iliffe (ill•if)

is an ongoing collection of hand woven and knit garment works

made by Juliana Naccarato, a weaver and textile artist based in Halifax, Canada.

iliffe was born from a desire to restore and celebrate handmade, cherished, carefully curated domestic objects.

All woven garments are made completely by hand on a restored wooden loom - from spools of yarn, to lengths of cloth, to pieces of clothing, and dyed by hand using only natural materials.

My grandmother grew up on a farm in central Italy and only wore one double-sided dress.

One side had a pattern of checks, the other a pattern of flowers.

She wore the checks from Mondays to Saturdays while she did her chores.

When the end of the week finally arrived, she was allowed to turn her dress inside out and wear the flowers for Sunday mass.

She waited in anticipation every week.

I’ve never seen her wear checks since.