The person I chose from the StyleLikeU videos is named Amanda Palmer. In her video Palmer talks about what it’s like to have your first child while being a business oriented person. She speaks about how she still doesn’t know if she wanted to be a mother- despite the fact that she does think motherhood is a wonderful thing- because she was and still is scared that her own personality as a performer and her career may take a toll because of her needing to be a mother. She fears that she will melt as a person and become only a mother to her child.
These concepts scare more women in our culture than we realize, and I felt as though this was something that could be addressed. Myself personally am so scared just of the ideas of how our bodies change, of how someone who can carry a child will lose all control over their body once the child is created. These things revolt me personally, they make me uncomfortable and scared.
So I wanted to confront that fear and make this garment to address everything that I am scared of in motherhood, and make it into something pretty. I used linen with raised detailing to suggest the idea of stretch marks, and a soft red fabric for the skirt to suggest something a child may be swaddled in. I formed the shirt in a structure to suggest how the breasts grow and change into motherhood. I added a knot underneath in the stomach area to not only suggest the physical idea of a baby bump, but also to suggest the idea that the thought of childbirth and baby bumps and motherhood creates a “knot” in the stomach of many women everywhere. I staged the picture in a simple kitchen like setting to suggest how women may end up being tethered to their homes, and I wanted that home to appear unsightly and barren. I also cropped out the face because I wanted to suggest the idea that women lose their identity within pregnancy and motherhood- and was barefoot to strengthen the idea that they are inside to stay. Many women after giving birth will stay inside for days alone with their child, and that’s something I wanted to be suggesting in my piece.
