Ella and the Caterpillars
The deconstruction and reconstruction of a Spirella corset.
I was intrigued by the role the Spirella Company played in making Irvin parachutes during the war, photo’s I found showed the Spirella buildings ballroom with rows of sewing machines and parachute fabric as the Spirella ladies went from producing a garment that was tight and restrictive to creating huge billowing parachutes that saved lives. Having acquired an original Spirella corset I carefully unpicked it and reassembled it, leaving the lengths of corset fabric and fibres long, trailing from the weaves. These represent the parachutes with a nod to photographs I’d found in the archives of Irvin parachutes their adverts.
The Spirella Stay which was invented in the US in 1904 and from which the word Spirella comes from are made from tightly twisted and flattened coils of wire. The Stays that I carefully removed from the corset were slightly bent, I assume having taken on the shape of the lady’s body to whom the corset belonged to. I popped these aside to use as part of the structure to hang my finished weavings from. The Stays are fundamental to keeping everything held in and up, I wanted them to be seen. They also had a resemblance of the Irvin caterpillar brooches.
Irvin’s caterpillar club was named after the silkworm caterpillars that produced the silk used originally to make parachutes, the club’s motto is “Life depends on a silken thread”, those admitted into the Caterpillar Club have had their lives saved by using a parachute after bailing out of a disabled aircraft. Leslie Irvin agreed to gift every person whose life was saved by one of his parachutes a gold pin, Irvin distributed over 34,000 gold pins by the end of World War II. These gold pins were initially shaped like a caterpillar and were three-dimensional with ridges along the back and ruby eyes in a style to depict the insect’s natural form. I placed the design of the gold caterpillar pin running down the front of my mini woven corsets which hang from the parachutes.
My silk moth is woven in corset and waste silk fibres, including a Christian Dior silk scarf. The wings are the exact pattern of the silk moth. I felt the silk moth was fundamental to the production of parachutes but also represents the luxury of the Spirella corset, it’s wings pulling round to represent the dignity fabric the corset models wore on the ballroom stage, but also a nod to a photo I came across in the Letchworth Heritage archives of Irvin parachutes hanging closed from the ceiling ready for packing.
The whole piece dances, Ella and her caterpillars in the Spirella ballroom hanging from threads held by the structure of a corset. The strength of threads that played an important role in saving lives.
My moth, mini corsets and parachutes are created using woven tapestry techniques and pulled warped processes which allow 3 dimensional forms. These processes are a nod to the pulling of laces when tightening a corset.
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