Dear Diary
Dear Diary is my final Master’s collection, and it is deeply personal to me. I moved all the way to Bath, England to pursue my MA, and my year abroad is what inspired this body of work. This collection is a maximalist’s approach to exploring the joys and freedom of European travels in a post-pandemic world. My move from Chicago to Bath felt like a step towards a restriction-free life, and I took the opportunity to see other parts of Europe as well. I kept track of my time abroad by collecting photos of architecture, graffiti, and ticket stubs from places I visited. I also kept a journal that documented my personal experiences in each new city. I used all of my combined experiences and materials to create bold and colorful textiles that tell the story of my travels. This collection is my journal come to life. Simple silhouettes allow the prints to be on full display, and my hope was to create a collection that marks the celebration of a new life, post-pandemic.
Mosaic print- Screenprinted fabric inspired by ancient mosaic flooring inside the Duomo Di Firenze, Italy. The final print was shown in four colorways.
Graffiti print- I have photos of bits of graffiti from all around Europe. Everything from the graffiti staircase at the Gucci museum in Florence Italy, to stickers left on bridges in Cologne Germany, to Sharpie scribbles in Dublin Ireland. I combined all of these phrases and created my own spray painted art in classic graffiti styles. The canvas was photographed, and I used the photo to create a digital print that could be sent to a fabric manufacturer. The final fabric was a cotton satin that featured the print.
Architecture Devore- This print is a placement print, made up of drawings of different bits of architecture I photographed in Europe. The fabric is a velvet that I dyed, and then applied the print through a process called devore. The velvet fibers that make up the negative spaces of the print are burnt out, and the result is a sheer fabric with a raised print. I used this process twice in my collection, showing a blue dress and a pink top. I wanted this collection to be as hand-made as possible, and this fabric added a whole new layer of dimension to my final product.
Ticket print- In the journal I kept throughout my year abroad, I kept tickets among other papers from my trips. Tickets, coasters, museum passes, transit cards, a playing card, receipts, etc. I took the outlines of each one, and created a print of all my tickets. The base cloth is a tie dyed cotton drill, and the print is a blue two tone.
