Fashion Design Commons^™

City, Janina Butz

Theses and Dissertations

Janina Butz observes the improvised support structures holding New York City together at its edges. Looking at the found, cheap materials, spray painted, rusty, drilled, sawed, and haphazardly welded together on the sidewalk. The hard clashes of cheap material and expensive real estate lead Butz to draw a bigger picture of the fraud seams our society is tied together with.

Cannibalizing The American Dream: Memory, Materials, And Manifesting, Juan Hinojosa

Theses and Dissertations

Juan Hinojosa’s thesis explores collage and assemblage through discarded materials, pop culture, and personal history. He transforms found objects into layered works that reflect consumption, memory, and American identity. Moving between sculpture, painting, and installation, his practice examines excess, nostalgia, and the tension between what is consumed and what consumes him.

The J In Danger, Zachary Delamater

Theses and Dissertations

“The J in Danger” merges autobiographic and formal concerns in sculpture and installation to describe the existential hazards contemporary life poses to Queer and Disabled individuals. The paper utilizes silent letters as thematic device to connect notions of precarity to a broader sense of contemporary “doomerism.”

Default, Noah Pica

Theses and Dissertations

“Default” explores the formation and maintenance of normalcy, uniformity, and banality in American life. Noah Pica starts with the visual language of lined paper, prefabricated objects, model-making kits, and blueprints. He reforms these structures through a sculpture practice, investigating how their design inconspicuously implements social norms.

Refashioning Style From The Outside-In: A Pakistani Diasporic Response, Sidra Sohail Khawaja

Theses and Dissertations

Pakistan’s traditionalists and modernists hold opposing political, religious, social and nationalist views creating a constant tension within the culture. This tension creates a fashion industry with two extremes, one side reflecting traditional influences and the other reflecting western trends. I address the tension by analysing the craft and context of traditional Pakistani men’s clothing and incorporating traditional construction techniques into garments that reflect aspects of both points of view. In a series of five looks, I extract from influences like Persian, North Indian, Afghani, Colonial and Neo-Colonial, to generate hybridized garments that offer a new perspective, blending traditional elements with …

Objectified: Forced Marriages And Bitter Reality Of Violence Against Women In India, Anurag Wallace

Theses and Dissertations

Domestic violence against women is an ongoing problem in India. With cases rising ever higher, the time has come to talk openly about the uncomfortable truths behind arranged marriages, which foster injustice and often lead to violence against women. The wedding dress is a symbol of purity in traditional Indian weddings, but in the case of marriages that turn abusive, it can become a symbol of oppression and patriarchy. During the research phase of this investigation, women once stuck in abusive marriages—treated as objects—talked about the objects that made them feel trapped and explained how these everyday objects became silent …

Girl In Action: Junior Bazaar, 1945-1948, Rose D. Bishop

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides an overview of Junior Bazaar, a short-lived magazine for teenage girls published by Hearst between 1945-1948. Under the supervision of art director Lillian Bassman the magazine featured a variety of aesthetic devices — such as photomontage, asymmetrical layouts, the selective use of color, and playful placement of graphic forms — in efforts to distinguish itself from other publications on the market and construct a visual space specific to its teenage readers. Bassman’s unconventional stewardship of Junior Bazaar made room for an up-and-coming set of photographers, including Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Louis Faurer, and other …

Identiteti Vizual I Kompanisë Vijator, Arlind Berisha

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Imaging Exploitation, Complexity, And Paradox In Subaltern Labor Photography, Mahnure Janis

Theses and Dissertations

Imaging Exploitation, Complexity, and Paradox in Subaltern Labor Photography is an expanded cinema performance examining 'cheap' labor in the fast fashion industry through a self-reflexive diasporic lens. The images and narration explores the garment factories in Bangladesh and contains ‘a photographer’s cognitive meta-data’, including ethical dilemmas while taking the images.

Through The Looking Glass: Marie Antoinette, The Mafia And The Buddha, Craig G. Foisy

Theses and Dissertations

Through the Looking Glass: Marie Antoinette, the Mafia & the Buddhais a short documentary film that recounts six chapters from the autobiography of Marie Antoinette. No, not that last Queen of France who got her head chopped off. This Marie Antoinette lives in Woodstock, NY (“but I do like cake!” says Marie from inside her shop). And yes, Marie Antoinette is her real name. She is 78 years old and she sells what she calls “wearable art” out of a ramshackle and overstuffed boutique in town. Marie is facing the possible closure of her shop: her 100-year-old …

Constraint And Control, Patricia Ayres

Theses and Dissertations

I have long considered themes of the body. Drawing on my knowledge as a fashion designer, I bring materials and hardware from the fashion industry into my artwork transforming and rendering them non-functional. My sculptures relate to stories of isolation, separation, and confinement. The following pages will analyze how the United States penal system controls, constrains and restricts the body through physical and psychological wounds. Furthermore, they will examine how the Catholic Church controls people’s minds and behavior through a ritualistic belief system.

