Dolorès Gossye

Textile creator

©Bart Decobecq

Textiles inspired by a time and a place

Dolorès feels textiles are 'tied to the nature of man'
She lives in a region strongly linked to the textile industry
She passes on her skills by giving lessons in sewing and cutting

Largely self-taught, Dolorès Gossye learned to make her textile creations through experimentation and observation. She built on her knowledge of fabrics by taking a costume design course, followed by an internship at the Antwerp Fashion Museum, and later a research fellowship at the Contemporary Textile Art Research Centre (Tamat) in Tournai, which enabled her to experiment and undertake research. “As a child I loved materials like leather, wood and wool, and was later drawn towards the craft of made-to-measure clothing,” she says. Interested in the symbolism of clothing, she was led to research its structure and its role as a medium of communication.

Interview

©Bart Decobecq

©Bart Decobecq

What inspires your work?: I am essentially inspired by the observation of the time and place where I live. Doing my day to day shopping, seeing the food that gets wasted, like fish skins, shines a light on beauty and the fragility of nature.
How do tradition and innovation combine in your work?: I express tradition through my manual and ancestral knowledge of textiles. In contrast to global consumer trends, I use innovation to express the symbolic and sacred dimension of the material nature gives us.
You have a metaphysical approach to textiles…: The structure of textiles resembles the structure of the universe. For example, when you spin and weave the fleece of baby alpaca, you create a new structure of exceptional softness, which will become the second skin of man.
What is the definition of well made?: I believe it is work that results from observation and research and which, thanks to one’s expertise, is brought to life with harmony and coherence. A quality piece of work is more than a mere object, it has a spirituality that’s quite independent of the material it’s made from.

Dolorès Gossye is a master artisan: she began her career in 1990 and she started teaching in 2007