In a world of freedom of expression, what happens to the mind and body if one's choices of expression of identity get taken away. In a space where everyone gets forced upon one identity of a garment. Thinking about the privilege of expressing oneself led me to the starting point of the research that would become my collection. The loss of identity and how it connects to prison wear. Uniformity erases individuality. Prison clothing has clear identifiers of cut and color that are to be recognized with criminality and being an outcast of society. The garments are influenced by researching not only prison wear but also stereotypical masculine clothing pieces as that is the “lost identity “ in this case. Assigned garments that one can’t identify with may lead to a shift in self-perception.
The collection tells a story about those imprisoned men reflecting and questioning themselves and their identity. I want to give the clothing a soft and fragile feel while imprinting the idea of hypermasculine clothing items into the base pattern of prison wear clothing.
