GOOD COMPANY
This wardrobe subverts the conventional garments of the modern professional, exploring multiple avenues of decentralizing established forms through design. Using a muslin toile as the central unifier poses questions of how one exists in the professional world where indicators of order, stability, and productivity become disrupted. Industry use of muslin permits design and application on the body to be tested, reflecting a committed non-commitment to production and final fabric. The nonconformist power suit, classic blazer, collared shirt, blouse, A-line skirt, and trouse are modernized through a dissection of their patterns, intervening on the foundation of construction and challenging the expectations of the body in these settings. The pieces take ownership of the history of a business suit like a taxidermy patch- wanting to participate but ever the outsider, questioning the reasoning for this normalized pomp and circumstance. The decentralized forms assert that there is no definitive right or wrong in the process of making clothing, dressing, and attitudes toward professionalism, multiple systems exist at the same time.
materials: organic cotton muslin, woven wool, rayon, woven cotton
APRIL 2023
shoulder pad camisole The historical connotations of authority and masculinity present in the shoulder pad are highlighted. This design isolates these symbolic notions and employs them as straps, contrasting a delicate, camisole form.
shirttail trouser The shirt tail is sewn into the waistband depicting a shift in formality, highlighting layered composition, where two professional forms collide.
side seam blouse Dissecting the pattern, side seams are utilized as the center front and back placket. Darts become displaced resulting in an unexpected boxy sillohuette, and keeping volume in the bust. Expectations of rigidity through tailoring is subsequently dissected in this piece.
skirt trouser This skirt is comprised of pant leg patterns, highlighting the range in interpreting 2D forms. The skirt trouser is designed at the intersection of traditionally masculine and feminine forms in office dress.
angled button down A take on the classic button-down shirt. Play with symmetry in this piece dissrupts the balance and drape of the button down- decentering associations with power and stability.
fly skirt This piece highlights the functional design of the fly zipper. Balancing its masculine connotations with a feminine form, this skirt incorporates construction details found in formal trousers.
shirt blazer in one This design utilizes the button-down shirt as the lining to a blazer jacket. It combines two elements that are frequently styled together and highlights the composition around the neck and hem.
dress skirt in one Similar to the “Shirt Tail Trouser” this piece combines two elements of professional design resulting in a casual form. Inspiration was found with 90’s powersuits in matching blazers and skirts. The now open-front dress is designed like a corporate apron. The lining's princess seam houses the side seam of the interior skirt pattern which wraps around the front of the body and snaps to the left lining's princess seam.
