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18 ORNAMENT 38.1.2015 q &a; ORNAMENT VISITS Why did you include an industrial sewing machine and Giles Ashford's photos of New York garment district factory workers in the exhibition? I think that even people deep in the industry view fashion firstly through images online. I am an object person and I want people to have a sense of what it takes to make them. I understand what it takes to make a garment because I've been sewing since before I could read. I'm an advocate for designers. Because I've worked with so many of them, I see the challenges they face, and I want to applaud their efforts. Neither James nor I had any desire or intention to point fingers or scold people or suggest that you should only buy American, but simply to raise consciousness of how important it is for our designers to have the resources to manufacture their work, how important it is for America to be self-sufficient and the impact on the economy that the fashion industry has. Have visitors left determined to change their shopping habits due to the show? I don't know how many people actually changed their shopping habits after seeing the show, but I think people have been made aware. Did you change your shopping habits after working on this project? I got this Shinola watch, made in the U.S., which is similar to one in the exhibition. I can't afford to buy pants DENNITA SEWELL questions/answers Interview by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell Dennita Sewell has been Curator of Fashion Design at the Phoenix Art Museum since January 2000. Her latest exhibition, "Fashioned in America," was inspired by the 2014 documentary Make It in America: Empowering Global Fashion, directed by James Belzer (now available on iTunes). Sewell met Belzer when he screened his 2012 fashion documentary The Tents at the museum, and the exhibition developed in tandem with the film; Sewell even appears on camera. As a special director's cut played in the background, I talked to Sewell in the museum's Ellman Fashion Design Gallery, amidst ensembles by designers who produce at least seventy-five percent of their collections in the United States. They range from newcomers like Rosie Assoulin, Misha Nonoo and Daniel Silverstein to established names like Anna Sui, Nanette Lepore, Monique Lhuillier, and Oscar de la Renta.