December 9, 2006
The Coleman Center is pleased to announce Fashion Your Destiny, Black Belt Designs: the Work of Marilyn Gordon and Lillie J. Mack, which will be on display from December 9 through January 20. The works in the show are the culmination of three years of collaboration between Gordon and Mack, whose original designs have been the creative force behind the Black Belt Designs Program. This exhibition gives an overview of their work, and hopes to inspire the idea that each of us can create beauty with what’s available.
As a whole, the work draws attention to social trends and cultural representation in fashion. One series of garments chronicles the life of Mack’s first generation freeborn American ancestor, who happened to be an excellent seamstress. Using metaphor and story telling to create characters, the designs comment on typical notions of race, class, and gender.
The Black Belt Designs program, which grew out of a three day dress construction workshop led by Gordon, has evolved into a full time fiber workshop. The original designs are typically fashioned from recycled denim jeans, and imported African fabrics. Mack talks about the choice of African mud cloth from Mali, “I use the African made fabric because it epitomizes what I believe. One can make something beautiful from what they find around them.”
Design training is available to any individual seeking to learn. The program activities build self-esteem and confidence in participants by placing a fair monetary value on their specialized skill, and creates awareness that one can develop skills that enhance lives both emotionally and economically through creativity.
Gordon and Mack have shown their work throughout Alabama and the United States including at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Juneteenth Celebration, the Edna Carlson Gallery, and in New York City. Mack was a recent recipient of the prestigious Alabama State Council on the Arts Individual Fellowship Award. To see more designs please visit the Black Belt Designs web site.
For more information about this exhibition please contact the Coleman Center at (205)392-2005 or email info@colemanarts.org.
About the Artists
Marilyn Gordon’s life long commitment to the art of clothing design began at age 9. She also learned by observing her mother clothe the family and make quilts. Her first item was a dirndl skirt from a blue and white feed sack. Although college in the mid-50’s expanded her technical sewing skills, sewing for self and family enhanced her creativity. Her unique approach to fabric manipulation evolved as a creative response to limited fabric choices during the 70’s and 80’s. Interesting fabrics were not available to the home seamstress or to small cottage industries at this time. Her large ‘stash’ of experimental fabric collaged with a progressive color sense and a rejection of fashion dictates, ignited her vision as an artist and craftsperson. After retiring from a Social Work career, she marketed her work primarily through juried art and craft shows. After a complex twist of destiny landed her in Alabama, she facilitated a 3-day fiber workshop in York, Alabama. The response from the community was amazing and Black Belt Designs became a permanent fiber workshop and arts outreach program of the Coleman Center for Arts and Culture. Gordon summarizes her involvement in the project. “Black Belt Designs is a marriage of my heartfelt commitment to positive social change, individualized dressing and making the most with what you have.”
Lillie J. Mack’s journey as an artist and clothing designer started at age 5. Lillie learned her sewing skills by observing her mother make clothes for the family. She soon became the family seamstress. After high school, she worked at local garment factories and like her mother, made clothes for her family. She never learned to sew from a pattern but could copy any item she saw including creating the samples for the factory. In 2000 the factories moved, and after 26 years of factory work Lillie continued to make quilts and other clothing items at home.
Lillie joined Black Belt Designs in August 2003. To quote Lillie “the first day I came to the project at Black Belt, I realized that all my life I had been someone’s daughter, sister, wife, or mother and now it was time to become ME! It was the first time I had my own identity.” The collaborative environment at Black Belt Designs enhanced her artistic vision and technical expertise giving her current work a cool sophistication. This past year Lillie received two awards in juried art shows. “In the past, I made clothes dictated by the needs and desires of my clients. I now make clothes that satisfy my artistic vision. My clients are people who value my unique style. Designs are more than a piece of cloth with my name on it; it signifies who I have become.