Wearable Design Project

This was a group project that I worked on with 3 other people during my first semester at Iowa State University in the Fall of 2020. The prompt was to select a song and respond to it by designing a wearable outfit that represented fit in a certain category for the Wearables Design Show. The category we chose to represent was rhythmic narrative. Our group selected the song “Thieves in the Night” by Black Star. While the Brooklyn rap duo’s song has a well-produced instrumental, the lyrics steal the show. We focused on the second verse, which describes the concept of materialism and identity in America specifically how excessive consumerism destroys individuality. We took the idea of covering yourself in popular brands and adapted it to literally covering the model in tags. These cardstock tags consist of expensive real-world brands and custom tags with logos we designed based on applicable lyrics and themes within the song. With the addition of the balaclava, glasses and “Off-White” Tag, the model appears ghost-like and is entirely unidentifiable. The last four pictures show our wearable being displayed on campus in the Student Innovation Center with me standing next to it in the last picture as a size reference.