Jealousy, jealousy: it’s an emotion that all of us know and feel constantly, whether it be a fleeting and forgettable moment of jealousy towards a passing stranger’s outfit, or an all-consuming, obsessive and destructive envy of a person, or life, entirely different from our own.
Tummy Ache, the slow-fashion brand and magazine using fashion and art to encourage honest conversations about mental health, launched their highly anticipated third collection this summer in East London, alongside the second issue of their print magazine, which centred around jealousy as its theme.
Whilst we might all have felt it, jealousy remains one of the most shameful emotions, and it is a feeling that is rarely admitted or openly spoken about. Through the work of some of London’s most exciting artists, writers and creatives, including Elif Shafak and Juno Calypso, Tummy Ache excavates the reasons for our cultural feelings towards jealousy, creating an encyclopaedia of the emotion. Jealousy is insidious, secretive, and poisonous if held onto for too long, but Tummy Ache believes in the power of divulgence – exposing your own jealousies, and indulging in the jealousies of others, can loosen the belief that this is an individual suffering.
It is this powerful divulgence and celebration of real emotion that makes Tummy Ache’s clothing so transformative. Founder Anna Morrissey hand-draws all the designs, lifting the illustrations from her sketchbooks which serve as visual diaries that track her emotions throughout the months preceding a collection. Having struggled with bad mental health throughout her life, the wry illustrations of ‘negative’ emotions come from an authentic and experiential place of knowing that difficult conversations are most easily accessed from a place of humour and self-awareness.
The highlights of the SS24 collection include the Longing Vest, embroidered with the emotive phrase ‘I hope you’re well’ that speaks to the isolated, the homesick, the heartsick, the broken, and the separated. The Anxiety Vest provides a token of solidarity to the anxious generation, and the Regret Vest is a tongue-in-cheek emblem of the all consuming nature of regret. Like jealousy, regret is an emotion we’re conditioned to keep hidden, and so Morrissey designed this piece to encourage acceptance of past mistakes.
Other highlights include the Evil Pants, openly confronting the darkness within, embodying the struggle against inner demons and reminding wearers of their inherent strength and resilience, whilst the Hysterical Pants, embroidered with a flower motif, call to all hysterical women, giving them back their agency and toppling the historically oppressive ‘hysterical female’ trope. Finally, the Sick and Tired Pants offer a humorous nod to the exhaustion of battling bad mental health. This design – alluding to the placement of a ‘tramp stamp’ – asserts that you can be sick, tired, and hot, all at once. All of Tummy Ache’s garments are made from sustainable materials, crafted with care in a small factory in the UK.
In a society where mental health stigma remains one of the leading causes for people not seeking help, Tummy Ache’s collection breaks down barriers to dismantle shame and silence, making mental health conversations less daunting and more accessible. Statistics reveal that nine out of ten individuals grappling with mental health challenges in the UK still face stigma and discrimination, and Tummy Ache’s mission to foster conversation and community through the power of fashion is vital.
The SS24 launch party demonstrated this transformative power, nurturing a space that felt supportive, safe, and inclusive, encouraging individuals to embrace their vulnerabilities. Many commented not only on the beauty of the clothes, but also on the relatability of the new collection’s designs, which speak for themselves as emblems of our emotions, even in the moments when we might be struggling to voice these same feelings aloud.
The night involved a series of deeply moving readings from the second issue of Tummy Ache’s magazine. The readings sparked conversations around the issue’s theme of jealousy, as both friends and strangers opened up to each other about their own experiences of an emotion that is often left internalised and unsaid. Given Tummy Ache’s mission to destigmatise mental health issues, the exploration of jealousy is particularly poignant for their audience. For many of us, jealousy is intertwined with a deep-seated longing for acceptance, ease, and recognition, feelings which Tummy Ache addresses through art and fashion.
It is truly refreshing to see a fashion brand that does not require us to put on a mask of who we are expected to be, poised and perfected. Instead, Tummy Ache’s collection manifests our inner feelings through clothing. The designs hold a mirror to our internal emotions and give them space to be felt and seen by ourselves and by others, breaking down stigmas, opening up conversations, and allowing us to reflect on our feelings, rather than repress them. Tummy Ache uses art to highlight the beauty in our emotions, even those which society might deem shameful or unspeakable, and this beauty is expressed entirely in the SS24 collection, as well as in the magazine’s Jealousy Issue.