Dress Up, Ye'ela B. Wilschanski

Theses and Dissertations

Dress Up (Performance, 40 minutes) is a dress that functions as a floor, blanket, tablecloth, book and walls. It tells a visual story about domestic care giving rituals, referencing different times and places.

My Clothing Is Me: Embracing Adhd In Traditional Qatari Apparel, Rabab Abdulla

Theses and Dissertations

Children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) are often secluded from society, as the condition is perceived to be a defect. These children constantly fidget, move, lose track of time, and forget to complete tasks, leading them to struggle within existing social environments. Additionally, in Qatar there is a need to educate society about ADHD. This research explores wearable solutions that alter behaviors through physical interactions and sensory engagements. In response to the challenges faced by ADHD, Qatari traditional attire has been customized to support children with time management, and communication between child, parent, and society. Additionally, these wearables …

The What If Collection, Aisha J. Daniels

Theses and Dissertations

The What If Collection is a visual narrative that confronts white supremacy, the social, economic, and political ideology used to subjugate black civilization via colonial rule and enslavement in history and via structural racism today. Many white people have been socialized into a racial illiteracy that fosters white supremacy. This racial illiteracy fails to realize and understand the destructive effects of Western dominance on the rest of the world, particularly on past and present Africa and her diaspora. In response, utilizing discursive design, the collection constructs a counter-story that depicts a shift in the power structure in which the white …

Of The Crickets, Kathryn Lien

Theses and Dissertations

Of the Crickets imagines the overlapping worlds of ethical ecological solutions to climate changed sustenance and the potential for collective excellence in female exclusive environments. Using garments, furniture, site-specific installation and directed performance, the project harnesses social and material sensitivity to mine solutions for idealized living.

Gender Beyond Binary, Sidra Zubairi

Theses and Dissertations

Transgender individuals challenge the binary definition of gender accepted in Pakistani society and as a result, Pakistan’s transgender community is highly marginalized. Pakistani society regards transgender individuals as “abnormal,” because their physical appearance and behavior fail to conform with conventional expectations. Based on contextual research and interviews conducted with transgender individuals in Pakistan, my thesis explores the obstacles transgender individuals face in the course of everyday survival. My research responds to the physical realities of being transgender in Pakistani society and analyzes cultural norms associated with gender, which trigger harassment. By designing transformable apparel for these individuals, informed by primary …

"Hippie Acid Freak Drag Queens:" Situating The Cockettes Within An Art Historical Context, Scott Dow

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis situates the Cockettes – a performance group rarely referenced in art historical discourse - within Bay Area performance art, second-wave feminist art, and the Gay Liberation Movement. Contextualizing the Cockettes within their contemporary art movements provides a new understanding of the group and emphasizes their significance to art history.

Adornment And Modesty A Symbiotic Relationship Between Surface Design And Social Behavior, Hawa Stwodah

Theses and Dissertations

The impulse to beautifying clothing through acts of adornments or embellishments is an innate characteristic of humans. The added decorative details are used for identification and visual communication by the wearer and comprehension and visual appreciation by the viewer.

This thesis investigates the recent attention to female modesty, labeled as the Modesty Movement--the community that has developed around the apparel segment of the Movement and the framework of the behavior encompassing the participants within Movement. Additionally, the thesis focuses on adornment through the lens of textile/surface design (embellishment) specific to the Greater Middle East and the northern provinces of India …

Dr. Who?: The Science And Culture Of Medical Wear Design, Patricia Duignan

Theses and Dissertations

The multi-million-dollar medical uniform industry has not utilized advancements in garment and textile technology that could positively impact the protection of healthcare professionals and patients. In most cases the uniforms meet basic requirements – they clothe the professional in a recognizable way. Little innovation in design, function and performance, has been applied to these garments. This is particularly evident in the case of the stereotypical white lab coat worn by many physicians, despite evidence indicating that these lab coats may carry contamination and play a role in the spread of deadly bacteria. Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) are among the most …

Twelve Representative Patterns Of The Period 1920 Through 1945, Henry Charles Swartz

Theses and Dissertations

The twelve patterns presented in this collection represent the period 1920 through 1945. It is in no way a complete study of the period, but a representation of garments throughout this period in sketch and pattern form. The patterns presented are complete working patterns in full scale with no seams allowed. The garments have been dated according to research into the period. In addition to the pattern, sketch, and description of each garment, construction notes are included to aid in the building of these garments. Hopefully this collection will be useful for theatre costuming or where ever there is a …

A Design Study In Costume For Projected Dramatic Productions Prescribing A Book Of Mormon Setting Identified Herein As Late Preclassic Mesoamerican Culture, Amanda J. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to design costumes for twelve characters, selected from the Book of Mormon, suitable for projected dramatic productions. Selection of the characters was determined by the following criteria:
(1) Sufficient dramatic potential for projected dramatic productions must be inherent in the period from which characters are drawn.
(2) Characters should represent various levels within their society.

The problem of creating the costume designs presumed an investigation of environmental factors which would influence the clothing styles worn by a typical cross section of Late Preclassic Mesoamerican society. Origins of the American Indian are briefly discussed and …