LOOP
We go through plenty as humans beings. Generally having fun and clicking into our truest expressions of self is somewhat inaccessible for many of us. The way we present ourselves to the world has an effect on how we then show up in the world, in relationships and with ourselves. Think how amazing the world would be if we all loved our own selves wholeheartedly. All the beauty and all the imperfect parts. We may find more grace and care for each other. We may have deeper reverence for our natural surroundings and our collective successes. I think we would have less individual greed and gain, leading to a more collective wellness, of our minds but also our spirits.
Exploring our personal expression is an avenue for healing and connectivity to ourselves, others around us and our histories. For me, searching for and finding that self acceptance and love has happened through my own personal style forming from my handmade garments and hobbies. My creations and act of creating has had a profound effect on who I am today, no doubt who I am tomorrow.
The intent behind this project is very close to me. I have been making wears since the beginning of my days. I grew up in a rural area raised by Texas cattle ranchers. My parents were bohemian and naturalists. We played with sticks and roamed pastures for hours. We cherished our donkeys, goats and dogs. It was all so simple and amazing.
When you live far out, you learn to make and do for yourself. My Grana made many of her daughter’s wedding dresses, babydoll clothes and a plethora of children’s PJs over the years. Some of my earliest and fondest memories are from a time when I would sit in between her knees while she sat at her sewing machine. I would watch the edges form something together. Two pieces of nothing special, become something eternally special. The beauty of these one of a kind things struck me immediately.
On the other side of my family, my 70s barbie bombshell great aunt Nancy was the queen of her acrylic yarns, her afghans and her knitting machine. Nancy’s sister, my Gran, was a talented artist. She created in brilliant watercolors and oil pastels. When my mom was young, my gran taught her how to knit. My mom then passed that along to me when it was my turn to learn. All the women on that side were talented in a multidisciplinary sense. All of these hobbies were the same. Magic from a few ingredients and individual items and I wanted to join in on that magic. The physical heirlooms and memories of their creations bring me more joy today than anything else. Perhaps the thinking that I could leave my family such special things and memories is the only notion more interesting to me than preserving my family’s memories, makes and traditions.
There is a special metaphorical thread woven through her hands into the garment or item that I cherish and love today. When I make a hand made sweater I invest a lot into that process. Not only am I investing my utilitarian assets, but also my unique thought processes, my design sense, my deep love, my valuable time and my stories. These creations can be trying and testing. They are frustrating and more often than not, a vehicle for flow state rest. The blemishes are memorable, as I probably struggle to get through them. The details are special. I was thoughtful and intentional while making them.
All of these musings represent the conceptual aspect behind my project, Loop. We are craving ways to slow down, make meaning out of life and our time, while also connecting with the ones we deem most special. Hand making helps us to achieve all of this. Slow creations are inherently cleaner for our earth. If one invests in a quality material, grown from the earth or back’s of an animal, they’ll take care to make a strong and sturdy product. That piece will last. You may only ever need the one. These items require the slow road and these makes are often a radical form of self care through the process. Through making our own garments, we get to tailor or outward expressions to our exact desires. We get to give ourselves something uniquely made with our own self in mind. We get to customize and personalize to our exact wants and needs. These many aspects are the ethos and root of my thesis project, Loop.
As expressed, this project, is a surging wave that is fully encompassing my past, my mentors, my dreams and my values all into one. Like most of my handmade projects, there is a whole internal journey I get to go through as I make the garment. With this final project here at LCAD, I have a mental scrapbook collaging together. I have been reflecting on all the beautiful moments over the summer that I spent knitting my final Loop prototype up. It has been cathartic and inspiring. I think of all the friends that asked me what I was making and how special their reactions were while I tried to explain my concept to them.
This garment system is comprised of a few components. One gets a base top and bottom that is reversible and can fit forwards or backwards. These base garments have syncable and lacing waistbands and seams to allow for more bodies to fit into these garments. The silhouettes are simple, oversized and angular allowing for the consumer to make their look work for them. There are very few rules! Along side the base garments, one chooses their square pieces. These pieces are able to loop, lace, tie, zip, button or snap together depending on the options chosen by the user. These squares can expand the full look to many versatile options. One day, that may be four squares at the bottom of the shorts made into pants.The next day, that could be a jacket style top, open down the center or laced up the back for enclosure. The squares double as strapless tops, skirts and bandanas. This is the fun in the system. Whatever is wanted can probably happen with enough play and invention.
