Trousers

Hackney, Mary Wollstonecraft and Trousers.

“It is hard to understand that the hard won freedom of dress is relatively recent. Just last century, women were still denied entry to restaurants and other public places for wearing trousers. There is a history behind the restrictions concerning trousers worn in public by western women. Since beginning of Haute Couture fashion in the mid 19th Century, men have played a leading role and still do today. As most contemporary designers are men, women are still being “dressed” by men.

During a history walk of Hackney, I learnt that Mary Wollstonecraft was born here 1759. She was a radical thinker who was interested in the Education of Women. In 1791, she published her most important work Vindication of the Rights of Women. In this book she attacked educational restrictions that kept women in a state of “ignorance and slavish dependence”. A state that has not altogether disappeared today. She argued that the rights of men and women were one and the same thing. I also learnt about Anna Barbauld who campaigned alongside William Wilberforce in the anti-slavery movement of the early 19th Century. She is buried in St Mary’s churchyard in Stoke Newington. In 1773 she wrote The Rights of a Woman:

Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right!
Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest;
O born to rule in partial Laws despite,
Resume thy native empire o’er the breast.

All the way during my walk through Hackney I felt that I was never far from the women who fought for the rights we women have today. Being inspired by these women I designed a pair of women’s trousers for the museum. They are made from two pairs of men’s evening trousers. The T shirt is a signature of my work and is a truly unisex garment. I always work with T-shirts and manipulate them with couture details. The hat come opera shawl is also a very undefined garment. You can hide in it and wear it as a shield. It has a heavy pebble brooch fastening that is a beautiful natural thing but also hazardous”.

Wool