John Henry Sedrome

Hand-me-downs

When I was nineteen I created my first fashion collection utilizing the clothes that my parents once wore as its main textile. As I cut through my parent’s hand-me-downs, it felt as if I were cutting through decades of family ancestry -- as if every fiber of the fabric carried a part of my parent’s history. Every detail in that fashion collection represented more than just me, it also represented the hardships my family had to face. These garments were more than just some old hand-me-downs, they were a symbol of the past. In my perspective, creating the textiles and garments by hand felt like an extension of the skill set and passion embedded in the DNA of my existence. I am just a fragment of the generations before me that have paved the way for one another as I pave the way for future generations. My collection created with hand-me-downs are what make up my family, and the textiles created with them are a preservation of every single detail that led to the creation of my family.