I often go through a spectrum of emotion as I knit and sew. It is common to span them all. Whilst creating this last prototype of the above system, I remember moments of boredom, lots of knitting arm pain (it is real), and lots of elation once I realize that it was working out. I knit this final garment prototype on so many beaches this summer. I knit it in my bed at all hours of the night. I am certain my dog ripped it out of the basket a time of two. Her hair is woven in, along with tiny grains of sand and all the emotions. My final knit version of this concept has been inspired by the many sunsets over the ocean. I acted from a place of flowing mindlessness as I chose the colors that would sit next to each other. I intuitively chose the stitch patterns and eyeballed all of the measurements. The flow will be exaggerated in the final garment as it will hang on the worthy bodies it meets.
So much of my hand making is a ritual. It is a modality for ancestral healing. I think of all the women mentioned above. My knitting and making is a direct connection to all of those people. I feel safe and whole enough to be brave in my personal expression, try these projects and make my art. I can only thank my family, friends an mentors for helping to shape a life around me that then produces this project from that life lived.
On this same thought and vein, my time here at LCAD has greatly inspired me throughout my making and creative journey. I am deeply aware of how fortunate I have been to study all of the design and art history that I have. I can call upon these names and works in my head and they directly and indirectly inform my knitting and design projects. I enjoy recalling on the in-depth conversations I had in design history with Dana Herkelrath. I have been reminiscing on what it was like to hear Dana relay the history of women in the Bauhaus, sequestered to the fiber arts and weaving emphasis for the several years of the Bauhaus’s beginnings. I was struck by that. Fiber arts and garment making are some of the most ancient and utilitarian practices and skills, but they were sectioned into a lesser tier for women within that institution. I find this fascinating and my knitting and making today is a connection point to those many women that forged space within that iconic design scene. They remained even when others were pushing them and their work to the sides. I am inspired by the deep lineage of the simple homesteading mothers and daughters in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Japan, South America, etc. I am inspired by the ladies still weaving and spinning their own wool into yarn today. Being a maker is a proud badge for me. It is sometimes a form of protest and more often a form of joy. I have brought all of this pride into this final work here at LCAD.
I have known and thought about Loop for over a year. I began this project as my semester long work in the Honors Lab circularity course here at LCAD. I have always loved designing garments and pushing my DIY skills to figure out what I needed to do to get a garment where I wanted it. That is a pillar of this work. The imperfection of the techniques, materials and outcomes are what contribute the most to the work. That is the thread of this project that makes this really me. So for the visual and aesthetic point of view, this DIY, mish-mash of elements is where I have undoubtably landed.
The branding is quite bold so that the absurdity of the product and the people that engage with the product can be further amplified. The first element of aesthetic and branding that I did nail down was the name. Condensing this project into one semester as I initially had to created areas for me to revisit once I came into more time. The name was one major element to readdress.
The original name for the concept garment was Pieces. This no longer worked for concept as I have expanded the project past just the garment which is composed of, you guessed it, pieces. I am looking at this system from a more holistic overview now. There are many brand components to this project that are circular, organic and more so one element that weaves rather than pieces that live individually and then collectively. The final product is meant to be inclusive of all gender expressions, origins and backgrounds so that makes me think of all of us, whole communities and all the infinite ways we are woven and looped together. Thus I landed on Loop. It is continuous, simple and related directly to the product.
