Pirate 404 aka Jo Walsh - portfolio
>These pieces of customisation / embellishment are all made in 2024-2025, after my interest in fashion design was re-sparked by the Edinburgh Street Stitchers and the new sewing room in the Edinburgh Hacklab. Most of the underlying garments came secondhand from charity shops, a few were found in sales. I made this page to apply to the Trades House fashion design competition.
Shoulder
A fine wool jacket from a charity shop in Morningside, the material very bald on one shoulder, presumed worn away by a handbag strap. Densely packed chain stitch over the top, in the form of a sunrise/sunset scene
Begun on the night of the winter solstice, 2024 and the threads are from the tassels of a traditional wedding headdress from Siwa Oasis
Collar / cuff
A fitted shirt from a charity shop in Southside (Edinburgh), painted with a flame effect in acrylic on one cuff and with extra detail peeking out under the collar. This was painted together, in the back garden of my apartment block after a barbeque, with a visiting friend, the artist and curator Andrew Paterson with whom i collaborated on "locative media" work in the early 2000s
Shorts
These shorts came from a charity shop in Southside, the evening before a samba performance on The Mound with The Edinburgh Samba School. I tailored them to take several inches out of the waistband and added a diamante fringe across one cheek and hip, designed to flick and reflect light. The diamante strands were originally part of a belt accessory.
Coat
This is a very good condition mens' wool coat that came from the Zero Waste Hub in Bread Street in exchange for tokens. The embellishment is a few more of the diamante strands above, combined with pieces of a broken necklace from an antique jewellery shop in West Port. The faintly suggestive design is meant to be "once you see it, you can't unsee it." The picture is deliberately low-contrast because this work is designed only to be seen in person, it is too much for machine eyes
Hat
This hat came from Primark where it was on sale for £2. It's painted in a dot pattern, several layers of acrylic mixed with fabric medium, to match an African fan which came from a stall at the Meadows Festival. The action picture shows the artist wearing it, accessorised with earrings made out of freshly collected claws from invasive red crayfish at the site of the What Hackers Yearn festival.
Hat 2
I'm very light-sensitive and often wear a hat in public settings. This wool bucket hat for winter was bought new, from the Uniqlo store on Princes St. Embroidered with ferns, prompted by the light behind ferns on the walk into Richmond on a stage of Coast to Coast path. Same threads and styles as Shoulder, above. It's also a "stealth pirate" hat with a Crafty Pirates logo stitched into the brim, one of several pieces of stealth embroidery inside hat brims.
T-shirt
This t-shirt was painted for a dance performance at the Edinburgh Carnival. From a distance appearing as a Brazil football shirt, from closer up it is an homage to the much-loved and much-missed "Eat Yer Bread / Doon Yer Tea" series of graffiti works that spread through Edinburgh around the time of the Covid era
Tutu
This one-shouldered suit jacket reimagined as a fitted dress originally came from a New Year's sale in Zara. The tutu adds two different tones of orange-red. It was made to attend a performance of the costumed extravanganza "House of JoJo"
