Creative Cloth

Anita Luvera Mayer is one of the most inspiring people I know, as an artist and weaver, and, most of all, as a person. Our video team had the pleasure and privilege of working with her on a new video that is as unique and inspiring as her garments. Here she is to tell you about her mission to help us celebrate our own worth and individuality through creative cloth. ––Anita

My new video, Creative Cloth: Designing and Embellishing Handwoven Fabric, features my approach to clothing over the past forty years. I create contemporary wearable clothing constructed from simple shapes inspired by other peoples, cultures and times. The garments I make are my wardrobe, for people I love, used in bartering, for students to try on, and special pieces for exhibition.

My approach to how I dress is based on a concept of "creative coverings." I wear a garment in one color that I call my uniform (jeans and a turtle-neck, skirt/blouse, pants/top, dress etc), and worn over the uniform are looserfitting simple shapes that require little tailoring and accommodate ease of movement.

My goal is to "wear on the outside who I am on the inside" and to celebrate my age and my individuality as a woman. I want to make and wear unique cloth, so the video includes a range of surface techniques that I use to transform a plain material (woven or purchased ) into one-of-kind fabric.

In the video I present a series of my garments worn over two different "uniforms" along with simple ways you, too, can transform plain cloth into one-of-kind fabric that makes a meaningful statement about you. As women, we need to celebrate who we are, and one way to do this is the clothing we make and wear.

—Anita Luvera Mayer