Identity
- Πολινα Καμπαροκ
- Apr 1
- 4 min read
Beyond "who I am",
I simply want to share with you the message, the spirit that has run through my experience.
Origins
I was born and grew up in Western Europe, in a small village in the west of France, an hour from Mont Saint Michel.
Since 800 years we have experienced life in a hard-working community.
For the first six centuries we lived off the land under the rule of Citeaux and for the last two centuries in the form of a linen and cotton weaving business.
A whole history.... that has naturally coloured mine.
I grew up F R E E
to run in the fields and forests, on horseback or on foot, day and night.
Sleeping on the warm, milky cows in the cowshed, swimming in the pond always surrounded by the small community where the idea of family simply extends to those who live near you.
The starting point of water and weaving in me.
A disappointing education ...
The teaching staff quickly and graciously steered me towards the famous vocational routes ...
punitive forms of the collective educational unconscious of the style - Myth of the garbage collector -
The history of costume fascinated me and I was steered towards ... clothing ...
However, these concrete routes gave meaning back to learning and a vision of the future,
the MAF competitions (France's best apprentices) give meaning back to the work of my hands 🥇 🥇
At the age of 15, my first steps into the world of work were violent in the luxury clothing factories of the late 90s.
It was a world of exploitative mechanics*, 99% of whom were women.
The atmosphere is often depressive and/or toxic under pressure of quantity/quality ... constantly flirting with the limits of physical and psychological equilibrium,
the intensity of the work is completely dissociated from natural rhythms and needs - ‘modern times’ too modern ... in the feminine ... for the temples of Vanities.
It's a massacre of the feminine (and of Nature) when you consider that in the 19th century the textile industry was the main sector of the French economy, providing 3.5 million jobs.
Even today, despite relocation, it continues to employ 1 million people in France.
*industrial name for an operator who ‘literally’ runs a sewing machine ...
Model maker "des mousselines"
I'm continuing my studies in pattern-making at the fashion houses in Paris, still an apprentice ...
and I'm specialising in "Flou" and "Grand Flou", evening dresses in georgette, chiffon, satin, organza, tulle and silk embroidery, etc ...
It's subjectively “beautiful”, it's very technical, it's closer to the studios, but the environment is still just as stifling and artificial.
I don't understand these “values” that everyone looks up to...
From the design offices or on the production lines I stay in contact with the “mechanics”, I act as a bridge between the top and the bottom, the excellence of the work nourishes me intellectually but I wander... for a long time in search of meaning... and it wasn't until much later, around the age of 30, that I realised that I hadn't had the time ...
I hadn't had the time to live, to think, to experiment, to build up certain individual identities. like the cart before the horse ... a life turned upside down ... to be turned right side up for those who have the courage.
By internal wandering ...
Just goes to show!
sometimes,
seen from the outside, you can feel as if you've arrived somewhere...
I silently observed the subtle nature of textile and realised that this art is precisely Feminine *
in the image of the Greek "myth" of the Moïra-μοîρα as "destiny" and its 3 Moires.
Textile are the art of Time and Clepsydra,
symbol of the transformation-education of the earth par excellence.
The opposite of today's fast-fashion ... which steals time and lives.
The water of the feminine nourishes this earth, it's the very definition of a garment,
by taking care of oneself, of others and therefore of the world
by protection
by dignity-royalty (and not vanity)
In 25 years in this industry, as in the rest of the world,
I've seen hundreds of women suffer from their nature being distorted because they weren't educated* in the LAWS* of the feminine.
And when a woman is lost, it's serious for the world, it's potentially a couple, a family... a community that will suffer with her more or less unconsciously
and there's no point in saying it's her fault because she's 'crazy', 'hysterical' or 'too sensitive'
- she's denatured -
Cut off from these laws, she cannot build one of the greatest powers of the feminine - the RELATIONSHIPS and harmonious COHESIONS that make communities, healthy and sustainable collectives.
Knowing how to relate is not an accessory, it's our responsibility if we are to have an evolving Future.
Despite this observation, there is nothing new under the sun ... the Mesopatamian texts ‘gemé-du mu’ or the Linear B of Mycenaean Greece, 6000 years ago, report that women and children were already enslaved to produce textiles for religious temples. ...
Today,
I live in the far east of Europe, in Greece in the Peloponnese.
Just like what I am:
Questioning the limits, edges and boundaries of all these worlds
in search of another great land of Weaving and Wisdom.
Paradoxically, I'm returning to the origin.
To the door of the new cycle... Where I was born (in myself) in simplicity and nature, weaving and Water.
Whether you're a textile professional, a hobbyist or just a consumer, if you want to know more, if this subject interests you, don't hesitate to come to me...
*The feminine is a principle, it is in everything - It is not the woman, even if she is the main player.
*Education is not academic; it's fundamental learning that should be accessible to everyone to help them grow.
*The Law is not social or psychological, it is natural and universal.
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