Journal Entry 1
Competitors
Threads of Change: Textile Practitioners Weaving New Futures
While am.gabrie textiles stand apart in research format, they share core values with a number of contemporary textile practitioners. This entry reflects on four artists and designers whose practices resonate in spirit—Cara Marie Piazza, Paula Ulargui Escalona, Piero D’Angelo, and Mad by Mad (Mata Durikovic). Their work spans natural dye, bio-based material experimentation, seasonless design, and the invitation of nature as co-creator.
Though some create garments and others work through installation or research, all explore materials as living, ethical textiles. This is not a comparison, but a recognition of shared ground.
In the process of developing am.gabrie textiles, the work often exists between categories—neither commercial product nor conceptual showcase, but something slower, more iterative. Along the way, certain practitioners stand out not as competitors, but as companions in philosophy. Their work reinforces the belief that textiles can hold both material intelligence and emotional resonance.
The following artists and designers—though diverse in format and output—share overlapping values with this project: care for the environment, process-led making, and an ongoing conversation between material and maker.
Cara Marie Piazza
A natural dyer based in New York, known for ritualistic approaches and site-specific dyeing. Piazza often works with waste materials and flower offerings, creating deeply personal, ephemeral textiles. Her process mirrors the emphasis in am.gabrie on letting nature speak first—accepting imperfection and transience as part of the outcome.
Paula Ulargui Escalona
Working between fashion and ecology, Paula creates garments that literally grow—inviting nature to reclaim space on the body. Her installations and performances echo am.gabrie’s belief in nature as co-creator. While her practice is more speculative and often time-based, the philosophies of slowness, decay, and renewal resonate strongly.
Piero D’Angelo
Blending bio-design with high fashion sensibility, Piero explores seasonless collections and material experimentation. Though he creates full garments, his process centers research and materiality in ways that align with am.gabrie’s biodegradable and sensory textile explorations. His balance of aesthetic elegance and ethical grounding offers a useful reference for textile-led storytelling in fashion.
Mad by Mad / Mata Durikovic
Mata Durikovic’s label Mad by Mad combines biomaterial research with fashion presentation—often showcasing bioplastics, slow-growing fibers, and process-as-design. While she also produces garments, the strength of her work lies in material development and conceptual clarity. Her transparent experimentation and visual poetry align closely with the spirit of am.gabrie’s exploration.
Closing Reflection
Though each of these practitioners walks a different path—whether as garment designers, artists, or researchers—their work reminds us that textiles can carry more than aesthetic value. They can embody ethics, story, and responsibility.
This journal entry is not a comparison, but a mapping of alignment: a quiet affirmation that there are others thinking through their hands, listening to nature, and letting materials guide the way forward.