Julia’s Legacy: Sewing the Past Stitches into the Present Seams, by Lillie Mack and Jo Hare
Lillie Mack and Jo Hare are sisters who both recollect learning how to sew at their mother’s feet. A skill that was passed down the female line for many generations in their family—and later helped to employ multiple generations of women in industrial textile factories—sewing is now an artistic medium for Mack and Hare to explore personal narrative, culture and history. Julia’s Legacy: Sewing the Past Stitches into the Present Seams traces the fashion of the artist’s ancestors from slavery to present the day. The work features hand-sewn items from original designs, inspired by historical photos and personal memories. Fabrics and materials were meticulously researched, using vintage fabrics when possible.
After the Civil War and during the Great Migrations from 1910 to 1970, many African Americans moved their families North for economic opportunity and civil rights. As Mack and Hare point out, their family did not relocate after slavery, instead transitioning into sharecropping. The clothes represented in Julia’s Legacy depict the history of rural Alabama.
Julia—the sisters’ maternal great-great-grandmother who was born in the mid 1860’s—is the oldest matriarch that Mack and Hare could document, finding stories and information to inform her image. Her style features a flannel blouse most likely to have come from fabric scraps, a wool skirt and underskirt, and in the words of the artists, the “ever present sack cloth apron.” The outfit of this era, common to slavery and sharecropping, is a direct reference to labor, creating an iconic image of the matriarch from whom this work and women descend.
Re-used materials are a common motif in the artists’ work, a practice with a historical origin in utility. A 1930’s children’s outfit is a charming dress made from a colorful flour sack. Used for their significant yardage, flour sacks provided a common material for girls’ dresses and undergarments. Mary Zeno, a poet and sister of the artists whose writing accompanies this work in a narrative text and poem, notes that from the origins of slavery, reusable items were passed down to future generations along with skill.
Church outfits appear throughout the span of time represented here. A smart wool cape for church or trips to town represents the 1940’s. A pink pique polka dotted dress with a fitted waist and A-line skirt bring to mind ideals of 1950’s female domesticity and beauty.
The 1960’s represent a turning point in the work. The only male outfit to be featured in the show depicts a SNCC jacket—an outfit likely to be worn by organizers working for civil rights through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—reinterpreted here with re-purposed denim. The artists also note that when TV became common, their fashion was for the first time influenced by an outside world. For the females, a suede fringe vest and bell-bottom jeans represent the fast cultural shifts taking place across the nation.
In the 1970’s, the sisters’ mother went to work in the new sewing factory. Extra income meant new clothes. The TWL fabric store offered new fabrics, and polyester made fine mini dresses. A red plaid pants suit with a wide, white belt steps forward. Vibrant colors appear frequently now, and these iconic fashion silhouettes call to mind familiar images of the Brady Bunch or Mary Tyler Moore.
Throughout the following decades, Mack and Hare reference their memories of sewing for their children and nieces. Colorful “clown suits,” denim jackets, and a smart red dress for church each point to fashion as an important part of self expression, cultural statement and a source of joy. For the artists, these outfits bring to mind memories of specific family members, women with their own stories and images. For the audience, that experience may be the same.
Zeno’s poem, In the Yard, contextualizes this work as deeply personal and familial. Sewing is part of the larger domestic scene. The work of family living—doing laundry, chopping wood, being together as a unit of people, animals and land— is embedded in the group and the individuals. The poem concludes with an image of Dad helping children to gather starter wood for the morning fire. Zeno offers a perfect metaphor for legacy, work taught and shared from young to old. We gather around for light and warmth.
Julia’s legacy is both material and creative. This work traces sewing in its evolution from a domestic skill, to a mode of employment, into a tool of self-expression and finally as an artistic medium. Labor, identity, culture, family, gender and geography are subjects that cannot be separated from each other, working together to manifest Julia’s legacy in future generations of women. Her true legacy seems to be these creative, strong women, articulating their identity through a rich tradition.
The final image in the work is inspired by the current popular TV and fashion icon, Olivia Pope. A black wool jacket with black and white trim reference the character’s bold fashion, style and wit. The piece is an apt stopping point for this body of work that uses fashion as a way to trace the representation of women of color throughout history. The artists remark, “Olivia Pope here we come. I may not have the fame that she has, but I can still look like a star.”
In the yard
Chillun’s, chickens, dogs and cats
From the front yard to the back
chillun’s, chickens, dogs and cats
Chillun’s up and about, playing from morning
to dusk.
As the early morning dew dries, for the
early evening dew comes and applies
Chickens need feeding, eggs need to be
gotten, as the rooster crow the dogs start
to go, from the front to the back door
looking for something to eat on or the
chillun’s to play and jump on.
The cats lay lazy about on the porch
taking in the sun as they lick their fur.
Mama wash load after load as the
older ones hang up one load and take in
the dry to fold.
Daddy cutting wood, as he finishes calls for help
to pile up.
The chillun’s all stand in a row from
the woodpile to the door.
Daddy always leave the kindlin and
chips for the little ones to gather and
pick up.
For this is the the starter wood for the
morning fire. So at any given Saturday, as
you pass by, there you will see
Chillun’s, chickens, dogs and cats
– Mary Zeno
1-27-15
About the Artists
Lille R. Mack
My journey as an artist and clothing designer started at age 5. My mother made clothes for the family and taught me how to sew. I learned to make clothes for my dolls and apparel for myself and my sisters. After high school, I worked as a piece-work floating skill operator at Rob Roy manufacturing and Livingston Apparel. Like my mother I also made clothes for my family and after 26 years of factory work, I started making quilts and other crafts at home.
I joined Black Belt Designs in August 2003. The collaborative environment at Black Belt Designs enhanced my artistic vision and technical expertise giving my current work a cool sophistication influenced by my love of classic Asian silhouettes. L.J. Designs is more than a piece of cloth with my name on it. It signifies who I have become.
I have received awards in area-wide juried art shows. In 2006, I was listed in southernartisrty.org as well as receiving a Design Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
Jo Hare
My introduction to sewing began at the age of 5 or 6 at my mother’s feet. It was natural for me to want to sew because this is what the majority of the women in our family loved to do. And also because my sister was doing it and I wanted to do what she did. I started by sitting under quilting racks pushing the needle back up to my Mama. I started with doll clothes and later developed the skill to make my own and other family members’ clothes. I worked at the sewing factory for 24 years doing piece work. During all this time, I still sewed at home, sometimes all night to make something my daughter saw and decide I could make. When the factory closed I didn’t stop sewing. Eventually my sister and I started to work on our dreams to create what we saw in our heads. It took me longer than her but here we are.