Carhartt WIP and Ill-Studio Present: Sedimental Works 1975–2025
Fifty years of the Active Jacket are examined through Sedimental Works, a collaboration between Carhartt WIP and Ill-Studio that reconsiders the garment as a vessel of cultural sediment. The project moves through time like an archaeological reading, compressing fragments of use, emotion, and collective labor into physical form. At Tate Gallery, the presentation constructed a landscape of memory. Columns rose with silent authority, textures of metal and fabric meeting under the direction of Ill-Studio and Tom Schneider. The set design carried the clarity of construction yet allowed emotion to surface between its structures. Light, projection, and sound worked in sync, not to impress but to reveal density, the weight of decades carried by a single garment.
“FUNCTION AS ORIGIN. CULTURE AS RESIDUE. BELONGING AS CONTINUITY.”
The Active Jacket has lived through protest, work, music, and style. It has served as armor, statement, and code. Its strength lies in function, yet its meaning lives in those who wore it. From Detroit’s workshops to Berlin’s clubs, it linked labor and culture through endurance. On November 6th, London became a point of convergence. The space filled with energy that felt both grounded and elevated. People, performance, and imagery formed a moment of recognition: that what we wear can archive who we are.
““Function creates culture, and culture sediments into myth.””
Thomas Subreville’s ILL-STUDIO made the space feel alive. Every detail was right, raw, precise, and full of rebellious energy. From the first moment, we felt part of a community sharing something monumental. The setting was sleek, the mood warm, a memory that will stay with us.
SEDIMENTAL WORKS 1975-2025
50 Years of the Active Jacket
November 6, 2025
Tate Gallery, London
Photography and words by Donald Gjoka
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