It all comes down to beauty in the beasts with Ann Wood’s
wondrous creatures. Her perfectly formed mosquitoes
ominously arch their bodies on long fragile legs, probosces
aimed, ready for piercing. But those same menacing insects
are dressed in genteel lace and fine, fine prints. What?
Sewer rats stop for a casual chat, their odiousness forgotten
in the amiability of their stance and a sartorial style set by
lace kerchiefs at their necks.
Massed creepy-crawly spiders escaping from a jar – normally the
stuff of nightmares – are redeemed courtesy of couture outfitting.
As for Ann’s raven – he may be dark and brooding but he looks
as if he’s getting on in years, with slightly frayed fabric around his
once-lethal beak. And his sharply watchful eyes carry a tired
sadness due to stitching that peters out around the edges.
Suddenly, instead of recoiling in
want to give these
y mean brutes
ace in your
Thanks to the
pathetic treatment
heir handler,
ey’ve morphed
from threatening
to endearing.
Could the
secret be that
they’re made
human by theirvintage garb? “I work with Edwardian and Victorian garments
and antique Japanese textiles. I love fabric – always have,”
says New Yorker Ann. “The garments speak to me. I’m
attracted to the sense of time and place and history. They
seem like time travellers, in a way – from a life a world away.
I love a label with a name or an incongruous print perfectly
preserved in the layers of a ruined 150-year-old cuff.”
Or could it simply be the inspiration she found as a child
when watching her first film – the Royal Ballet’s performance
of the Tales of Beatrix Potter, with a nimble Jeremy Fisher in
top coat and striped stockings, Jemima Puddleduck kitted
out in hat and shawl, and the other familiar Potter characters
dressed and dancing their way around magical sets. Ann says
she’s had “visions of them floating in my head ever since”.
“I remember my childhood through a lens of making
things – it has always been the centre of my world. I was
as encouraged as a person could be to value, nurture and
enjoy my imagination and creativity.”
And just as her creations are contradictions, so too is the
industry, effort and satisfaction that goes into their making.
Untold hours of designing and stitching can come to nothing,
when Ann decides she isn’t 100% happy with the results.
She’ll just take a deep breath and start all over. “I have a lot
of do-overs – ripping out and trying again,” she says. “I feel
and experiment my way to the finished thing.
“I love being lost in inventing something new, working out
a fresh shape, experimenting with an idea. I don’t mind the
endless drafts. Time disappears. Even on my 50th draft ofy,
horror, youw
supposedl
a cosypl
home.T
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the
fANN WOOD
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