THE SELKIE'S NEW CLOTHES

“The coastline, always changing with the tide, is where seals and people meet as selkies. It is a nowhere place and yet it is all they have.”

Hauntingly, beautifully, the old legend of the selkie re-emerges to express the deep challenges of the present day. The story of shapeshifting, of the skin which enables the transition between the human and natural worlds, crossing the uncertain boundary zone of the shore, is one of transformation. This performance piece by Selena S Kuzman, specially created for the Year of Coasts and Waters, merges in a poetic way the folk stories of the selkie people with the transformation of waste materials and our deep connection with the sea and the land, and our quest to find a world in which we are at home.
Selkie song by Katarina Juvančič

The third Selkie costume was created during the pandemic in 2020 and was featured in a filmed performance piece premiered on YouTube for Orkney International Science Festival.

Read more about costume design:
https://selenasart.com/artworks/selki...
https://fashionthefuturenow.org/2020/...

HOODED BOLERO WITH LONG SLEEVES: The tailored base is constructed from discarded jersey fabric, embellished with HDPE plastic waste. The various processes used when dealing with the plastic included rust dyeing, melting, and cutting to transform them into creative repetitive embellishment elements. The design process used a desaturated colour palette when dyeing HDPE plastic, and the tie dye technique to achieve intricate shades of blue, grey and brown. Each circle piece is individually hand stitched to the base for surface texture details evocative of the barnacle-encrusted rocks. 

ECO-COUTURE DRESS: The construction process in imagining the halter neck dress started with the assembly of two separate pieces of pre-loved clothing, the tulle petticoat and shapewear bodysuit. Restoring their components into a new ensemble as a one-piece continued the journey of transformation with dying and texture embellishments from the shibori techniques and the stitching of beads to the surface. For extra volume and flow, layers of pre-loved and discarded chiffon and voile leftover fabrics were sewn in, with each individual piece of fabric being heat-manipulated to create unexpected and organic-like textures.