Category Archives: Clothing

Clothing that is wearable art.

Fibers and Textiles @ The Plastic Club

handmade by the homeless – Kathryn Pannepacker & Leslie Sudock Art Street Textile Studio, Art on South Street

Shag Tapestries, $100,00 @ Arts Street Textile Studio: handmade by the homeless, Art on South Street initiative master-minded by visionary artist Isaiah Zagar of the Magic Garden. Fantastic galleries have opened up along South Street including the Art Street Textile Studio, an ongoing weaving project begun in a homeless shelter where people were taught to weave on a loom as well as crochet, knit, sew and embroider; the administrators found the activity therapeutic and many of the weavers have followed the program even after the shelter project was complete. Now on South Street the team has a beautiful storefront where people can come in and see the looms and the fabulous results.

Arts Street Textile Studio: handmade by the homeless, 6th & South Streets, Philly. Hours of operation are Wednesday through Sunday from 3:00 to 8:00PM. For more information please contact: Kathryn Pannepacker via email: kpannepacker@gmail.com or phone 215.769.1016. Leslie Sudock via email: la.sudock@verizon.net or phone 215.735.3978.

This guy isn’t homeless but he was being instructed by Robert,”the only homeless guy left in the group.” Sparkles, one of the artists, was out front encouraging people into the packed gallery on the hot Autumn night to see the cool looms and good folks. When DoN got home from the event, the beautiful hand-loomed scarf he bought for only $20.00 is signed,”Robert.”

Even when the project was homeless itself, for a while they were a living installation in the Free Library, this simple loom was placed near food distribution points for homeless people and weavers would continue making the fabric, the device was never damaged by vandals, simply chained to a bike rack.

Hand loomed winter scarves @ Arts Street Textile Studio: handmade by the homeless. Hours of operation are Wednesday through Sunday from 3:00 to 8:00PM. For more information please contact: Kathryn Pannepacker via email: kpannepacker@gmail.com or phone 215.769.1016. Leslie Sudock via email: la.sudock@verizon.net or phone 215.735.3978.

Diane Keller @ Dumpster Divers on South Street

Girl.Bike.Dog. @ Bainbridge & Grays Ferry

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Girl.Bike.Dog. creates messenger bags, backpacks, side-bags for dogs – all with super-kawaii, urban street designs featuring trippy mushrooms, clever cosmo cowgirl symbols & iconic girl graphics. Lindsay Duggan tells DoN she’s working hard to meet the demand for Girl.Bike.Dog. gear. The shop offers T-shirts by various artists, cycling hats, knit hats, uber- cool dog collars & leashes and essential bike gear.

Photography by Center City West photographer/dog walker, Jeremy Burger of The Philly Pack – the ubiquitous Center City West dog-walking service who offers high endurance exercise for dogs, social & behavioral conditioning and Pack Leader coaching. Messenger bags by Girl.Bike.Dog.

The bike and messenger community in Philly is tight-knit and owner Lindsay Duggan is knowledgeable of the needs of the biking enthusiasts, urban dog lover and fashion design lovers. Duggan is well informed about the current discussions around bike laws in the news, bike lanes in the city and the rise of human powered transportation, the perils of being a bike messenger, dog walking services and urban dog owner needs. And, she makes really awesome hand-made bags. The block where the shop where Girl.Bike.Dog is located includes Betty’s Speakeasy Cupcakes (best of Philly Mag), The Balkan Restaurant with the best Serbian recipes from Radovan’s family recipes and Grace Tavern, the best fries in town. The view of Center City is spectacular, too – DoN was surprised to see the cherry trees in bloom for Indian Summer.

Photography by Jeremy Burger @ Girl.Bike.Dog.

Lindsay Duggan mastermind behind Girl.Bike.Dog.

Dumpster Divers 17yo

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The Dumpster Diver Gallery @ 734 South Street held a gala in honor of their 17th anniversary as an anarchist art collective dedicated to making art from cultural refuse. Like the gleaners in a Millet painting, this disparate group sifts through the remnants of contemporary culture creating junque, elegant objects, witty pronouncements, versatile visions as if gathering potatoes in a French field. Ellen Benson‘s mixed media constructions from old books and Lincoln Logs throb with vague dreams of lives past; each anthropomorphic object has a funky little personality all it’s own, Benson is on a mission to create 1000 dolls, she’s approaching 500.

Randy Dalton has recreated the Blue Grotto in the back of the sprawling space; DoN LoVeS seeing funky old computers like the Mac blue-and-white monitor being used as an art object like some retrofitted Neuromancer future style. DoN‘s blue-n-white glowed purple and made a zapping sound early in the morning a while back but it’s still in the basement, too beautiful to throw away. Neil Benson‘s lamp made of stacked tin boxes is a museum piece; each box filled with memetic waves forms depending on the pattern printed on the thin folded metal. The Dumpster Divers on South Street is like William Gibson‘s future city built on the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge after the grid goes down and a whole society develops meeting every need from noodle soup to watch repair.

Artists are taking the city over from City Hall to South Street, Kensington to University City, Rittenhouse Square to Pretzel Park; art is more than just on the surface, it’s being built in.