Jessamy Shay Kilcollins

she/her

https://jessamyshay.com/

https://www.instagram.com/jessamy.shay/?hl=en

Artwork

I am a textile artist, mender, and slow fashion designer interested in the intersection of functionality, sustainability, and personal expression. Utilizing damaged clothing destined for landfill, along with vintage textiles like doilies and abandoned quilt blocks, I seek to explore the potential still residing within these discarded textiles, interacting thoughtfully and intentionally with their innate histories and teasing out the stories they have yet to tell.

Somerville, MA, USA

My current project is AMENDED, a series of one of a kind thoughtfully mended vintage garments. Processes like embroidery, applique, and darning are used to creatively and visibly repair these discarded items to give them new life and keep them from the textile waste stream. I am also a teaching artist, instructing others in the art of mending so that they can more carefully consider their relationship with what they wear.

Jessamy Shay Kilcollins is a textile artist, mender, and fashion designer whose work focuses on sustainability and handcraft processes. She holds a BFA in Fibers and a Certificate in Fashion Design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In January 2020, she was one of eight designers from the Northeast selected to participate in a sustainable fashion design competition called Project Upcycle, and she was awarded second place for her gala look sewed from repurposed secondhand clothing. Jessamy has taught mending in the Boston area at the The Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts, Make & Mend, the Cambridge Public Library, and the Somerville Public Library. She also participates in sustainability-focused mending pop-up events in and around Somerville, where she co-owns High Energy Vintage with her partner. They live with two cats and way too many chairs in an old nut factory.

occasional

Yes