WORN CLOSE TO THE HEART
Roses of Ties originated from the stories of Ukrainian women who transformed their husbands’ ties into roses and wore them close to their hearts. Each rose becomes a small work of art, carrying memories and personal meaning.
The project engages participants and communities on many levels: donating ties, creating roses, supporting the community, wearing a rose brooch and taking part in meaningful conversations. Through these shared acts, the project creates space for reflection, connection and healing.
The project has already resulted in hundreds of Roses of Ties, yet many more lie ahead. No two roses are alike: each has a different design, carries a different story and rests beside a different heart.
HOW MANY ROSES WILL IT TAKE?
Over time, fashion has faded into shades of grey. Roses of Ties seeks to bring colour back into our wardrobes—and into our lives. In turbulent times, the project speaks of kindness and hope, offering a way to transform absence into meaning and connection.
A necktie, traditionally associated with masculine identity, status and authority, is reimagined through feminist care, embodied memory and shared ritual. Through the hands of women, it becomes a tribute to those who carry on—fragile yet resilient, like a rose.
How many roses are still waiting to be made? How many stories are waiting to be carried forward?
Every rose is worn close to the heart. Every rose carries someone’s story.
War’s Unwomanly Face
When Swedish women donated neckties once worn by the men they loved and had lost, they asked for only one thing in return: a Roses of Ties brooch to wear close to the heart.
Through the delicate act of transforming neckties into roses, Ukrainian women discovered that grief knows no borders, and neither does empathy. As Swedish companies and individuals continued donating neckties to the Roses of Ties project, the collection grew into a living testimony to our time – a time marked by war, displacement, resilience, and human solidarity.
The project is also being documented through research and film, following the hands and stories behind the roses and exploring how collective making can become a language of dignity, connection and resistance.
One Rose Each Day
The integration of Ukrainian families into Swedish society unfolds through the shared language of craft. For some of the Ukrainian women involved in the project, creating one rose each day has become a quiet ritual – a way of marking time when every moment matters.
Time becomes almost tangible: measured not in hours, but in stitches and breaths, in every fold, and in every Rose of Ties.
Roses of Ties is a living, polyphonic project. It is not a closed narrative but an open invitation. Each new participant adds a voice, a pair of hands, and a story. Every rose becomes part of a growing archive of lived experience, tracing women’s journeys across migration routes, conflict zones, and cultural borders.
War Is Measured in Millimetres, Not Years
This artwork has no predetermined end. It continues to grow as it travels from city to city and country to country, shaped by the women who contribute to it and the communities that welcome it.
How many roses will it take?
How long will it take? Can women, through their hands and craft, fill the world with these noble roses? Can the gentle power of care, patience, and creation shape a world of hope? And can craft – which offers little material reward yet may support reflection and emotional healing – become a quiet act of feminism and peacebuilding, changing the world one rose at a time?
Roses of Ties Presentation at the Army Museum in Stockholm
Donate Ties
Since 2022, the Artten Foundation has supported Ukrainian women and families through a curatorial practice that brings together art, craft, memory, and community – from weaving camouflage nets that continue to save lives in Ukraine to transforming donated neckties into symbolic roses.
During the Stockholm Sewing Festival, people travelled from across Sweden carrying family neckties. As each tie was transformed into a rose, stories of love, migration, loss, and hope were shared. Roses of Ties is more than a participatory art project. It is a curatorial and artistic methodology that transforms everyday objects into carriers of cultural heritage, connecting people across generations through shared memories and collective making.
The Roses of Ties Method
Developed in 2022, the Roses of Ties Method has been implemented internationally by museums, universities, municipalities, refugee organisations, artists, and community groups. The method offers an accessible framework for dialogue, well-being, gender equality, peacebuilding, and cultural participation through collective making.
At the heart of the Roses of Ties Method is a symbolic response to gender inequality. An object traditionally associated with male identity, status, and authority is reimagined through women’s hands, stories, and creativity. By transforming neckties into roses, the method makes women’s experiences visible while creating opportunities for dialogue, well-being, collective memory, and social participation.
Book a Workshop
Transform an old tie into a unique rose brooch at Artten Gallery—or invite us to bring the workshop to your organisation.
Roses of Ties can be arranged as a team-building activity, conference programme, museum workshop or community event.
- Tailored workshops for companies, museums and organisations available on request
- No sewing experience required
- Individual workshop: SEK 350 per person
Made in Solidarity
Do you have a tie with a story? A memory woven into its fabric? Together with women from around the world, we are building a MUSEUM OF TIES – a place for healing, remembering, and safety, something for our children to hold onto in the future.
E-mail us your story or send a tie to:
Ludmila Christeseva
Artten Gallery
Artillerigatan 10
11451 Stockholm, Sweden.
Photograph: Sebastian von Wachenfeldt