From a visual perspective, I originally intended to work with a word mark. I did not end up relying on a complex word mark, which surprised me. I ended with a bold, round and sturdy san serif word mark that is more brutalist and matter a fact. The repeating characters and stem components of the letters contribute to a really interesting visual quality. I landed on a logo symbol that encompassed the organic shells physically in the work, alongside the symbolic meaning that a seashell’s circular lifecycle holds. The regenerative nature of a seashell ties directly to the regenerative production cycles in this garment's closed loop production cycle. I love color and I was inspired by many sunsets over the water, refracting rainbows of colors. This ushered in a nod to the LGBTQ community, as I feel strongly about championing their voices and representation in the world. However, I took the color palette of the final branding left of center and altered the individual values of the rainbow to be something less on the nose, yet still tying the palette to the brand’s value of inclusivity.
There is a story telling aspect to this project that is integral to the work. The branding consist of mostly the high contrast shapes shared above, bold photography and graphic photo lay-downs of knick-knacks collaged together. The collage brings that collector-maker spirit to the final products. It ties in the analog process that helps us to remember to slow down, enter flow state and reflect. It also harkens back to a time when we were young and more playful. I remember scrap booking my dreams and memories with paper, scissors and glue as a child. I played with paper dolls and cut out their many outfits, snipping where I wasn’t suppose to and turning a dress into a top and a skirt. This core memory is apparent in the garment concept and show up in how I display the garments in the photography, as if the models were my paper dolls that I am styling on my bedroom floor. The photography is shot on film in a very campy styled aesthetic.
I have contributed a lifetime of research to this project. I have, of course, honed in new techniques for sewing and knitting. I have learned how to sew invisible zippers, how to sew reversible vests, all things grommets, and, of course, I had to master button holes. I have examined many brands that I admire. Some of the brands to name a few are Tombolo, Linnmick, Elder Statesman, and Ganni. I have also spent time pouring into the history of femme garments and the fashion industry as a whole. The first and most prevalent piece of history I dipped into over a year ago was a podcast episode from the WYNBC show Radio Lab. This episode was all about the evolution of the modern sizing chart here in America. Here is an exert from the episode. “…in this episode, [Contributing Editor Heather Radke] tells us about a fascinating history she uncovered that takes us from a eugenicist’s attempt in the late 1930s to concretize the most average human, to the rise of the garment industry, and the pain and shame we often feel today when we go looking for a pair of pants that actually fit.” This podcast episode details the inherent racism, ageism and sexism that exists in the standard sizing chart of the last century.
I took this into consideration when I heard it, because a Loop product is not one that is specific to one type of person or body. All ages, sizes, and gender expressions are encouraged to wear this product. Thus my sizing must be something that majority of humans can fit into comfortably in some way. It may not be conventional ways, but the goal is to find ways for everyone to enjoy wearing the garment in a manner that makes them feel confident and like themselves. For those that do not like the fit, there are solutions created for them. Through custom sewing patterns generated from a web browser based 3D sampling tool, one can enter their exact measurements and desired outcomes and get a individually tailored sewing pattern made for them. My aim is to keep the barriers to entry surrounding Loop very low.
I did lots of research into tradition dressing in other countries to see just how they manipulate great amounts of fabric to create variations, alignment to the lifestyle and comfort all in one garment. I found many interesting examples all over the world. Japan and Nepal have very ingenious approaches to lots of wrapping, volume and tying. Their garments are forever mendable, referencing great Shiboro and Sashimi mending techniques in Japanese culture. Their silhouettes offer great versatility and I have taken a lot of inspirations from these cultures.
Beyond all of this historical technical research, I have dipped into psychological concepts tied to one’s style. I wanted to understand the implications of business and politics on the fashion industry as a whole. I turned to sources like ID magazine and found many videos and articles on the topic. My favorite series on this conversation is called State of Undress. ID team and host Hailey Gates travel to far places to participate in the fashion culture in often hostile or dangerous settings. She hears from locals and studies the socioeconomic, political and historical ties that fashion contributes to in those areas. They exposes what is often ignored in these governments and cultures, creating conversation around issues that may go unnoticed by many of us. Often she hears from groups about gendered and class specific violence She exposes suppression enforced by the fashion industries and systems in these areas. So many times, the story is the same. People are trying to express themselves just as they wish to and they are being jailed, oppressed or worse case, killed for their expressions. One of the most interesting episodes centered the Bolivian cholita women and their fight to share their fashion in protest to the patriarchal and misogynistic culture in Bolivia.
