Mae Colburn

Mae Colburn is a New York-based weaver, writer, and researcher with a background in art history. Her work extends traditions of rag rug weaving in the Upper Midwest, where she grew up, into a broad artistic exercise in collection care, documentation, and dispersal, with a focus on textiles in art and fashion. Mae collaborated with the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation to produce the first-ever public presentation of the artist’s handmade garments, and with the Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association to organize a roundtable discussion with leading scholars on tapestry artists’ archives. Her writing has appeared in the long-running journal, Fashion Projects, and in catalogs for exhibitions at BRIC Arts Media and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Mae has presented at Yale University, the University of Gothenburg, and Aix-Marseille University, and her projects, many of which are collaborative, have featured in exhibitions at Cornell University, efa Project Space in New York, and TextielMuseum in Tilburg, Netherlands. Mae learned to weave through an extended apprenticeship with tapestry artist Helena Hernmarck and is currently the lead author of the artist's in-progress catalogue raisonné. Her Wool Skirts project, which Vogue described as "mesmerizing," made its public debut at SUDESTADA in Brooklyn in October 2025. Mae collaborates with Mariah Smith on Rag Rug Study Group and collects her own weaving activities under the name Common Loom.

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Research | Writing | Projects (2011 - ) 

Entries in reverse chronological order.

Email: [email protected]

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Link to: Wool Skirts, Rag Rug Study Group, Common Loom

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Kasia Pilat, “Skirting Through Time,” The New York Times, March 11, 2026. 

"Wool Skirts, an exhibition of one woman’s 40-year thrift-store collection, reveals a rich tapestry of clothing manufacturing and feminist history. [...] This 1950s skirt, labeled a Pendleton Turnabout, is reversible - when worn, one of the patterns shows on the outside, while a second pattern peeks through from underneath the pleat folds. The Turnabout debuted in 1953, and it required such precise engineering that Pendleton patented the design. This particular skirt was photographed for the fliers promoting the exhibition, and it was the first one to be purchased by a visitor.”

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Participated in Fashion Culture panel moderated by Hilary Davidson to coincide with Beyond Utility, an exhibition organized by graduate students in FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies program. The Museum at FIT, 227 West 27th Street, New York, New York. March 11, 2026. 

> Kisook Suh’s Impeccably Reversible Skirt, 2026. Photo: Andrés Altamirano, courtesy SUDESTADA

Our conversation explored the exhibition’s three primary themes: workwear, military dress, and craft. Fashion scholars Sonya Abrego and Charles McFarlane were fellow panelists. I spoke about the craft of fashion and repair and reuse within the context of utilitarian design. 

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With Gimena Garmendia, co-curated Wool Skirts, an exhibition showcasing a portion of my grandma’s collection of 632 wool skirts alongside reimagined wool skirts by 21 artists and designers. SUDESTADA, 67 West Street, studio 513, Brooklyn, New York. October 16, 2025-March 15, 2026. 

The 632 wool skirts in this collection span the 1940s to the 1990s, a period encompassing multiple waves of feminism, the expansion of global trade, and the rise of fast fashion. Three decades later, the collection reawakens to a new era of debate over gender justice, trade regulation, and environmental impact—issues calling for humane, imaginative response. 

Wool Skirts takes the wool skirts as canvas and the collection as forum for prototyping fashion’s vital renewal. In collaboration with SUDESTADA, it presents a curated selection from the archive alongside reimagined wool skirts by twenty-one international artists and designers. The first public presentation of my grandma's collection, this exhibition also marks the beginning of its dispersal as the skirts pass into the hands of a new generation. 

> Installation views of Wool Skirts at SUDESTADA. Photos: Pablo Argüelles

Participating artists and designers include Alexandra Barlow, Alana Burns, Athena Kokoronis, Camila Banzo, Carla Duarte, Emma Larimer, Fanny Allié, Jason Rosenberg, Jessi Highet, Kisook Suh, Lorenza Lattanzi, Mariah Smith, Maxine Midtbo, Megumi Shauna Arai, Rachel Meade Smith, Ragna Frodadottir, Sabine Skarule, Sam Bennett, Sarah Nsikak, Sol Pardo, Tajah Ellis. 

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Participated in Wool Panel: From Fiber to Fabric to Fashion, moderated by Susan Easton, Product and Marketing Director of the New York Fashion Innovation Center. Organized by Gimena Garmendia at SUDESTADA, 67 West Street, Studio 513, Brooklyn, New York. January 15, 2026. View the full recording here.

> My aunt Kathy's sheep photographed in the 1990s.

