Stuart Weir writes this piece on Jazmin Sawyers. Jazmin is the 2022 European Athletics Champion at the Long Jump, she is also a fine singer and a fine dress-maker.
At the pre-London press point, Jazmin Sawyers talked about her dress-making. She made all the outfits in the photos.
Are you still singing?
I’m still singing. I haven’t had any performances lined up, but I did a little over the winter. It’s something that my housemate would tell you. I’m always picking the guitar up and singing and playing, but it’s not something that I’m focusing on.
More than anything, it’s the dressmaking and sewing at the minute. I’m loving it. I’m loving how fashion is moving into the athletics world, where we’re seeing more focus on athletes outside of just the track, doing the walk-ins, for example.
I’ve been making my own outfits for those. It’s a hobby of mine. I think it’s important for athletes to have hobbies that are completely separate from the sport because it just keeps you an all-around the person and also helps you take your mind completely off the pressures of elite sport, which can be all-consuming if you let them.
Is that something you might to do, career-wise as well? Like, once you finish this?
I’ve had friends ask me to make them things. I spend so long on one thing that I don’t think it would be feasible to do as a job. And then it might stop being fun. I wouldn’t put a hard no on it, but it’s a hobby. And I enjoy it. I make little outfits for myself when I go to things, and that’s all it really is for me. I’m not trying to monetize it; I’m just having fun.
You get so zoned in, and especially it sounds silly, but I feel like dressmaking could be like problem-solving sometimes because often I find a weird bit, and it fits strangely, and it’s like poking out, and I’ll spend ages sorting it because I’ve never been trained in textiles, so I don’t know how to fix it, and I’ve got to figure it out. So I can get so zoned in on that, that it does feel like a kind of meditation and overall a relaxing process, And then I’ve got an outfit to wear by the end of it. So it’s win, win.