On the topic of circularity and sustainability, I did research on the harmful dye processes alongside toxic manufacturing practices in the churn and burn fashion industries of our world. I learned about many brands that green wash and post the buzz word“sustainable” on all marketing campaigns. All mass scale production at this time is somewhat eco-imperfect. Brands like Reformation, Outerknown and even Patagonia all have flaws in their systems. The deep dive into the ugly aspects of this business absolutely informed how I thought about every element of how I present this fashion concept. From a production perspective, I aimed to form regenerative, closed loop extraction systems, that require little to no new material. For the new material, I discovered emerging technologies that create lab grown mushroom leathers. I studied ethical farming practices for materials like cotton and linen that consider water use as the paramount issue to address. I studied the lineage of sturdy silk plant fibers that have been around for generations in eastern and now western cultures.
From a consumer engagement perspective, Loop has a buy back and resell platforms to interact with once the garment or pieces of the system has been in one’s closet for some time. Everyone loves a refresh and I wanted to create thoughtful ways to keep the consumer in these responsibly looping systems. I created avenues for the consumer to send in materials from their own lives that hold value to them and a Loop team of skilled laborers would turn their materials into a Loop garment for the consumer. If they are the kind of folk to make their own and engage in the root of this concept, then there are the knitting, sewing and DIY patterns for them to use.
Through my presentation, I will share all of these core intersections of the brand. This product brings together nostalgia, circularity and our responsibility to ourselves and our earth as one. When we engage with products, we have a responsibility to invest in quality if we are privileged enough to do so. We have to make things that are special enough that hole they would leave is large enough to feel, whether that is in sentimental value or necessity. We can plan on passing things down when we leave, rather than discarding them. We can keep things around and be sparing with our choices when we initially consume. The presentation will drive these core value points home through the form of conscious marketing and emerging technologies. One of these technologies eluded to above is a web browser supported 3D sampling tool that can take uploads of materials, art, exact sizing and key outcomes to create a custom option for either materials that can be sustainably printed, alongside options for a sewing or knitting pattern for the user. This tool spares us testing by sampling a garment and gives us our exact outcomes. To share these technologies, I have created a brand reel and marketing assets to be displayed across many platforms, in our physical spaces and digital ones.
I will present the many ways one can interact with the product and the broad versatility of the garment system. One technology that must be conveyed through the presentation is the discord style digital space that the Loop ecosystem has created. This digital discord space is for consumers to create their garments, share that work, and simply talk with others about their experience in the garments and their unique pairings and stylings. Through the discord space, small makers could monetize their makes by selling unique, collectible pieces of the kit that sit alongside the options sold by Loop itself. If makers wanted to meet in person, this digital hub facilitates those connections. This total ecosystem of Loop aims to provide as much room for the individual to shine through the way this garment works and the opportunities it provides. This ecosystem is a healthy, unique place for us all to get into discovery mode, share our ideas and ourselves unabashedly. The product is enhanced by the user and vis versa.
What this all symbolizes is an idea that we can create safe, functional communities around dressing ourselves that is not harmful and not politicized. This brand is working towards is a changing of minds, a introduction into new habits of thinking, consuming and participating. Once we all embody the full scope of the many connections we do have to each other and the earth, we will have a different world on our hands. This fine thought encompasses the ultimate highest aim with this product I am calling Loop.
Works Cited:
Japanese Textiles: Three Ancient Art Forms,
chromeextension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://scholarspace.jccc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgiarticle=1024&context=honors_journal#:~:text=The%20beautiful%20art%20of%20sashiko,painting%20warp%20and%20weft%20threads. August 2023
Vice TV: State of Undress, https://www.vicetv.com/en_us/show/states-of-undress , September2023
RadioLab Podcast, https://radiolab.org/podcast/butt-stuff , November 11 2023
Daura-Suruwal: Nepalese Traditional Dress,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DauraSuruwal#:~:text=In%20Nepal%2C%20the%20traditional%20male,tie%20it%20around%20the%20body%22. November 2023
