The design process behind my Fall 2019 Junior Year Collection

1. Wa n d e r i n g

3. “Wandering” examines four individuals left to traverse
the husk of the world we left behind. As they wander this
forgoten landscape, they slowly become apart of it. No
longer does man rule over the world he took for granted. As
the destroyed Earth regains control of its surface, those left
are subject to the same torture that they inflicted upon it.

5. Initial Research

6. My concept revolves around an abandoned Earth and the people that wander it. Taking
influence from the worlds and personalities created in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and
Sergio Leone, the best way to describe my vision of the future is a post-human sci-fi west-
ern. Each design is created with thoughts given particularly to function, personality, and
environment. My goal is to create garments that reflect the wearer and their unique experi-
ences through techniques of degradation and individualization.
The idea of the individual stems from the characters of the films mentioned above.
Leone’s Man with No Name perfectly depicts the mentality of my future wanderer. This
character explores the conflict of morality and survival in a chaotic world, similar to that
of Tarkovsky’s Stalker. I see these characters evident in my designs in the way that survival,
self, and environment play large roles in their situations. These characters are searching for
an unobtainable thing that they may not truly understand. They act out of necessity but are
confronted with the realities of their environments, resolving in a questioning of their own
ethos.
My designs and materials connect with these characters in the way that they con-
vey the relationship with the environments I envision people experiencing in the future. In
an abandoned and desolate world, one is left to traverse their lives on their own without a
specific direction or purpose. The only constant in their lives is the clothing that has gone
through the same experiences they have.
I found myself focusing on the natural decay of an environment, and how organisms
deal with the harsh conditions of our world. I wanted the materiality involved in my project
to reflect the environments I envision people experiencing in the future. Initially, I saw this
link primarily in using only natural fibers to explore the interaction of human and nature,
but came to realize that, in this world, it was no longer just about how humans imprint on
nature. Through exploring the corrosion of copper, I found that nature had its own ways of
leaving its mark on humans. In my future, humans are not the one’s building on the earth;
nature has reclaimed its territory, and is showing its pain. By exploring this concept, I hope
to show how humans and nature must not coexist in times of survival and desolation.

11. Look 1

21. Look 2

24. Acorn &
Avocado Dye

31. Look 3

33. A combination of Jacob Wool, Icelandic Wool,
Hemp, Ramie, Banana, Pineapple, Nettle, and Silk
needle felted onto a Wool base layer.

41. Look 4