Mitch Frank

Name of School
Cranbrook Academy of Art

Expected Graduation Date:
05/14/2022

Faculty Nominator
Mark Newport

Reason for Faculty Nomination
Mitch Frank’s garment collection embodies and crafts a sustainable practice from beginning to end. He starts with all natural dyestuffs collected locally. One of his current projects is the design, manufacture, and use of solar heated dye vats to reduce energy consumption and optimize the effectiveness of his dyes. These will feature prominently in his degree show. His garment fabric is woven at a family-run mill in Pennsylvania from cotton singles yarn that he has dyed and starched. Frank studies vintage clothes, makes patterns based on his research, and extensively samples and tests the seams and overall fit. Mitch Frank’s garment production is a celebration of clothing that re-engineers the usual methods of production and fast fashion to make durable clothing on a more intimate scale, minimizing the environmental damage, offering a new sustainable paradigm to produce clothing.

Please provide a brief description of your art or medium.
An apparel collection designed and produced “from grass to garment.”

Is your artwork handmade by you? If not, please explain
I purchase yarn, dye it myself, work at a mill to weave it into fabric, and design and sew the clothing myself.

Are all or some of the components locally sourced?
I forage for natural dye materials whenever possible and plan production projects around my ability to source them in large enough quantities. I also purchase dye materials when needed to supplement what I can gather. Production quality yarn must be purchased, and for larger scale production sewing I work with garment factories that I have a trusting and equitable relationship with.

Artist’s Statement:
My growing clothing line is the result of a production process in which I shepherd materials “from grass to garment” with a radical commitment to environmentally conscious design and manufacturing. My clothes are inspired by the ethic of workwear, intended for comfort and long use. These are clothes that can be relied upon to join the wearer in everyday life, connecting them to a deeply considered making process. Each stage (spinning, dyeing, weaving, and sewing) is a work of craft in itself; my efforts to examine and reduce environmental impact permeate each one. Whether building a no-waste dye frame from a 1700s textile manual, designing and fabricating a hand-held loom to efficiently weave fabric samples, or harnessing solar power to heat dye baths in a public installation, my process exemplifies environmental stewardship and results in beautiful, earthy garments for modern wear.

How you will use the Fellowship funds if you are chosen as the winner.
The greatest way to reduce waste in the apparel industry is to make fewer clothes that last longer, and the final word for durability in casual clothing is denim. A well-worn pair of jeans is a beautiful artifact of the owner’s wearing life. I’d us this award to fund the bottom-up development of a reexamined denim weaving process involving organic domestic cotton, extreme low-impact wet yarn processing, and small scale weaving at a family-owned mill. This process would result not in the commodity denim used by major brands but a soulful, purposeful fabric that connects the clothing made from it to the land it came from. This is a project which can only be initiated at a certain scale, but also one that could sustain itself through product sales once the supply chain and production process is established.