Roses and crosswords and tunics of chiffon

Silk scarves and perfumes and lyrics to riff on

Time to indulge in some projects with string

These are a few of my favorite things

—My riff on “My Favorite Things”; original lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers for The Sound of Music

My latest completed project involved needle and thread. While watching a fashion show on YouTube one day, I suddenly got an idea (not even marginally akin to the designs floating in front of my eyes) for a black tunic with a large red rose in the front. Not finding any online to buy, I decided to make my own and turned my search to a square scarf with a large red rose. This I was luckily able to find quite easily on Etsy, as well as a black silk scarf to serve as the base.

Later, as I was drifting to sleep, another idea popped into my mind—wouldn’t it be fun to have a crossword puzzle at the back? This was a bit harder to find, but one from the whimsical brand SUITE (no affiliation) fit the bill.

I started by cutting a boat neck in the middle of the large black scarf and sewing up the raw edge. It’s symmetric, and therefore not quite the right fit at the front, but the resulting slight bulge is minor. It would be more than another month before I picked up the task again to sew on the 2 scarves and secure the sides over an entire weekend. (Slight interruption by wire roses… worth it.)

Repetitive motions that demand meticulous attention to detail, whether it’s sewing, wire artwork, or drawing portraits as photorealistically as I can manage, usually puts me in “the zone” where my mind starts to wander and time travel. In these instances, my random thoughts are no longer of the navel gazing variety but far more external. I’m not alone in this—interestingly, the phenomenon was also mentioned in the latest Nez magazine, which included a piece on the 1+1 collaboration between perfumer Nicolas Beaulieu and artist Jeanne Vicerial. The latter makes thread sculptures and has invented a process to weave clothing from a single thread using a robot, with fascinating results. She stated:

I need up to 1,200 hours to weave a piece, and it isn’t rare that the repetitive rhythm of my gestures places me in an altered state of consciousness.

—Jeanne Vicerial, interview in Nez magazine #15

Not bad… now, with which perfume should I inaugurate the newly created garment?

It has to be a rose perfume, of course—no getting around that. A dark, lush, fragrant rose (with a bonus rosebud on the top left corner from the wearer). The trickier part might be the colder, more cerebral half with the crossword.

Do any perfumes come to mind for you?

From my limited selection, I decided to go with Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady. This masterpiece by perfumer Dominique Ropion showcases a deep, red rose highlighted by raspberry, blackcurrant, and warm spices, counterbalanced by cool incense and patchouli. This contrast of bold notes also evokes the sharp lines that draw the grid of the crossword puzzle. The background of the scent can be light or dark, and this case, it suits the black, gauzy fabric that carries the main characters forward while comfortably draping on any silhouette.

I would like to think that the singular transformed piece is greater than the sum of its parts!