Meet textile & eco-conscious artist Charlotte Rose— based in Toronto, Canada; Charlotte shares her artist process and the importance of sustainability within her work.
Charlotte personalizing our 100% organic lightweight canvas Adult Franny Dress in Charcoal— creating a custom floral block print to stamp adding personality to this piece.
How has this process changed your relationship with your wardrobe? Investing my time and energy into a garment always make me feel more connected to it. I find myself cleaning it more gently and always hanging it up. It reminds me of the sentiment I get towards inanimate objects after I do a still life drawing of them. If I observe something for long enough, I end up feeling like we know each other.
I also notice myself being more selective about the pieces I purchase. When I acquire something new, I feel like I am committing to caring for that object longterm so I want to be sure that I like it beyond the trends cycle.
Where did you first learn to mend & work with textiles? Like for so many, my Nana was the start of it all. As a kid would bring her my dolls with unusual proportions and she would teach me how to make clothing for them. We would do things like crafting my stuffed giraffe polka dot overalls (with a hole for his tale of course) and make a sun-hats that fit my massive troll doll’s head. It was lots of fun and it taught be the fundamentals of pattern drafting and design at a young age.
Mending came much later. Over the pandemic, I was gifted a book called “Mending Life: a Handbook for Mending Clothes and Hearts” by the Montenegro sisters. The book opens with an essay about repair that I find really profound. They describe mending as a way to honor the natural resources and the people that have contributed to the creation of your garment. As well as a way to practice patience and acceptance with our belongings, and by extension with ourselves. This perspective really shifted things for me, it framed mending as a small but meaningful act of care, for myself and for the planet.
How have you found your ‘style’ while adding personal touches to your pieces? Being an active participant in my clothing’s evolution often means that my garments actually come on my style journey with me. For instance, in university I adored a pair of bright purple silk pants. But after graduation I started gravitating to more natural tones and they no longer felt right. So I dyed them Brown! Later, I hemmed them into shorts. And I’ve even added J.Kim inspired cut outs to them since then. I hope my Noble pieces evolve the same way :)
FOLLOW CHARLOTTE HERE: INSTAGRAM & TIKTOK
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