~ERL / A$AP Rocky / MET GALA QUILT / DATING CONTROVERSY / LOST & FOUND . . .
the ERL / A$AP MET GALA QUILT is QUITE . . the ‘VERNACULAR’ – STAR !!
but, NO, is is not ‘ANTIQUE’ – it is . . ‘VINTAGE’.
AND DATES – FROM THE 1970s.
so, a woman came forward on Instagram – to claim that it was she who had donated the ‘Puff’ quilt / used by ERL as the basis for his show-stopping . . A$AP Rocky Met Gala ‘cape’ . . to the thrift shop, where ERL found it.
so interesting / what social media makes possible.
see: ‘A$AP Rocky’s Met Gala Quilt – Backstory’ by JOYANN JEFFREY, BUZZFEED / posted SEPT 26, 2021.
IMAGE VIA Instagram @books_n_babies
funny how – this story has . . . legs !!
but, also in being found – some info – got lost . . or ‘confused’, esp regarding the ‘originality’ of the quilt, and its . . date.
VOGUE – the ‘fashion bible’, lol / did not help by terming the quilt ‘antique’.
as per that BUZZFEED link above /
According to VOGUE, “Linnetz purchased ‘the antique quilt’ from a thrift shop.”
well, unless an object is over 100 years old, it is not antique / it is vintage.
also, Sarah . . the IG woman who claims to have given away the quilt, says it was made by her great-grandmother . which probably also confused some people. if you take 20 years as a kind of average generational indicator / that still gets us back to the 1970s,
when all things DIY, but esp quilts, knitting, and crochet began to grow in popularity, leading to a new advancement of skills /starting life in 70s as ‘hobby projects’, and leading to the full flower renaissance we see today. though there is still a heirarchy of ‘ making’. with top s designers like RAF SIMMONS making incredible hi-end sweaters with PRADA, through hand-knit ‘amateur’ hats & scarves, to the truly vernacular kid DIY projects such as puppet-making, or even . . . yarn dolls.
in the textile world, it is actually quite solid, not much grey area / and, easy to date things, such as quilts – by the fabric / for example: woven (very antique !!), or printed / which in turn breaks down into early / such as woodblock, or roller-printed textiles (colonial times) to silkscreens, to more modern, contemporary mass production factory techniques. and any decent textile reference book, would clearly find this quilt to be of 1970 manufacture.
detail ERL – A$AP Rocky MET GALA quilt / via full scale BUZZFEED image
another big clue, as to the dating of this quilt, would be that, although it is ‘pieced’ / i.e. made up of small units of cloth sewn together to make a whole bedspread, this is not the case here / in that, in the pattern we can easily see there was enough of a big yardage of each color, that permitted the quilt-maker to cut out as many squares, to makes as many ‘Puff’ pockets, as she needed to complete the grid pattern, without resorting to an i old-fashioned ‘scrap bag’. when this quilt was made, whole textile yardage, and micro-printed yardage at that / reflects ‘store-bought’ yards of material, and it was cheap, and widely available – so VOGUE, you can scratch off . . ‘antique’, once – and for – all.
PIECED:
the concept of ‘pieced’ quilts dates back to colonial times , when cloth was rare, and printed clothe even more rare / as it was imported from England, and therefore very very expensive. thus collecting, cutting out the remaining ‘good’ bits, and re-using these ‘pieces’ / from worn-out clothing – was the American pioneer way . . to make ‘sustainable’, large ‘bed’ coverings. think Amish quits, etc.
and, regarding the cloth that was local, woven & home-made, hand-dyed, maybe be even / roller-printed, woodblock printed with a rudimentary pattern / was also expensive, and labor-intensive / and, so it was harvested as well, from older garments – saved up, as ‘scraps’ in a ‘scrap bag’ / to ‘piece’ into larger quilts. obviously, not – the case here. in fact, one way to date real ‘antique’ quilts, or to assess the wealth or lifestyle of the maker / is to examine the ‘variation’ in the different, maybe ‘red’ textiles used to innovate – to complete – a continuous, over-all pattern, obviously – not the case here.
then we come to ‘feed sacks’ !!
