About the You Touched Me project
My name is Walter Buchholz. I am a Masters student at London College of Fashion. You Touched Me is an ongoing process that may lead to clothes collections, collaborations and other interesting adventures.
The basic idea
We constantly accumulate and assimilate experiences. This process, with time, gives us our history, with scars and stories. We wear this like favourite clothes. It is both comforting and painful.
In this (ongoing) project I want to attempt to give a piece of cloth its own independent history. I want to create something that is seemingly new and blank on the surface but has many wonderful secrets.
I want to explore this idea by sending the fabric I use on short journeys and placing it in situations that I will record through writing, sketches and photos. It will be a largely invisible process that may not leave any marks on the fabric.
When someone finally wears a You touched me garment for the first time they become the next part of the story. The wearer, through an unknown and invisible link, will be attached to all the other people and objects that came in contact with the fabric. One will unknowingly have touched the other.
This process also allows me to explore the way we look at objects or situations we find ourselves in. We are often unknowingly linked to other people through shared experiences or objects.
So far I have already placed a piece of white linen on the riverbed of the Thames and waited 5 hours for the tide to cover it. I collected it the next morning.
I also approached people on the street in different parts of London to touch and be photographed with the same piece of fabric.
The fabric was left in trees overnight and draped over Henry Moore sculptures.
A homeless person kept it for a couple of nights and people walked over it.
Some people took it home with them and brought it back the next day.
I posted the fabric to myself without wrapping it completely.
Finally whatever is made from the fabric will have few or no visible marks or stains but it will have a history and through it many people will have unknowingly been touched.
Every garment produced for the You touched me project will be made from one continues piece of fabric. Only one pattern piece will be used for every garment produced.
These patterns are protected by copyright and are not shown anywhere on this website. For more information and images of the garments produced or if you want to take part in my project please contact me or leave a message on the website with your contact details and I can arrange a meeting.