To what extent is the manner of dress in marginalized communities affected by social stigma and conservative expectations in all realms? What would unencumbered idealism look like?


My investigation took the form of interviewing people to get ethnographic insight into how they interact with fashion and concluded with us co-designing garments and formulating a collection based on idealism and mysticism found in the creativity of my interviewees that inspire and help people unlearn conservative materialism.

This summer I started an undertaking named “project: DREAMER”. “project: DREAMER” is a collection hinged on collaboration where I co-design custom clothing with others from my community. The collection explores and democratizes avenues of bespoke fashion that have been withheld from the masses. Its purpose is to invigorate an array of fashion consumers to unlearn conservative practices in expression and discover garments that coincide with who they are or who they want to be; pieces that they can wear forever. I believe that the most direct, feasible, and auspicious strategy for making clothing production more sustainable and enriching for communities, especially those at risk due to marginalization, bigotry, and hatred. Markets often cater to the majority and indirectly cast shadows over people’s identities or dull their creativity. While completely overhauling fashion markets to grant visibility to all persons may be a pipe dream, bespoke fashion has the capacity to sustainably equip the world with clothing that fits their lifestyle, ideal, and body. Truly sustainable fashion starts with people seeing clothes that like, and the only way to ensure that is to loop them in on the design process. The creator chosen are distinct and represents different archetypes of people. They were categorized based on identifying personality markers like tarot cards, zodiac signs, and enneagram numbers. The collection is a visual exemplification of what people of certain attitudes may like to wear.