dry food goods, such as flour or sugar, or animal feed, seeds, etc / at a little bit later time, think ‘Little House on the Prairie’, came in big multi-pound sacks made from cotton. (there was no synthetic fiber, or plastic at the time), and at some point these dry goods merchants realized if they roller-printed or woodblock printed) these cottons, that would increase their (i.e. sustainability) re-use, and also encourage the farmers’ wives to pick the brand of flour, or sugar that had pattern they coveted, and also women would gather scraps and trade, like a form of early trading cards. so that era also had ‘pieced’ quits.
by the mid 1900s, ‘piecing’ – was a conceptional ‘conceit’ / not done through necessity, cost or
industry, but as a ‘project’, as a way to follow and emulate older quilt traditions. this ‘pieced’ quilt falls under that evolution.
‘Puff’, ‘Biscuit’, or even ‘Bubble’ quilts, such as this ERL found vintage quilt / . . . actually have a history going all the way back to the late 1800s, Victorian times / when the little individual ‘pockets’ were stuffed with cotton batting filling, and again were made as a way to utilize small ‘scraps’, such as velvet, or silk from more elaborate handiwork, or expensive clothing.
so again . . unless it is an historic ‘stand-out’ / that has been carefully kept – even old, as in really old, 100 year old / truly antique ‘Puff’ quilts still fell very much so, under the ‘vernacular’ genre.
so, back to now !!
although, it would help to know what was used to ‘fill’ the ‘bubble’ pockets of this ERL / A$AP Rocky quilt / was it cotton batting, was it used panty hose or nylon stockings ? . . or synthetic fiberfill ?
it’s really not necessary to know, to be able to date the quilt, but it would help.
that no one was curious enough to inspect the filling, or if they were close enough to it, as Zak Foster must have been . . to make mention of it / speaks volumes to how woefully uninterested, or unaware – all the ‘founding’ parties involved with the quilt were – in terms of quilt history, and quilt-making / in general . . .
but, especially Zak Foster, the supposed quilt expert guy who repaired it, and didn’t think twice to mention – what it was stuffed with ?
no matter,
we know from the specific cotton cloth, the specific pattern, and especially the specific color dye used – that this was 1970s fabric.
further it was cloth made specifically – to support the new-found interest in quilting, and hand-made DIY projects in general, especially of the ‘vernacular’ / outsider genre . . which called for . . . traditional-looking, cheery small floral prints, in a range of many different colors.
it also helps . . if you have an original / ‘vintage’ bolt of this kind of printed cotton – with the maker, and the actual date – stamped into the selvedge, or yard cloth . . border !!!
and, yeah.
of course . . . I do !!
this a sampling of 1960s textile / it does not match,in sheen, brightness, nor intensity of color, nor in the size or style of – the tiny printed floral repeat.
~mass-produced cotton / textile technology – still had a way to go to match the ERL found quilt.
textile source: ‘Dating Fabrics, A Color Guide 1800- 1960’, by Eileen Jahnke Trestain.
Publisher: American Quilter’s Society, Kentucky / 1998.
Photo: Nancy Smith
Collection: Nancy Smith
but, this is more like it !!!!
this . . 1970 ‘craft’ fabric – is a dead ringer !!
Photo: Nancy Smith
Collection: Nancy Smith
1970s cotton fabric such as this – was used to make . . STUFFED – DIY / Christmas ornaments !!
Photo: Nancy Smith
Collection: Nancy Smith
some more Xmas / hand-sewn & stuffed ornaments
Photo: Nancy Smith
Collection: Nancy Smith
talk about . . vernacular !!
and . . other folk art projects / a wooden clothespin doll / and probably a Xmas ornament.
Photo: Nancy Smith
Collection: Nancy Smith
the cloth came with instructions, and . . . the date the fabric was printed.
Photo: Nancy Smith
Collection: Nancy Smith
1976.
Photo: Nancy Smith
Collection: Nancy Smith
ps:
yes !!
all the above 1970 / DIY hand-sewn craft Xmas ornaments, and the wooden clothespin doll, all came from local thrift shops, including my prized . . . ‘DIY’ bolt of cotton – with the DIY ornament cut-outs & instructions, the date printed into the border selvedge.
and, none cost more than $2.50 – if that / including the historic DIY fabric.
no wonder, I got so excited seeing that A$AP Rocky waltz down – the Met Gala red carpet !!!!
.