iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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JohannesVIII @johannesviii.bsky.social · 28/08/2024

Repaired my fave jacket, got emotional, drew something about it

Comic in 4 pages. 1) OP as a teenager, female-presenting, with a ponytail, listening to music. "When I was 14, I had a jean jacket. It wasn’t great quality, but at least I wasn’t too uncomfortable in it." 2) "One day, a girl in my class said: "ooooh, nice jean jackeeet!"" OP turns around, surprised. "I felt cool, for once." 3) "My mother loved to repeat that in a falsetto voice to humiliate me, but I still loved that jacket." OP’s mother on a couch, to a mortified OP: "a jeaaaaan jackeeeeet??" 4) OP with the ponytail, then a bit older with short hair, then a bit older with even shorter hair. "Little by little, I started to figure out what was wrong. It took a while." 5) OP in a big coat, sitting on the floor, drawing. "At university, I was locked out of the apartment sometimes, so I wore the same big black coat for years. It was warm, and it hid my body quite well. Some people in my classes called me ‘the hobo’." 6) "I found that jean jacket in my closet four years after I moved out."

Page 2. 1) OP trying to wear the jacket again. "I was 25. No longer a malnourished teenager. The jacket didn’t fit anymore, and it was very worn." 2) "But I was wearing it anyway. I even added a patch from the catacombs on it." 3) OP jumping over a fence. The jacket is torn in the middle of the back. "And then, one day, I tore it while hopping a fence. The tear was huge, and impossible to repair cleanly." 4) The tear. "I considered throwing it away." 5) "But I put it back in the closet." 6) OP repairing the jacket. "In early 2020, at the beginning of the first lockdown, I decided to repair that stupid jacket, even if it had to be ugly. The more I wore this jacket, the more it was disintegrating anyway. At this point, I was just over thirty years old. And that’s when something started to change."

Page 3. 1) Obvious repair on the collar of the jacket. "I realised I loved visible repairs." 2) "I started sewing with white thread." 3) OP’s back, with large patches saying "whatever forever" and "see you in hell", with several small patches of birds and leaves around them. There’s repairs everywhere. "And then the shoulders cracked, so I made a denim lining inside and outside." 4) Scissors cutting the side of the jacket. "I had to make some tough decisions." 5) OP, with faint scars, wearing the jacket which is now made larger under the arms. "But I always loved the result." 6) Patches saying, among other things, "queer magic", "explorer", "wild nature", "the Cure", "Placebo", "Book smeller", "friend to bugs" and "Van Isle". "And I kept adding more patches! From bands I liked, and from places I enjoyed".

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Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 28/08/2024

I love this. I love the rhythm of it and the way all the details point to a world and a life and a story that’s there but not being foregrounded (for me for my own reasons it’s the single brief appearance of the mother that hits hardest). Thank you for sharing ❤️

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