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THE SELF

Spring 2019

While thinking out the assignment I was unsure as to how two pair of pants could be referenced or associated to The SELF. I started by drawing out the aspects of each pair of pants, the details, the construction, the wrinkles, the shades. As I drew I noticed my thoughts would transfer to myself, my daily life, my problems, things that made me happy, or even current situations that had affected me. Then I noticed the association. The SELF is as much of an object as a pair of pants, both are constructed, both have an inside, both have a place where they come from. In this project I want to tell a story through the construction of the garment by analyzing the SELF, I would like to take the garment inside out. Meaning that the garment would be worn upside down, the inside stitches would be shown. The SELF is a closed book that tends to hide their weaknesses, flaws, secrets for the fear of not being accepted by what society expects it to be. I believe there is equal beauty in the construction of a garment within the inside as there is on the outside. The same happens with the SELF, it must learn to accept its weaknesses as much as its strengths. I wanted to make a garment that had several shapes, forms, textures and all of them being equally acceptable, beautiful, and valuable.

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GARMENT STUDY OBJECT #1: WOVEN PANTS / DENIM JEANS

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CROTCH / OUR SECRETS:

The crotch and the side of these denim jeans are all constructed with a french seam, meaning that on the side of the fabric is sewn towards the inside so that there is a clean finish. The same happens with ourselves, the self always hides secrets from others. Not everyone knows all of the things that happen in our life’s, some do, some know a part of them, and some know nothing at all. We fear telling others our secrets because we want them to think that we are ‘perfect’ the truth is no one is perfect.

THE FRONT OF THE PANTS / OUR FIRST IMPRESSION ON OTHERS:

Since these are jeans they have lots of details and different stitches. The fly of the pants is bordered with a double top stitch, and has a one sided zipper with a large metal button at the top. The top stitches are what we project to the world, how we want others to see us, top stitches are characteristics that make construction even more beautiful and complicated. These are our qualities. The belt holders along the waistline are also emphasized by the top stitch. We tend to fear rejection among others within our classmates, a group of friends, and professionally. We hide our true selves, and not many have the opportunity to actually know our true story that is hidden inside the pants.

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THE CROTCH / OUR SECRETS:

The crotch and the side of these denim jeans are all constructed with a french seam, meaning that on the side of the fabric is sewn towards the inside so that there is a clean finish. The same happens with ourselves, the self always hides secrets from others. Not everyone knows all of the things that happen in our life’s, some do, some know a part of them, and some know nothing at all. We fear telling others our secrets because we want them to think that we are ‘perfect’ the truth is no one is perfect.

THE BACK / OUR BACKGROUND:

The back of the denim jeans includes a leather rectangle on the side of the waistline referring to the brand that designed the garment. It has several semana, one at the top of the back, and another one at the crotch. It includes a pocket on each side/leg of the pants. The self just like this garment has a background. Were we come from, our youth, and the moments that shaped us to become who we are today. Our leather rectangle is the memory of our hometown, of our parents, our families, all of them things that we will never be able to change even if we wanted to. Our background also comes with our cultures, another factor that is suddenly stapled in our personalities. The pocket as well holds our traumas, our childhood, our fears. Things that sometimes we carry so far that they haunt us when we grow up.

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GARMENT STUDY OBJECT #2: KNIT PANTS / SWEAT PANTS

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THE FRONT / OUR TIMELINE:

The waistband of the sweatpants is elastic, and the fabric is pulled together so that the waistband has room to stretch for different types of fits and body types. The crotch is finished with a French seam all along the way. Our waistbands referring to the self would be a reminder that each wrinkle within the fabric gathering is a time, a place, a memory that has marked us in our life. Some of these gatherings carve a more pronounced wrinkle, others carve a slight wrinkle, and some can only be seen if you look up close. Each wrinkle becomes part of our story.

THE SIDES / THOSE WE LOVE:

The side of these sweatpants are marked by a blue lining, one of them covers the side seam, and the other is placed as decoration. The blue lining placed on the side seam would be our families, a lining that was placed in our life with no choice. Families are what hold the self together, they are the ones that are there whenever it wants to break, whenever we feel insecure, whenever we need a little bit of support. The second blue lining refers to those who the self chose as its company. They are called friends, partners, companions. They are chosen and can easily be replaced by others.

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THE BACK POCKET / OUR DREAMS:

 

The back pocket of the sweat pants is made out of the same fabric as the sweat pants. It has a squared figure and is topped with a double top stitch giving the pocket much more detail. The back of the sweat pants as well as the back of the denim jeans refers to selfs background. Backgrounds are what shape is to become who we want to be, in this case what pushes us to accomplish our dreams. The paths we want to take to get there are carved and planned out, they are our top stitch, our Plan A.

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