Soft Amour is a vibrant celebration of queer community, queer joy, and the beauty of neuro-queer and diverse bodies. This project embraces embroidery, crochet, and fibre arts as a unique language for exploring wearable art, inviting queer, autistic. trans and non-binary artists to express their queer identities through intimate, tactile creations. As an autistic, non-binary textile artist, I am creating a space that honours these intersections. A safe, celebratory platform where art and identity fuse, and where visibility is both a personal and collective act of resistance and joy.
The aesthetic of Soft Amour is textured and layered, reflecting the complexity of neurodivergence and gender fluidity through fibre. Using crochet and embroidery, each piece becomes a living artwork worn on the body, an embodiment of queerness in its many forms. The work resists rigid categorisation, instead embracing imperfection, handcraft, and the materiality of textiles as a metaphor for identity’s fluid and evolving nature.
Soft Amour invites queer autistic trans and non-binary artists to submit ideas and wear artworks during an intimate, celebratory event. The event itself is free and inclusive, held in a welcoming venue with no barriers to participation. It will be documented through photography, capturing the moment as part of a heritage archive. Preserving and honouring these expressions for the future.
Logistically, I will curate the submissions, support artists in developing their ideas into wearable fibre artworks, and organise the event with care to accessibility and inclusion. Venue hire is in-kind to ensure no financial burden falls on participants. The documentation process will centre dignity and respect, aiming to reflect the vibrant, joyous spirit of the community.
Soft Amour is more than an exhibition, it’s a gathering, a moment of shared celebration, and an ongoing conversation about identity, creativity, and resilience through the tactile art of fibres.
Rachel Eleanor Brook 