By Kate Sekules
September / October 2021
I wrote this very potted miniature version of my masters thesis, about late-19th century stocking darns, for Selvedge issue 102 "MEND Darn, Patch & Repair."
Since nearly the whole thing is behind a paywall, you can read it here. It begins:
"Have you ever darned a stocking? If you are under 90, probably not. Conceivably, you have never owned a stocking, let alone repaired it. But even now, the archaic act of stocking darning remains a powerful image, quintessentially female and domestic, the very opposite of stocking-adjacent accoutrements: suspenders, fishnets, garters, and the like. The stocking darn holds a special spot in domestic iconography, but never more so than in the late-nineteenth century, when whether and how you darned your stockings was freighted with especially grave significance. Consider the dominant role these flimsy tubes of knit fabric played in a woman’s wardrobe throughout the nineteenth century, and for many decades on either side..."
Now Is When We All Learn to Darn Our Socks Again by Steven Kurutz March 12, 2020 "Only a few generations ago, socks were... View full details
Visible Mending with Kate Sekules on NHK evening News @ New York, Dec 16 2022 (excerpt) ... View full details
Radical menders vs. disposable everything by Veronique Greenwood May 19, 2022 "Kate Sekules remembers the shirt well. It was made of lush Shantung silk, in kingfisher... View full details