ULLA STINA WIKANDER CROSS STITCHES 1970S TOASTERS

Ulla Stina Wikander has spent fourteen years wrapping 1970s household objects in cross stitch that someone else made and someone else gave up on. The Swedish artist, who works under the name uskonst, buys vintage embroideries at flea markets and second hand stores, cuts them to fit, and covers typewriters, toasters, rotary phones, irons and kettles with them.

Her method sits close to where fashion landed this year. Four labels put hand technique or reuse at the center of a release in 2026, and Wikander started doing it in 2012.

Pink Kobra Is a Rotary Phone in Floral Needlepoint

Wikander's pieces are ordinary objects from the 1970s covered in found stitching, with one embroidery cut into as many panels as the object needs. Her listed works include Pink Kobra, a rotary phone wrapped in floral needlepoint, Cream Wall Phone, covered in a fruit still life, and Yellow Headphones, a vintage headset in needlepoint.

Other titles include Blue Kettle, Baking, Cutting Machine and Swan Chair, and a transistor radio carries a swan. A typewriter piece is called Painful Work. The range runs from typewriters to toasters and from sewing machines to prams. Smaller pieces take a day or two to finish, and the larger installations take weeks.

The raw material is the constraint. She holds a collection of more than 100 different designs, and she has said she buys every embroidery she finds, because sometimes she needs to cover parts of an object that you hardly see.

Desert Boots and Platform Pumps, 2016

Footwear was part of the practice by 2016. Her cross stitch on vintage shoes dates to that year, as does a pair of vintage platform pumps covered in cross stitch with rickrack trim, and a piece called Desert Boots does the same to a pair of vintage shoes.

The press arrived in waves. Colossal ran the household objects in December 2016, Hi Fructose followed in November 2017, The Jealous Curator wrote her up in January 2018, and Frankie magazine ran the covered objects in January 2019. Neatorama put the embroidered everyday objects back in front of readers in May 2026.

Fourteen Years, Starting in 2012

Wikander began covering household objects in 2012, according to her artist statement, and she has worked as an artist since 1986. She lives and works in Stockholm and Kullavik, Sweden, and Stockholm is also home base for the Our Legacy side of the Stussy Our Legacy Vol 10 partnership that went live on June 17.

The people behind the stitching matter to her. She has said most of the embroideries were made by women and that the work tends to be treated as kitsch and undervalued, and she names recycling and a feminist point of view as the draw. Paradigm Gallery + Studio in Philadelphia gave her a first solo exhibition in the United States, Obsolescence, which ran from October 25 to November 23, 2019. Coverage of the show described ordinary, obsolete 1970s items carrying humor and critical takes on feminism, domesticity and upcycling. She has also shown in Sweden and the UK.

Four Labels Caught Up in 2026

Four releases this year made handwork or reuse the selling point. ANTR CHNC's Carhartt jacket bags rebuild abandoned Carhartt jackets and vintage garments into handcrafted bags in Milan workshops. Wales Bonner's Karintha Basketry for Adidas Originals, released April 17, has a full grain leather upper handwoven by Brazilian artisans in a traditional basket weave.

Salomon's embroidered XT Whisper carries a side stripe that is stitched instead of welded. On October 29 Carhartt WIP released sweatshirts and fleece liners with appliqué and embroidered graphics drawn from varsity lettering, which Carhartt WIP's varsity lettering extends from earlier seasons.

Two of the four start from old goods. ANTR CHNC begins with discarded jackets and Wikander begins with discarded appliances and discarded embroidery, which makes her the only one of the group working from two found materials at once.

Her Start Date Predates All Four by Fourteen Years

The temperature read is early, not late. Hand technique is only now being written into product descriptions: stitched instead of welded, handwoven by named artisans, appliqué drawn from varsity lettering, jackets rebuilt as bags. Wikander has been selling that idea as sculpture since 2012, built on over 100 flea market designs that nobody else wanted.

The next test is whether a label buys the stitching itself secondhand, the way she does. ANTR CHNC is closest, since it already starts from abandoned Carhartt jackets. The four releases above are all current; Wikander's first covered object dates to 2012.