Erotic Orange is a fall 2019 collection that features 1980’s Gothic Punk’s striking details paired with the mood and jiving attitude of the 1970’s Northern Soul. With all fabrics as cut and sew knits and machine knits, these garments are a reliable promoter of comfortability and movement, while they were designed in accordance to dancing. This collection serves as both party fashion in addition to ready to wear street fashion, while presenting an array of textures and layers. As I focused strictly on women’s wear throughout my research, I wanted to create new silhouettes on the body that exposed the breasts, inner thighs, and other parts as a rebellious comment about normalizing and empowering women’s bodies. Each outfit creates a unique juxtaposition of covering up and yet highlighting certain aspects of the female form. This new subculture allows for clothing that revealed those costume elements from goth, along with the preppy norm core of Northern Soul.
My target customer is a (18 - 36 year old) creative professional who enjoys complimenting and comforting clothes in the newest and unique styles. Spontaneous, free-flowing, urban dweller, self-confident are just a few words to describe my target consumer. This person could be an art student, yoga teacher, performer, dancer, and political activist. In terms of what brands and stores this kind of customer is interested in, they often go to Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Gucci, Anna Sui, Comme des Garçons, Prada. However when my consumer is not into the mainstream fashion, they enjoy finding hidden unique stores such as high end thrift stores that are often a diamond in the rough when it comes to finding clothing to fit an individual style.
As this collection is women’s wear, I want my fashion to help women express their gender in an empowering way. Through learning about subcultures, I have found that fashion allows rebels to rebel as well as encouraging individualism to spread in a community. My collection supports the modern female standards of beauty today, including the acceptance of all body types and sizes while creating the new scene on natural beauty.
The Erotic Orange Collection illustrates my particular aesthetic of mixing and matching colors and patterns as well as my love for the absurd in art and fashion. I love designing clothes that have hints of vintage styles but is reinforced through contemporary silhouettes. I come from a strong fine arts background, and my whole life I have always been encouraged and challenged to respond to what’s around me while creating and doing what I love. This is one of the main reasons I decided to come to study apparel at Rhode Island School of Design, I was immediately drawn to the creative interdisciplinary mentality. As a fine artist I take pride in the attention to color and detail I put into my work. When I work as a fashion designer, there more practicality and relation to the real world as fashion takes a major role in everyone’s day to day life. However, I enjoy combining these two mentalities in order to create something useful and to bring to light my personal style and creativity as an artist. I believe it is even more important now to take on new perspectives, question societal standards and create work that directly responds to the needs of the public.
