Field Study: Gamine Workwear
A Sustainable, Useful, and Beautiful Workwear Company Designed by Taylor Johnston for Women
I’m not sure what I’m laughing about in this picture but it makes me happy. I probably just said something unfiltered and inappropriate, while reminding myself not to wipe my running nose on Taylor’s beautiful smock. I’m likely laughing with relief that Taylor and Hope speak my language and have overlooked that I sometimes forget basic social niceties and etiquette; a side-effect of working with an all-male commercial fishing crew for most of my life. How comforting and who knew that “mouth of a sailor” is akin to “mouth of a gardener”?
Until our first meeting at Sakonnet Point, I didn’t know much about Taylor Johnston, the designer behind the hardworking Gamine Workwear company. (I made a rookie mistake and didn’t do my research beforehand like a normal person). I spent the day comfortably in my element: the dock, office, and boat, wearing her impeccable garments that fit right into this place. Like the familiar feel of a weathered fishing rope that naturally softens, memory molds, salt fades, and the sun kisses over time; as if they were made just for me.
Feeling inspired, swapping yarns like ole’ time friends, (and recognizing that it had been way too long since I had been in the company of women), I arranged to meet Taylor the following week at the greenhouse, her element, followed by a stop at the Gamine shop. But first I decided to do some research.
Holy. Shit. Back the truck up. Ok, I’m not here to embarrass Taylor or have her “hide under a rock” (her words) but it’s worth mentioning that she used to be the gardener for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I don’t know shit about plants and gardens but I do know that the gardens there play an integral part of the museum and are considered a work of art in their own right. In other words, Taylor knows her shit but it’s also where Gamine Workwear was born.
We weave our way around and through greenhouses where Taylor and her partner Ed, Issima , run their “deliberately small operation” that allows for “flexibility and intimacy”. (This, and their mutual adoration and respect for each other is evident almost immediately). They refer to themselves as “Cranky Yankees” but I find their down-to-earth, going-to-do-things-our-way, no-nonsense, ain’t-got-time-for-the-BS, approach very New England, refreshing, and relatable.
Propagating their own plants, they focus and specialize in the “under-cultivated, garden-worthy, and unusually hardy.” Characteristics and approach that, no doubt, reflect in Taylor’s design process and workwear.
While Taylor feeds the woodstove at the cozy and charming Gamine shop, she muses about how the absence of quality workwear for women like us, and her lasting and poignant friendship with iconic fashion photographer, Bill Cunningham, with his encouragement, integrity, and influence, eventually blossomed into designing her own.
Taylor credits serendipity to how things have worked out for Gamine, but there is a process and a whole sea of steps that most of us take for granted and don’t even think about (like how that fish ended up on your plate). Look up Bill's Workshirt and the story behind it for example, or the Hope Vest, which was an entire year in the making, from the original vintage inspiration, research, picking poop and hay out of the raw wool, to finding a weaver and someone with deep knowledge of textiles. Taylor’s designs are the epitome of what “slow fashion” is all about: thoughtful, inspired, meticulously explored, studied, and tested with beautiful stories. They will last a long time and make you feel good wearing them.
