Dare you wear this macramé veil?
As part of our campaign to revive some of Britain’s long-forgotten cottage industries, we recently gathered together all our macramé books and got busy with a bit of knotting. Joan Fisher’s ‘The art of macramé’ (Hamlyn, 1972) could be considered to be the bible of macramé. The instructions and diagrams are all well drawn and easy to understand.
The rest of the world, however, has moved on a bit since 1972, and some of the fashions might now be described as either quaint or ridiculous, depending on whether or not you’re being charitable toward the author. Pictured below is one of the outfits that is most definitely not quaint. Even the caption describes this veil as an ‘unusual’ use of macramé — well that’s a euphemism if ever I’ve heard one! It could still work today though. All you have to do is shorten those threads a bit, put corks on the ends and stick a cowboy hat on top and you’ve got the national costume of Australia. We have a big ball of string standing by and are taking orders now. Alternatively, if you’re really intent on looking like a wally, just buy yourself a pair of flares and grow some Mungo Jerry-style sideburns.
And that goes for any men reading this, too!
