From Wardrobe to Gallery: The Story of 632 Wool Skirts
What does one do with 632 wool skirts? For most, such a collection might seem overwhelming, impossible even. For artist and weaver Mae Colburn, it became a question worth pursuing. Not as a problem to solve, but as an open-ended invitation. Read on to find out more about the project, and enjoy a '5 Minutes with a Friend' interview with Mae Colburn and Sudestada Gallery curator, Gimena Garmendia:
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Since beginning the task of cataloguing her grandmother’s extraordinary archive of wool skirts, artist Mae Colburn realised that what she was uncovering were not simply garments, but vessels of memory, resilience, and possibility that deserved to be shared. The result is Wool Skirts: An Exhibition of Legacy, Stewardship, and Transformation, opening 16 October at SUDESTADA Studio & Gallery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Audrey Huset with her Accordion during the 1930's. Photo Credit: Mae Colburn.
The story begins with Audrey Huset, Colburn’s grandmother, who assembled this archive over four decades. From the 1960s onwards, she visited second-hand shops in St. Paul, Minnesota, searching for wool skirts of quality and beauty. By the time of her death in 2022, at the age of 99, she had gathered 632 pieces, many bearing the Woolmark logo — proof of wool’s lasting strength.
April 2024 - Wool skirts airing out on Mae Colburn's parents' clothesline in Duluth, Minnesota.
Reflecting on the archive in an interview with Vogue, Colburn explained: “[My mom and I] got really excited about understanding the skirts within a historical arc, and the archive offers a glimpse into the clothing history of the second half of the 20th century. The wool industry has transformed tremendously; you really can’t find this high-quality wool in this many colours and patterns anymore. So there’s a lot of history there that’s exciting to think and talk about and share with people, and I’ve also found that this is a really wonderful way for people to think about their own wardrobes and all the things that fill the nooks and crannies of their basements, garages, and closets.”
Carol (Mae's mother) Labelling Skirts. Photo Credit: Mae Colburn.
Hidden during her lifetime, the skirts are now entering a new chapter. Colburn, together with her family, meticulously documented each garment, moving the collection from Duluth, Minnesota, to her Brooklyn studio. With SUDESTADA founder Gimena Garmendia, she has invited 21 artists and designers to reinterpret the skirts, creating works that stretch across sculpture, tapestry, performance, experimental fashion, and textile installation.
From Camila Banzo of BANZO to designers Sabine Skarule and Sol Pardo, and artists including Sarah Nsikak and Fanny Allié, each participant engages with the skirts as both material and metaphor. The transformations reframe the garments as sites of cultural memory and intergenerational care, offering fresh perspectives on how textiles connect us across time.
The Wool Skirts capsule collection takes shape. Artist: Athena Kokoronis. Image Credits: Andres Altamirano.
For John Roberts, Managing Director of The Woolmark Company, the project is “living proof” of wool’s durability: “Many of these skirts have been worn, loved, and kept for decades, yet they remain in exceptional condition. This exhibition honours the craftsmanship and longevity of wool while showing how sustainable design begins with fibres that stand the test of time.”
A small selection of the documented skirts within the archived collection.
Alongside the installations, visitors will find a curated capsule collection of original skirts available for purchase, as well as a month-long programme of talks and workshops. Discussions will explore vintage clothing, regenerative wool supply chains, and the role of repair and alteration in stewarding garments for a lifetime.
So, what does one do with 632 wool skirts? Wool Skirts suggests that the answer lies not in possession, but in transformation — in weaving together memory, creativity, and care to carry wool’s legacy forward.
5 Minutes with a Friend: Mae Colburn and Gimena Garmendia
What is your first memory of a textile?
Mae Colburn: Cloth diapers, the blanket I slept with, the plush Lamb Chop puppet I cherished a child, which I later learned was originally designed by weaver Ethel Stein. Handmade curtains in my childhood bedroom, printed with crayon drawings of animals, and the blue and red rag rug on the floor, woven with strips of wool from my grandma’s collection of wool skirts. Mottled brown shag carpeting and the orange canvas couch in my family’s living room.
Gimena Garmendia: My earliest memories of textiles come from my childhood home and family. I remember the earthy-toned fabric of our living room sofa, the floral quilt my sister and I shared, and a set of white-and-beige striped linen that my mother used to wear and I was fascinated by it. I also recall the mix of textures, colours, and patterns in the drawers at my grandmothers’ houses, which were always filled with fabrics for making clothes and table linens for family and friends.
Can you put into words what you love about textiles?
MC: Textiles provide such a full sensory experience, between their texture, colour, and pattern. I am transfixed by their behaviour, at once useful and adaptable and also independent and expressive.
GG: What I love most about textiles is their expressiveness and sensitivity, their ability to hold and reveal so many stories. Through texture, colour, and form, they communicate emotion and history in ways that feel both intimate and universal.
If you make textiles, where is your most inspiring space / place to create?
MC: A studio space that is bright, light-filled, and functional, with open storage for fabric, a large table surface, a shelf full of books, and an open wall for photography. To me this is an ideal ecosystem for thinking and working.
What has inspired you recently?
MC: Stoffe, a book documenting artist Isabella Ducrot’s collection of 252 textiles, is consistently on my mind as I catalog my grandma’s collection of 632 wool skirts. This is both because of its extraordinary presentation of Ducrot’s collection and because she incorporates these very textiles into her artwork, just as Gimena Garmendia and I have invited artists and designers to do with the wool skirts. I am also inspired by the book, Paper Airplanes: The Collections of Harry Smith, which documents Smith’s collection of more than 250 paper airplanes found on the streets of New York City between 1961 and 1983. The book exalts these humble objects through spectacular photography, and provides a tender profile of a cantankerous collector.
GG: Lately, I’ve been inspired by artists who approach their work with curiosity, playfulness, and a fearless attitude toward rules. Salvador Dalí is one of them. Visiting his house in Cadaqués and his museum in Figueres this summer, reminded me how imagination and audacity can turn everyday objects and spaces into new worlds. I’ve also had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with Marta Minujín, whose work is full of joy, experimentation, and a refusal to be constrained by convention. This spirit of curiosity, play, and transformation is at the heart of our current exhibition. We start with a simple question: what can we do with 632 wool skirts? And from there, a world of possibilities opens up.
What is your most cherished textile, and why?
MC: I am fortunate to have many and it’s impossible to choose just one. As a rag rug weaver, I assimilate many textiles into a single plane on the loom. I’ll identify the linen warp yarn I use as my most cherished textile as it brings all these disparate, cherished elements together, practically and metaphorically.
GG: I often collect textiles when I travel, and I also have very special pieces in my wardrobe that I inherited from my grandmothers and my father. I couldn’t choose just one, each piece holds a special value and connects me to a particular moment or a loved person.
Where did you learn your craft?
MC: I learned to weave from a master, tapestry artist Helena Hernmarck. I never mastered her weaving technique, which is virtuosic, but I learned how to handle a loom, how to command a studio space, and the power and pleasure of record-keeping and documentation. I still work for Helena and I learn from her every day.
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Further Information:
Wool Skirts runs from 16 October – 30 November 2025 at SUDESTADA Studio & Gallery, Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
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Image Credits:
Lead Image: Wool Skirts Exhibition - Capsule Grid. Image: SUDESTADA