The Frank Zappa Panty Quilt
The Frank Zappa Panty Quilt is a quilt made from bras, pants and other undergarments fans threw on the stage during Frank Zappa's concerts in the early 1980s. In 1981, Zappa announced that his band would collect them and turn them into a quilt (something also alluded to during Panty Rap). Looking for a volunteer, he found Emily Alana James. She wasn't a fan of his music, but found it an intrigueing project to work on. She rejected the suggestion of washing all this clothing and recalled that they didn't stink any worse than a week's worth of unwashed clothes. James also added pieces of cardboards to keep the top line of the quilt straight. One of them was owned by Zappa, with the word "science" written on it. [1]
James showed the quilt to Zappa as it went along and when it was almost finished in 1983. He never saw it in real life in its completed form, only on photographs. According to James, Zappa complimented her, but later disowned the quilt in public, moving on to other projects: "He couldn't have cared less how it turned out, only that he followed through on what he said he would do. After all he told fans to bring underwear and he would have it made into a quilt. He told me he had intended to visit a local college in hope of finding someone. I saved him the trouble, that's all." [2]
The quilt can nowadays be seen at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi in Mississippi. [3]
