Hands Up
Masters of Fashion, Body and Garment Thesis Collection
The worker
A cotton canvas work shirt dyed with natural dyes.
The fabric was first dyed with madder root and cochineal to achieve the pale red tone. The natural and dyed fabrics were then torn into 2 inch strips and partially sewn back together for the ghostly, deconstructed finish.
The Voter
A cotton work shirt made of a repurposed “fabric painting”.
In the same fashion as the The Worker this work shirt is up of strips of cotton canvas and strips of a repurposed fabric painting. The fabric painting is titled Sunset Back Home and is made from strips of cotton African print fabrics. Within Hands Up, The Voter is paired with the Virginia Creeper
Sunset Back Home
Virginia Creeper
The Politician
The Politician is made up of two individual pieces that have been permanently married together.
The work shirt, made up of strips of African print fabric, has a bleeding heart reverse-appliqued on the left side of the chest. The bottom hems are left unfinished to give the form a ghostly presence. The floating work shirt is wrapped with a piece titled Suspicious Activity. Suspicious Activity is made up of African print hands and filled with cotton batting. The cotton is falling out the bottom of each as if the hands have been severed from a more complete body. With this work I am reacting to the resurgence of a fight for civil rights within American society witnessed in 2020. The materials used, cotton, African prints, chain, have a potency to them that refuse to go unnoticed.
Suspicious Activity
Free as a Bird
This Denim overcoat is made from my immediate family’s old denim jeans.
Each pair of worn out jeans were taken apart at the seams and patchworked back together to form this slouchy, oversized garment. The side seams, the waist, the sleeves, and the bottom hem include space for rope up to a half of an inch in diameter. The garment can be gathered onto that rope in these locations to change the silhouette and the fit. The design of the overcoat is inspired by the resting wing pattern of the Indigo Bunting; a small sparrow-sized bird that is a part of the Cardinal family.
Hard Work Wastes Time
A cotton canvas tarp with a bold statement
Death
In the end we are all tied to Death
Death is a more accessible variation of the the Virginia Creeper. Black canvas was shredded into 2-inche strips and tied to an old chain. The pointed hoodie gives a sinister effect as a separate chain hangs from the eyelets.
