Article from 2002; I won the "Best Garment Construction" Award for my "Survival Coat", an entry in the THREADS Magazine and PACC "Denim Challenge". I particularly love the typo in the headline! Especially given the time in history, I really don't think it was a good thing to win anything with "threat" in the title. Jokes aside, this award is an incredible honor and lead me into teaching sewing. The award validated my sewing ability, which I had never felt was good enough, because I did not have an actual degree in clothing construction in a frame on my wall. I let go of that a long time ago and have never doubted myself since.
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Livermore Textile Artist Wins Threat Magazine Award

Caryne Finlay-Mount, one of the nation's most imaginative textile artists, has added mightily to her reputation since moving to Livermore a year and a half ago.

A reversible coat designed and made by her has won one of the top awards in Threads magazine's "Denim Challenge" competition. The award was presented at the Professional Association of Custom Clothiers' convention in Chicago in May. The coat will be featured in one of the magazine's upcoming editions, probably in the fall.

Caryne's work has been displayed in shows and galleries nationwide. It may be seen locally at the Livermore Art Association's gallery in the Carnegie Building.

Caryne (pronounced karen) calls the award-winning coat "The Survival Coat." She says she designed it for "survival" at an event like the Sundance Film Festival. It has a plain side for daytime activities, and then can be changed into a more ornate coat for the night. She says the weight choice of denim is important; the coat needs to be soft and flexible. The coat features lots of pockets for money, charge cards, makeup, gloves, small purchases, etc.

The "daytime" coat is made of black and grape solid 100% cotton denim, while the "night" coat is a 97% cotton, 3% lycra blend, with a leopard print of black and grape spots on a light tan background.

In Caryne's words, "At night you turn it around and you have this crazy thing.... "The leopard print is a real stretch for me, but I fell in love with it and everything else just revolved around it, from the outer denim colors to the buttons."

The Threads competition took place in three categories: best denim piece, viewers' choice, and finest garment construction. Caryne's coat was selected as the finest garment construction. She is extremely proud; she thinks it was the most difficult category, requiring the most complex skills. "It is like the PhD of sewing," Caryne says.

A native of New Jersey, she grew up in a family where textile crafts were avidly practiced. Her grandmother knitted and her mother sewed and Caryne readily took to it when she was a child. "I always knew, since I was yay-little, that I'd be doing this all my life," she recalls.

Caryne majored in art history and minored in textile design at the University of Kansas, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1985. She has studied since then at J.F.K. University in San Francisco and Canada College in Redwood City.

She has been in shows and galleries across the country, from Cambridge, Massachusetts to San Francisco. In addition, examples of Caryne Finlay-Mount's art are in a couple of publications spotlighting the best work in this field worldwide. She was the feature designer for the ArtWear 2000 show in Fort Collins, Colorado. While living on the Peninsula prior to moving to Livermore, Caryne was awarded two grants by the Peninsula Community Foundation for her coats.

She has been heavily influenced by Asian formal wear, the Japanese kimono in particular. "Why coats, rather than some other kind of wear?" Caryne asks. "It's simply that coats, for me, are a kind of canvas where I feel the freest to let go and do my thing."

Caryne balances her art with raising a family and several other involvements. She is a competitive bicyclist and runner and is also into cooking and gardening. She is married to one of the legends of U.S. cycling, George Mount, who placed sixth in the 1976 Olympics, the best finish by an American cyclist up to that time in 60 years. They have two young children, Eleanor and Beatrice.

Coming up for Caryne is a fashion show at Fort Mason in San Francisco revolving around paintings by Georgia O'Keefe and Frieda Kahlo. Starting in the fall in the Livermore adult education program, she will teach a beginning sewing class on Thursday evenings.

article written by Bob Severen