pin badges pledging allegiance to bands, charities or Camden Market-approved ironic slogans always felt pretty ephemeral to me, and I’m happy for things to hang off the jacket, come and go, be misspelt, get torn or go totally AWOL lost to the pavement in the course of my daily walk into work down the Holloway Road.
I don’t have a time scale in mind - we’ll just keep it going for as long as the thing holds together, then maybe have a party/wake when it finally falls apart.
So, lend me your Trash if you see me about. I’ll take a snap every day and report or anything worth noting down. Any passable jacket-based puns that I can use for the title of the project will be warmly accepted. Some examples that have been contributed and instantly rejected include Jacket the Knife, Hit the Road, Jacket, Jesus Don’t Want Me For a Jacket and Gary Glitter Stole My Jacket.
