Patchwork Fashions

Long, long ago—perhaps as far back as the early '60s—patches on worn or torn clothing were a mark of poverty, or at least of thrift. The patch has come a long way since then. Today it is colorful, clever, artistic and even ideological. Whether to hide holes on worn clothing or simply to adorn brand-new apparel—especially denim jeans and jackets—patching is the bright new fad.

Although some of the patches are still homemade, most now come from opportunistic manufacturers, who are spewing them forth in a dizzying variety; hearts, flowers, butterflies and a rainbow (usually worn across the hips) are popular. So are noncom stripes, Viet Nam insignia and Disney characters. There are metal studs and leather scraps, attached when and where the spirit dictates. There are even patches that reek (for a few weeks, anyway) of fresh fruit scents, while still others blazon credos: NOT TO DECIDE is TO DECIDE, for example.

Plain jeans are no longer adequate for even the plainest Jane: now the enthusiast can saunter into an expensive boutique like New York City's Billingsley, be interviewed by freelance Costume Designer Linda Sampson, hand her a battered set of denims and return two weeks later to pick up a sort of patchwork personality portrait, sewn together by Linda for $200 or so. Customers do not seem to worry that her interpretations of their personalities will be too freaky. "Basically," she says, "people will wear anything they can get away with." New Yorker Jann Johnson, 24, carries the idea a logical step further: she has been embroidering her jeans with the story of her life. Her home, for example, is symbolized by a leather skyline of Manhattan; her California past is portrayed on a knee. "Actually," she hastily says, "they're not quite finished."

Police Badge. Hollywood boasts a shop, the Liquid Butterfly, that specializes in the custom patching of jeans. Owner Charlotte Stewart says she is "trying to get people to recycle their clothes. Instead of throwing out a ripped pair of jeans, we think it's nicer to put a pretty patch on them." One of her recent productions is a pair of jeans embroidered to resemble a hollow tree, with 13 butterflies, a bee and a ladybug buzzing up from it. That assignment took about 30 hours and cost the owner $65. The buyer, she notes, was a man.

Considerably less expensive are the do-it-yourself patches that cost anywhere from 25¢ to a few dollars. Perhaps the most startling of these is an assortment of astrological pornopatches, each of which depicts two erotically entangled figures and a one-word summary of the sign's characteristics (Cancer is "versatile"; Leo is "friendly").

Not all of the patch messages concern sex. Appliqués allow the wearer to spell out practically anything that he is concerned with at the moment—peace, pot or politics. There are patches reading WORK FOR PEACE and some in the shape of doves and peace symbols. Others portray the Black Panther fist salute, the Puerto Rican flag and a Chicago police badge. One of the more elaborate looks like a marijuana plant and is inscribed with the slogan FLY

AMERICAN WAY.