SLOW STiTCH NOMAD @ Oi! / 13.11.2022 - 12.05.2023

A participatory art project to reconnect people, hands and stories through collecting Hong Kong stories and transforming them into embroideries on pieces of upcycled wearable art.

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Slow Stitch Nomad / SINCE 2020

The virus asks ‘What is home?’
Your answer is not a space full of materials, is it?
Home can be as simple as feeling safe and peaceful.

“Your true home is in the here and the now.
It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race. Your true home is not an abstract idea.
It is something you can touch and live in every moment.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
 
Amidst the confusion since 2020, Toby Crispy props up the Slow Stitch Nomad shelter, hoping to construct an intimate space without restriction of time and place, and to heal the souls with slow stitching.

Slow Stitch Nomad at Blue House / 2021
A collective artwork that documents the history of Blue House with our signatures through
the slow stitching journey.
Project supported by Design Trust / Viva Blue House

82 Words in A Dress

Photography by Kimio Ng @Obscura Magazine

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April 2020 marked the beginning of the journey 

Old and new faces, they met and connected

Connecting the past and future, stitching up the stories of Hong Kong

Dozens of pieces of old clothes, forty pairs of hands

In a year of time, we sewed, stitch by stitch

We took our time, slowly we sewed

Two spools of threads, creating endless possibilities

A dress, or a tent we created

Fast fashion lasts for a moment 

But stories of the Blue House live forever

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Listen to the audio stories of the old neighbours in Blue House

Be a Slow Stitch Nomad,
Set up your home at heart anytime anywhere and find peace through remaking your preloved clothing.

Recall how our ancestors got here,
Relearn the skills they taught us and
Reserve what we shall pass to the future.
Slow down and stitch through time.

A virus divides us, a needle stitches us together.

Have a coffee and enjoy our slow stitch exercises

Slow Stitch Nomad / 2020.09

A redesign project with MA fashion students of Hong Kong Polytechnic University

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Despite the social separation, the virus is pushing us to re-imagine solutions in new ways.
To kick off the academic year of fashion design, Toby Crispy led the MA Fashion students who were staying in different places away from the campus, to make use of their old garments and the simple sewing tools around them to work on the redesign project. We discussed, developed, presented and shared with the world on Instagram with the hashtag #SlowStitchNomad on the Internet about our process of rethinking and redesigning fashion.