Order Up: Nostalgic Needlework
Launched this October, Adrienna Matzeg’s new textile collection for Tacit Collective serves up classic diner charm on a silver platter
To many of us, old-school roadside diners are deeply romantic, conjuring up cozy, late nights among bright vinyl booths, checkered floors and bottomless coffee. For Toronto-based textile artist Adrienna Matzeg, they also mean ice-cream sundaes — and hours and hours of embroidery (30 hours of handwork and months of planning per piece, to be exact). Her new textile series, launched in collaboration with local woman-owned art consultancy Tacit Collective, centers on diner food as nostalgic and charmingly familiar.
Adrienna Matzeg, Sundae Best
Building on her previous series, The Scenic Route, which focused on the iconography of road trips, this new collection takes a closer look at the pit stops you make along your journey. Dubbed Order Up, each piece in the series explores the familiar, from an everyday cup of joe to an archetypal napkin dispenser. (Plus, the golden brown waffle and grilled cheese x pickle combo look mouth-watering).
Adrienna Matzeg, House Special
“The work comes from a fascination with how diners hold a promise of warmth and comfort — I love how they make the ordinary feel a little bit magic,” shares Matzeg. “For me, it’s about that promise of familiarity, a constant when everything else feels uncertain. There’s also an enduring fascination with diner food as a cultural symbol of a simpler time and I think we’re all craving a bit of that right now.”
Adrienna Matzeg, Sweet as Suga’
Retro Americana that evokes comfort and community is a welcome antidote to the chaos and tensions currently affecting our neighbours to the south. Not surprisingly, Matzeg is a regular at her own local haunt, George Street Diner, where she is a fan of the Irish Breakfast. And two hours out of the city, Hewitt’s Dairy Bar was Matzeg’s favourite destination to grab an ice cream with her grandparents as a kid.
Adrienna Matzeg, Sweet as Suga’
While her go-to diner order is breakfast food, Matzeg’s favourite work in the collection is the ice cream sundae. “Sundae Best was the most challenging to create,” she reveals. “There are so many subtle details, and the green glass, in particular, was a fun challenge to capture.” And Matzeg is certainly up to task, dedicated to her craft during the months-long creation process:
“The digital planning can take just as long as the embroidery itself. Getting the composition and perspective just right is a meticulous process, and selecting the thread colours adds another layer of complexity. Each piece involves roughly 25 to 30 hours of embroidery alone, so the full process can span one to two months. I often take breaks from embroidery to rest my wrist and shift focus to other studio tasks — so there’s a lot of multitasking involved.”
Check out the full collection here.