A general look of confusion tends to cross the face of anyone who asks the name of my brand, Smithereens Knitwear. Understandably so! Smithereens isn’t necessarily a word you come across very often and when you do, it tends to be in quite a negative context. This blog post will give a bit of insight into the name Smithereens and the general foundational ethos of my overall creative practise.
There is an established tradition of fashion brands being named after their main designer. The reason I didn’t choose this route is layered but to be completely honest, the main reason is that most people cannot pronounce my name right and I hate the way the mispronunciation sounds. In line with the very common experience for first generation immigrant kids, I’ve grown up with my name being constantly butchered. The syllables of my name are so often hardened and sharpened in a way that feels entirely unfamiliar to me. The softness and warmth that accompanies the ‘correct’ pronunciation of my name at home or by my loved ones is typically absent in the way most people say it. I’ve now reached a point where I don’t even correct people on a day-to-day basis because in a way I like to keep my name for just the people I care about. All of this to say, I didn’t want my name out there for people to continue to transform into strange and unfamiliar sounds.
Separating from the eponymous route, I ended up being drawn towards a word that had always stood out to me. Often times when words seem to appear around you all the time, it can be seen as some kind of cosmic sign, but rather than being statistically improbable, it usually just means that you notice that word more than others. I noticed smithereens in songs, episode titles, and books and I always felt endeared to it.
SMITHEREENS plural noun
smith·er·eens
: Tiny fragments, small pieces.
I think the word captured my fascination because my conception of my sense of self is, at its core, fragmentary. I have always felt like a culmination of bits and pieces as opposed to a fixed whole. I don’t believe that this is unique to me, I think we all feel this way, that we’re built from experiences we gather through life, the people we meet, the things we learn and our encounters with the sensory world than surrounds us. In contrast to this seemingly quite universal experience, we tend to be socialised to champion the ‘whole’, a singular finished outcome, often times with this signalling a measure of success and accomplishment. Celebration of the smithereens is my small way of rejecting this premise. To me, the magic and the beauty is in the process of piecing together the things we gather and collect over time. I like to reference the magpie in me, a collector of small, precious things. Smithereens is a reflection and presentation of these small and precious things I create for you all to share in.
Image: Pierre Cardin. L’Officiel magazine, 1972.