“His Dark Materials” Book Jacket

2020

“Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.”

― Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

Custom “HDM” book jacket. Special ordered as a graduation present. After reading the series, I felt like Lyra was a punk at heart and I leaned into both 70s British punk and 90s Riot Grrrl aesthetics. The body is made of vintage green tartan wool symbolizing the landscape of the Oxford Botanical Gardens and the skirt Lyra changes into once she gets to “Will’s Oxford” to look less conspicuous. The yokes are iridescent PVC layered over gold lurex brocade to represent the aurora, where the veil between worlds in thin. The Gyptians, my favorite characters in this series, wore and dressed Lyra in waterproof oilcloth as they transport her north in their boats. I used coated duck cloth to represent the Gyptians and manipulated this same fabric to represent some other characters that helped Lyra on her journey, as well: The center chevron is quilted in black oil cloth and overlaid in shimmer fishnet to signify Lee Scoresby’s balloon. The shoulder yoke is pleated black oil cloth to emulate Iorek Byrnison’s armor.

Customers can elect to add a custom lining wit a quote from the story. My customer provided a few favorite quotes and of them I decided to go with “People are too complicated to have simple labels” from The Amber Spyglass. It felt like it fit my Riot Grrrl theme. I traced the origins of zine culture from punk agit-prop to the Situationists to the Dadaists. With Dada’s use of collage and photomontage as my stylistic inspiration, I was able to incorporate Pullman’s personal muse for the complexities of human nature (and my personal muse of riot grrrl badassery), Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine. This painting and a couple other portraits of gutsy girls posing with a wild animals sparked his idea to have his characters accompanied by daemons as reflections of their inner nature. I also wanted to depict the complexities of the multiverse they transgress because it is just as complicated as those who inhabit it. Collage was a fun way to insinuate windows into other worlds.

Additional important elements of the story are depicted in the trims:

Pantalaimon- Lyra’s daemon takes his final form as an ermine. I was able to source an amazing vintage Japanese white fur collar with a little face similar to an ermine. It’s a perfect depiction of Pan when he curls up around Lyra’s neck!

Stelmaria- Love or hate Lord Asriel, he deserves some representation. Plus, I can’t resist a mascot patch... Here is his snow leopard daemon rendered in chenille.

“Lyra’s Oxford”- Pullman’s description of the style of dress in Lyra’s world is reminiscent of the Victorian era. I used braided frog closures which commonly ornamented garments in the 19th century.

The Alethiometer- Directly rendered in the back patch, the Alethiometer is always held in a velvet pouch, I deconstructed a tattered vintage black velvet coat to use as trim.

The Witches- They fight like bosses from atop their cloud pine, taking down enemies with bow and arrow. As a witchy woman and a sucker for an archer, I had to represented the Lake Enara clan with a vintage 1960s arrow brooch.

Jordan College- What’s a varsity jacket without a letter? “J” for Jordan College where Lyra was raised. Independent, undisciplined, “coarse and greedy little savage.”

Since my client ordered this jacket as a gift, I put together a zine of my own to accompany it. I wanted the recipient to have a better understanding of my inspiration and design process. You can take a look at that book here.