Our conversation traced the journey of wool from fiber to garment to long-term care with panelists representing different points on the supply chain. Fellow panelists included Cece Tkaczyk, founder of Cece’s Wool, Laura Sansone, founder of New York Textile Lab, Jacob Long, founder of American Woolen Company, Mimi Prober, founder of her eponymous label, and Kisook Suh, Textile Conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I spoke about avenues for wool reuse through the lens of the Wool Skirts project. 

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With tapestry artist Helena Hernmarck, appeared in Craft in America’s EAST episode. As Hernmarck's long-time studio manager and now archivist, I spoke about her commission for Hudson Yards, which spanned 2016-2020, and about the significance of her work more broadly. Helena's segment premiered on PBS on December 19, 2025. Craft in America also created a short video of Helena and I discussing the paper timeline where she records life events alongside tapestries woven.

> Still from Craft in America's short video about Helena Hernmarck's documentation.

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With Mariah Smith, presented Rag Rug Primer, an interactive, illustrated lecture that introduced Rag Rug Study Group and the art of textile renewal. Index NYC, 120 Walker Street, New York, New York. September 20, 2025. 

> Slide excerpt from presentation illustrating Eadweard J. Muybridge's Spreading a rug on the floor, ca. 1884 - 1887. Collection of the George Eastman Museum.

Part art historical lecture, part architectural treatise, and part review of literature, this presentation introduced existing resources on rag rugs and Rag Rug Study Group’s efforts to expand them. We sifted through this medium’s fragmentary archival trail and braided in our own ongoing research. Past contributors to our online archive brought textiles to share, providing a tactile counterpoint to our slideshow presentation.

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With Pause World, hosted Skirt Party: A gathering to celebrate 632 woolen skirts at a loft in SoHo, April 26, 2025.

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Leah Faye Cooper, “Artist Mae Colburn Talks Archiving her Grandmother’s Vintage Skirt Collection,” Vogue.com, March 26, 2025. 

Vogue: What inspired you to make the archive public?

Me: [My mom and I] got really excited about understanding the skirts within a historical arc, and the archive offers a glimpse into the clothing history of the second half of the 20th century. The wool industry has transformed tremendously; you really can’t find this high-quality wool in this many colors and patterns anymore. So there’s a lot of history there that’s exciting to think and talk about and share with people, and I’ve also found that this is a really wonderful way for people to think about their own wardrobes and all the things that fill the nooks and crannies of their basements, garages, and closets.

Exploring the politics of gender and skirts is interesting to me too. I’ve really enjoyed conversations that have emerged as I’ve been sharing this story with women in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who remember this pivot from having to wear skirts in most public settings to wearing pants. Wearing pants to work for the first time is a day that they remember almost like they remember what they wore on their wedding day. It’s a really important moment.

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Presented the collection of 632 wool skirts amassed by my grandma at the 4th annual Artefacta conference at the University of Helsinki, Finland, February 13-14, 2025. I made a poster presentation titled 632 wool skirts in motion and, together with friends, distributed hundreds of photographs of skirts in the collection and a running list of ideas for what to do with the skirts, copied below.

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With fashion archivist Sarah C. Byrd and my mom, Carol Colburn, presented '600+ Wool Skirts: Collection Preview and Conversation,' the first public presentation of a collection of secondhand wool skirts amassed by my grandma between the 1960s and 1990s. The presentation took place on Zoom, September 27, 2024. View the full presentation here.

> Wool skirts airing out on my parents' clothesline in April 2024.

In spring of 2024, I worked with my mom and other family members to catalog the entire collection of 632 wool skirts before moving it from my parents’ garage in Duluth, Minnesota, to my weaving studio in Brooklyn, New York. In the process, we created a striking photographic record of the wool skirts, now viewable on the collection website.

In this presentation, we narrated the history of the collection, described our cataloging process, noted discoveries made along the way, and proposed possible futures for this collection and others like it. In converastion with Sarah, we considered the wool skirts within the broader context of fashion archives, and in relation to ideas assembled in the process of creating our collaborative annotated bibliography. 

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With Mariah Smith, created 1/2 Flex, the first-ever exhibition hosted by Rag Rug Study Group. The exhibition featured fresh-off-the-loom rag rugs by artist Francesca Martinazzi, who traveled from Italy, Mariah and myself. We hosted an opening party and facilitated an evening conversation about the prehistoric origins of Francesca’s woven poem, Monte Altissimo. The exhibition was installed in Mariah’s Brooklyn bedroom, which we transformed into a gallery September 6-8, 2024. 

