Excess Baggage
FASHION DESIGN | LAYOUT DESIGN | COPYWRITING
Cyanotype, Hand Beading, Printmaking, Indesign
Rather than creating a jacket that represents one specific genre or moment, I aimed to create something that could continue changing with me. I see this project as a living travel journal that can grow and develop as I collect new memories and experience new places.
I keep a physical travel journal to collage scraps of things I find along the way like flyers, packaging, coasters, paper, artwork, and other small objects that remind me of where I have been. I wanted to translate that same process into something wearable. Instead of simply recording my travels on paper, the jacket allows me to carry those memories with me.
PROCESS
I hand-sewed smaller beads onto the pockets and larger ones along the seams. What initially felt like decoration gradually became more symbolic, with each bead representing a place and the experiences connected to it.
I also used cyanotype to transfer photographs from my travels onto fabric. The blue tones and faded quality of the cyanotypes gave the images a nostalgic feeling, almost like physical representations of memory.
Sketches
Printmaking became another way to document my travels, especially for memories that I did not have photographs of.
Instead of directly illustrating specific places, I carved simple symbols that could represent them. I sketched dragonflies to represent the springs surrounding Gainesville, a sort of ninja-star shape for Japan, a whale for Maine, and a fish to represent a river in California. These symbols allowed me to record memories that could not necessarily be represented through photographs. They function almost like a personal visual language.
