HOAR FROST LETTER

HOAR FROST – Henry David Thoreau – 1938

Materials:

•Pre-loved Alexander McQueen jacket

•Silk fabric repurposed from the jacket’s sleeves to create an envelope-style wrapping

Poem:

“Every leaf and twig was this morning covered with a sparkling ice armor; even the grasses in exposed fields were hung with innumerable diamond pendants, which jingled merrily when brushed by the foot of the traveller. It was literally the wreck of jewels and the crash of gems. It was as though some superincumbent stratum of the earth had been removed in the night, exposing to light a bed of untarnished crystals. The scene changed at every step, or as the head was inclined to the right or the left. There were the opal and sapphire and emerald and jasper and beryl and topaz and ruby.

Such is beauty ever,—neither here nor there, now nor then,—neither in Rome nor in Athens, but wherever there is a soul to admire. If I seek her elsewhere because I do not find her at home, my search will prove a fruitless one.”

Description:

This piece embodies transformation and timeless beauty, inspired by the fleeting brilliance of frost and the enduring soul of admiration Thoreau describes. The repurposing of a pre-loved Alexander McQueen jacket into an envelope-style creation honors the philosophy of finding beauty “at home”—in the materials we already have, reimagined with care and intention.