> Installation view of Francesca Martinazzi's Monte Altissimo.

> Installation view of Mariah Smith's 7 Rugs (?).

> Installation view of Mae Colburn's Hypothetical Rugs.

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Created Wool Skirts website, summer 2024.

I wonder now, having photographed every skirt, how my grandma visualized the collection, and how she experienced it over all those years. I wonder if she went down to her basement to thumb through the wool skirts, if she emptied out boxes on her floor to sort through them, if she had favorites, and which skirts those were. I wonder if she ever wished to see the skirts on models, or racks, or walls, or illustrated in a book. I wonder if she ever speculated about how many skirts she had, and how she would react if she found out she had 632. She expressed amazement with her eyes wide and mouth open. Wow. I remember this. She passed away in 2022. 

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With Mariah Smith, started Rag Rug Study Group and hosted our first-ever Show and Tell. Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York. April 6, 2024.

> We invited people to bring work they have made or collected, and used the circle format to share first impressions and memories connected to each piece. We also documented each piece for our online archive.

Rag Rug Study Group is a research project that facilitates dialogue about textiles produced using worn, surplus, and discarded materials. We advocate an expansive definition of ‘rag rug’ that includes reworked textiles in all techniques including weaving, knitting, quilting, embroidery, crochet, mending, and sewing. We have a mailing list, host in-person events, and manage an online archive of the work we study.

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Interviews originally published in the New York-based journal, Fashion Projects, re-issued in the journal's print anthology, Fashion Projects: 15 Years of Fashion in Dialogue, ed. Francesca Granata. Chicago: Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 2024. Excerpt from the publisher’s page below. > See Mae Colburn, "Curation and Conservation: An Interview with Sarah Scaturro" (2018), pp. 30-34; "Fashioning Vulnerabilities: An Interview with Pascale Gatzen" (2012), pp. 166-170; and "Envisioning a Thriving Local Textile Economy: An Interview with Rebecca Burgess" (2011), pp. 171-174.

“The long-running non-profit journal Fashion Projects was described by The Paris Review as “a journal devoted to critical discourse in fashion.” Fashion Projects was founded in New York in 2005 as a zine. It gradually morphed into a larger journal straddling the academic and general interest worlds, with international distribution and an ardent readership. It served as a platform to highlight the importance of fashion within current critical discourses through longform interviews with a range of curators, critics, artists and designers.”

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Excerpt from interview with artist Francesca Martinazzi, whose woven research combines the creation of rag rugs with the examination of prehistoric rock engravings found in her home region of Val Camonica in the province of Brescia, Italy. Francesca uses the name GRATA to describe her project, invoking a woven metal grate she found in her historic home-studio as well as the phrase essere grata, being grateful. > Mae Colburn, “GRATA.” VÄV (no. 1, 2024): 22-23. 

> Checkerboard rag rug by Francesca Martinazzi. Photo: Francesca Martinazzi

"I had already been weaving for some years when I learned about these engravings, and this discovery gave deeper meaning both to my work and to the place where I live. […] At Altopiano del Sole, or Plateau of the Sun, an area further up the mountain from my house […] archaeologists have found engravings that are difficult to interpret, but are thought to represent woven textiles. These have been cataloged in the archaeological record as rettangoli frangiati, or “fringed rectangles," and date to the Copper Age, about 3000 years BCE. 

> Francesca points to the Borno 1 engraving at Altopiano del Sole.

> Illustrations of Ossimo 8 (left) and Borno 1 (right).

I have mainly examined two of these fringed rectangles: Ossimo 8 and Borno 1. Borno 1 is special in that it illustrates a checkerboard pattern, which for a weaver is also the draw-down draft for plain weave. So, the decorative motif on Borno 1 is the intersection of two distinct groups of threads: the WARP and the WEFT. EXTRAORDINARY! In principio era l’ordito, or IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS THE WARP!”

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With Sharktooth and New York Textile Month, presented ‘beyond repair.’ This month-long event showcased the process of unraveling a worn-through rag rug from Sharktooth’s collection, transforming its composition, and weaving it anew at Common Loom. The event culminated in a celebration and viewing on September 30, 2023, at Sharktooth, 111 Grand Street, Brooklyn, New York. View a short video documenting the weaving process here, and read more on Sharktooth's Shop Notes.

After a rag rug’s warp has worn through, its fabric weft can often be salvaged and woven anew. This process extends the life of the materials and offers an intimate lens into the life of the original weaver. ‘beyond repair' invited us to consider themes of regeneration, transformation, and renewal alongside the ethics of stewardship, care, and repair.