Claudia Savickas

When reading a text that is meant for the stage, I’m never simply looking at words on the page. I treat the play as if I am its director; imagining the set, lighting, costume, cast, etc. Visual questions are always at the forefront of my mind. As a textile artist, I always ask one question before all others: how would I represent these characters through clothing? I ask this of most things I read, but when asking them of Shakespeare, his characters yield some of the richest answers.

In this body of work, I have created eight such garments for main characters from Shakespeare’s tragedies, endeavoring to connect clothing to character through material, texture, pattern, and color. The sweaters I’ve designed and knit exist somewhere in between costume, illustration, and interpretation. They express what is at the core of each character—their conflicts, their personalities, their words. They can be worn everyday in the modern world, but are encoded with literary interpretations.

Shakespeare sought to create a point of entry for the masses. I seek to do the same by developing patterns which could be easily knit by others, making a seemingly daunting process quite approachable. Each sweater I’ve designed uses one or two more complicated techniques, but the ease of their construction, and areas of rest give knitters the opportunity to tackle a garment that looks intricate and refined.

Above all else, Shakespeare is poetry. The dialogue between characters drives the play, providing the strongest opportunity to design each one a unique garment. Their voices, their words, the imagery central to them, are at the core of my work. The baroque speech of Hamlet becomes a series of intricate cables, while the blood on Lady Macbeth’s hands transforms into strands of red color-work.

If Iambic Pentameter is the heartbeat of the English language, then knitting is the heartbeat of textiles. A sweater will always be a familiar garment; a play will always be performed. Every aspect of the sweater creates the sense of something, just as written poetry endeavors to do.