5 times craft stole the show on the political stage
The unlikely star of some of recent history’s biggest cultural moments
They were the mittens that launched a thousand memes: the handmade accessories that completed Bernie Sanders’ endearingly normcore inauguration day outfit sent the Internet – and Twitter fashion sleuths – into a frenzy. According to Buzzfeed political reporter Ruby Cramer, the US senator was gifted his cosy hand-knit mittens by Jen Ellis, an elementary schoolteacher from Essex Junction in Vermont.
A collection of sustainably crafted mittens by Vermont schoolteacher Jen Ellis, as worn by Bernie Sanders
Frequently worn on Sanders’ campaign trail, the upcycled mittens are made from repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles. Given that Sanders was the first of the 2020 Democratic presidential contenders to back the Green New Deal, this sustainably-minded fashion choice reflects his environmental passions. But it’s not just Sanders who has a zest for knitwear: Vice President Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, is a keen knitter, so we perhaps can expect to see craft take a more prominent role in the new White House.
Pin points
The inauguration of newly minted US President Joe Biden was full of revelations in accessorising, from Michelle Obama’s statement belt to poet Amanda Gorman’s hoop earrings by Greek designer Nikos Koulis (a ‘symbolic gift’ from Oprah, no less), and senator Cory Booker and Rosario Dawson’s matching blue batik masks from Studio 189, hand-dyed by artisans in Ghana.
But it was Lady Gaga who almost upstaged proceedings with the oversized gilded dove of peace brooch that adorned her custom Schiaparelli haute couture look. The singer said of the symbolism behind her jewellery choice, ‘A dove carrying an olive branch. May we all make peace with each other.’
It’s not the first time that a brooch has gone viral: the spider brooch worn in 2017 by Lady Hale (then-president of the UK's Supreme Court) as she declared Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament ‘void and of no effect’ fuelled endless speculation into its hidden meaning – as well as a surge of online searches for arachnid-inspired accessories. The baroness’ extensive brooch collection is well-documented, including a centipede, fox, frog, and butterfly among other flora and fauna.
A stitch in time
Craft as a tool for dissent has a long, rich history, manifesting in oft-surprising forms. What began as a Los Angeles community craft project soon became an instantly recognisable emblem of female solidarity, as half a million people took to the streets – many wearing the now-iconic home-knitted pink Pussyhats – in Washington DC on 21 January 2017 to protest against the incoming Trump administration. A testament to the movement’s historical significance, the V&A swiftly acquired a Pussyhat worn at the Women’s March in Washington for its Rapid Response Collection.
This wasn’t the only craftivist project to stem from the 2016 presidential election. Chicago-based artist Aram Han Sifuentes began making banners in her apartment the morning after Donald Trump was elected US President, soon founding the Protest Banner Lending Library. ‘The project became a lending library because I wasn’t a citizen at the time,’ she wrote in Crafts magazine last year. ‘The most profound way craft is used to fight for social change is how it supports a sense of community through collective making.’
Protest Banner Lending Library founder Aram Han Sifuentes will be in conversation with Crafts’ January/February issue cover star Anya Paintsil and artist Ibrahim Mahama in an online talk chaired by Dominique Heyse-Moore, senior curator (Textiles & Wallpaper) at The Whitworth Art Gallery at 6pm on Wednesday 3 February. Register for the free event here.
