Week 4

Mary Qin
Week 4
ASA 141

This week, I have gotten back on track with my purchases. I have thought ahead for most of my gifts and have not felt the need to purchase more. The article, "Speaking Through Cloth: Teaching Hmong History and Culture Through Textile Art"," talks about how the Hmong people create their own clothing and are able customize it to their own identities and history. This reminded me of my experience this week. Since my sorority formal was last Friday, a lot of my sisters were trying to get their dresses altered to fit the style that they preferred. One of them decided that it was too expensive to pay for a professional alteration. She decided to drive out to a friend with a sewing machine in Fairfield and together, they stayed up all night watching Youtube videos on how to sew and self-taught themselves to alter their own dresses. Similarly to the Hmong people, they were able to teach themselves how to alter their own clothing into something that better represented them. This has become more doable with the presence of the internet. I think that being able to alter your own clothing to your own style makes the clothing more special. It also is a money saver when trying to follow trends. We talked about how "fast fashion" is a cheap way to follow trends in class, but a way to be sustainable and on a budget is upcycling old pieces of clothing into something new and fashionable. Fox news just published an article about a "Teen hand-makes dress for prom date after retail version was too expensive". A best friend designed and made the prom dress for his friend. This made the dress especially special. "Seeing that dress that morning before Prom was like a movie," said Adriana Rust, the girl who received the dress. Perhaps, altering and making our own clothing can become more popular in the future.

Works Cited:

Wttg. “Teen Hand-Makes Dream Dress for Prom Date after Retail Version Was Too Expensive.” WTTG, www.fox5dc.com/news/teen-hand-makes-dream-dress-for-prom-date-after-retail-version-was-too-expensive.

McCall, Ava L. "Speaking Through Cloth: Teaching Hmong History and Culture Through Textile Art" 1999. 

Ava L. McCall (1999): Speaking through Cloth: Teaching Hmong History and Culture through Textile Art,

The Social Studies, 90:5, 230-236

Ava L. McCall (1999): Speaking through Cloth: Teaching Hmong History and Culture through Textile Art,

The Social Studies, 90:5, 230-236