Mending by Hand: Embroidery 1F23

Jessamy Kilcollins is a textile artist, fashion designer, and mender with a focus on sustainability and handcraft processes. Her work explores the physical and the metaphysical properties of textiles. Using fabric scraps, secondhand clothing, and vintage materials, plus handwork techniques such as embroidery and beading, she explores the way the human experience is intimately entangled with the textiles that constantly surround us. She creates a new chapter in the lives of these reclaimed textile elements by interacting with their innate histories and teasing out new stories.

Jessamy 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 was awarded second place for her gala look sewed from repurposed secondhand clothing.  Her upcycled work has also been shown at Eileen Fisher Chestnut Hill, and local independent music festival Starlabfest.  She has coordinated and participated in sustainability-focused mending pop-up events in and around Somerville, where she lives with her partner and two cats.