THE PURITY REGRESSION

For our final, we were instructed to do either streetwear or young designer looks. We were only required to do five looks but…I drew six(I deserve to brag if I put in the time).

So this collection was extremely fun for me to design. I was thinking about what I wanted to do for streetwear. I did not want it to look like your average urban streetwear designed by some random rapper(even though I still love those collections too). I love those looks but the problem is that now, streetwear has become that dark loose silhouette of hoodies and sweat pants slightly redesigned, and amped up tee shirt graphics. I love that stuff but that is not all that streetwear is. In actuality, streetwear is simply a subculture. It is the response to a movement. So that means streetwear can encapsulate the punk movement or the mod movement. Those are all styles that started out on the street and were made popular not by designers but by everyday people.

I thought about everything that was happening that would warrant a movement of some kind. And then I knew that I had to do something commenting on Trump’s presidency. Not to turn anyone away from my views or my designs, but I am not a fan of Trump personally. You would probably never know by looking at my collection that it was meant as a political response if I never told you. Nevertheless, I thought about Trump’s America and the idea of a regressive movement. This movement would be fueled by someone who is very stuck in the ideals of America from the fifties reacting to ideas like fluid gender roles and sexuality, shifting power dynamics between the sexes and races, and a seemingly less religion-centered society. I was also inspired by Hulu’s new adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. As a woman, I found that vision of a world where women have no rights completely relevant in this age. I do not feel as though we are far off from that future. My fashion retail inspiration came from the brand, Wildfox. I love everything about this brand from the strong, vintage, Californian aesthetic that I always see present, to the relaxed fit of all of their clothing. I love how they handle an incredibly feminine vibe in such a cool and confident way. Please check them out if you are curious,

My streetwear features the everyday looks of girls living in a stereotypical, suburban, pristine life. I thought about these beautiful girls who appear to be pure, perfect, God-fearing girls on the surface but are in fact quite the opposite. Imagine a child who pretends to be one thing to their parents, and then a completely different thing without their parents present. I took inspiration from things like Catholic school uniforms and my perception of them as something that girls will try to alter for individuality in the most subtle ways. I never went to Catholic school so, as someone who always had a free and open dress code, this is just what I would do if I had to wear a uniform. So the first girl wears a knee-length skirt pulled all the way up so it looks way shorter. She also wears a sweater vest the size of a bra. Some of my girls have details like writing on their bodies and stickers everywhere, almost mimicking tattoos. And even if you look at some of the stickers, there are some hidden references that are not so innocent. All of the girls are practically dripping in flowers. The flowers seem beautiful and pure, but flowers heavily allude to sex. All of my flowers are also white referencing flowers seen at funerals. All of the other girls have some sort of visual reference to sex or the female anatomy by way of lace that forms a bra, or ribbon that outlines a woman’s chest. The last three girls all wear pants that point to their crotches in some way. The last girl was a little more interesting in that she is meant to be wearing a baby dress as a crop top, accompanied by her floral headdress that resembles a baby bonnet.

I swear that I could probably write novels simply dissecting all of my choices in every collection. Everything means something else, but at the same time, you would almost never know. This collection is in no way meant to be sexist or anti-feminist. I wanted to show a dystopian world where girls are simply expected to be perfect, little flowers, and show the subtle rebellion that might arise from that subjugation. Much like this idea I had of a Catholic girl pushing her uniform as far as she can before getting in trouble, I thought the same concept would apply if we try to make the expectation of girls broader and more freeing.