Bloom

Being home, in Washington, was the change of scenery I needed. The faint sound of water rushing through the forest. Listening to the trees swaying and dancing in the wind, giving me shade from the beating sun. I arrived back home to 18 tomato plants divided by species and waiting to be planted by my dad and I, which eventually just turned into a job for one. I threw on my overalls and grabbed the gardening tools. With sweat dripping down my forehead and back, the stress of time drifted from my mind as I transcended into the mundane. Completely forgetting about the hot sun and all of my worries for those few hours. As I came back to reality, I thought about how eager I was to watch these tomatoes grow.

I felt so accomplished and connected to the Earth.

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The Gaia concept, imagined by James Lovelock, influences my work by inviting us to think about the Earth differently. It was named after the goddess, Gaia, who is the personification of the Earth which the concept suggests is a self-regulating super organism, where all living things determine and support the conditions contributing to life upon it. This includes humans. Researching this concept has forced me to think about the climate crisis and the role we play in it: The Earth, Gaia, takes care of us while also trying to take care of herself and regulate livable conditions for all living organisms that exist. Meanwhile, humans simultaneously destroy her diverse ecologies and our own fate by creating so much waste and polluting the Earth and atmosphere.

If we treat ourselves the way we treat the Earth, humans will go extinct.

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My thesis work explores these ideas and systemic change in production and consumption in the fashion industry. I am interrogating the systems that allow accelerated disposal and other aspects of “fast fashion”. I am creating a tool kit that will explore alternative paths to fashion design and introduce circularity in the fashion industry and consumer habits. When working this way, it is impossible to create a circular system by buying brand new fabrics to create my designs. With this in mind, all the fabrics that will be used in this collection will be pre-owned, whether it was donated to me by a friend, picked up at a second-hand store, or something I already own. Nothing will be brand new. I will be manipulating these materials by de-constructing used items and knitting, dyeing, and sewing them in different ways. The fabrics and pre-owned clothing will truly inform what the collection will look like in the end. It will have a spirit that will inspire other people to think about disposability and be more conscious about where their clothing ends up and how we are treating the Earth. Along with this, I will be as transparent in my process as I possibly can! It is important to be clear on what is going on behind the scenes so I can receive feedback and be held accountable for the driving forces of my concept and my purpose as a designer.

There is and always will be room for improvement.

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