A LIVING MEMORY A/W 18

My senior thesis, A Living Memory, is an exploration of my constant state of nostalgia and what it’s like to live life through rose colored glasses. This collection began as an outlet for the sadness and grief of a time lost and evolved into a study of my personal journey of identity. Pulling mostly from my own point of view; I wanted to create a collection that is an extension of my internal world.

I began with this idea of a cloud of nostalgia. What does this cloud feel like to me? It suffocates while simultaneously comforting me. The way this comfortable suffocation translates for me is in Large, oversized silhouettes that almost weigh the wearer down. My collection has some very heavy pieces, but conversely, light pieces that almost feel like air. The dreamy ambiguity that I view nostalgia to be is shown in my pieces that drape and move heavily but easily.

I tried to call upon times that, to me, I felt the most alive but in the most naive sense. I always came back to twilight, a time in the day when the sun is setting and there's this blue tint to the skin when you are outside. This is represented in the navy of my collection.

A very prominent motif in my collection is the idea of viewing life through rose-colored glasses. I romanticize the past as this time that felt young and simple. This feeling is translated into the pinks and burgundies and warm creams and beiges of my color palette.

As I continued my journey of Identity and the meaning of nostalgia, I thought about how I react to moments in the present and how to keep that feeling when I move forward in life when it becomes a distant memory. I found myself looking through things in my room and recalling each moment I received them. This brought me to wanting to incorporate pockets, both small and large, that could be filled with memorabilia that the wearer picks up as they go along in life. Many of my pockets are made from hand woven fabric that I collaborated on with a friend and textile designer based in chicago. Being both sentimental people, we discussed and played with colors that we both felt evoked nostalgia.

for my market, I wanted the wearer to be comfortable and to use the garments as a way to express their unique identity. Combining this idea with my own personal view of gender and the meaning of clothing, I found myself not having a gendered market. I wanted to play with the idea that androgyny is more than just women in masculine silhouettes; it can be a combination of boxy silhouettes, which are typically masculine, combined with a color palette and fabrics that are traditionally feminine. i created this collection with this idea of non gendered clothing in mind. Due to the nature of the fabrics and the closures being wrapped and tied, the garments transform to fit the body of the wearer.

A Living memory: to comfort, to hold, to remind.

Imagery

Sketches

Fabrics

Final Designs

The Infinite Look Process

The Fragment Look Process

The Absence Look Process

The Ache Look Process

The Cope Look Process