For my chosen inflection I decided to focus on “Systems & Societies”. The reason for choosing my inflection was because I envisioned my outcome to be more research based and conceptual. My final garment is heavily and quite literally influenced by the traits of an individual diagnosed by Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I chose two traits in particular to focus on when designing my fully lined jacket, these traits were “obsession” and “deception”. Through the course of the semester, I realized that I found an interest in blending my art & design with my curiosity of the human mind and more specifically personality traits. Having been in contact and even in a long term relationship with an individual clinically diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder for years, I’ve always found myself more and more intrigued by why these people are the way they are. In my personal life, I have experienced the extreme and hazardous obsessive streak of a Narcissist’s ways and I wanted to dedicate my final to creating something that visually portrays their overwhelming, obsessive and deceiving nature.
To portray this nature I used zippers :
To showcase this deception, manipulation and obsession I decided to use zippers as a metaphor to create a garment that is filled with an overwhelming and unusual number of zippers in a jacket-
To create the design of my final jacket I started by marking the regular jacket pattern and, I added alot of style lines and eliminated most darts. I liked the fisheye darts in the back, and kept 2 out of 4 of them.
After doing this, I made the patterns for the jacket shell using these style lines I made as a reference.
After drafting these patterns, I made the garment in muslin to work out the fit of my garments, and eliminate some more darts and combine some of my style lines
After I felt better about the fit in muslin, I bought my final fabric : wool and leather
I ended up using a stretchy faux leather in a muted turquoise color and paired it with grey wool for my final jacket, since I felt like these two materials also worked with my concept. Using two fabrics that opposed each other in their materiality worked with my concept because it conveyed how the narcissist’s personality can change in seconds, these individuals are always hot and cold with their victims and their personality is constantly changing. Using a stretchy and stiff fabric in one garment with two completely different textures, helped me showcase the two different sides of a narcissist’s personality
Fabric Choice & Color Scheme :
Jacket Sketch :
After making my shell patterns, I drafted my facing & lining patterns and then after that I was ready to cut into my fabric :
Pattern Pieces
Once I checked all my pieces I was ready to cut into my fabric & marked the darts that I had to sew :
Before I started sewing the zippers I had to alter all my zippers, To trim the zippers, I had to individually remove zipper teeth, since I had a range of sizes. This was extremely time consuming consideering the number of zippers I have on the jacket.
Once I trimmed 11 of my zippers, I was ready to start sewing the pieces together with the zipper in between :
I also made use of the remaining seperating zippers as embelishment once I cut them off to trim the zippers. I used them in the shoulder seams and the side seams, and will use them in the hem as well. I feel that this makes my design even more cohesive.
Sewing the sleeve:
Progress Photos :
Interfacing for collar and facing :
Sandwiching Collar & Facing :
Hand Sewing the hem : Slip Stitch
Sewing the lining :
FINAL OUTCOME : on different people
From the beginning to the end of the process, I definitely was overwhelmed by how time consuming it was to execute my design, as well having a total of 20 pattern pieces (including the facing and lining). I definitely knew what I was getting myself into, and I was extremely attached to this project due to its concept being very close to my heart and experiences. I strongly believe in the phrase “what’s bad for your heart is good for your art” and I believe this project helped me to do just that, vent in a way almost. Furthermore, it technically did challenge me very much, altering each zipper and making sure all 20 patterns were labelled correctly and fit with one another was a very long process for me. I did wish I had more time to be even more accurate with some of the details in the execution of my garment, but overall I am extremely content with the fact that I even attempted this garment and the look of it was more than I expected it to be. I also realized how important it was for every element of this jacket to be related to my concept, from the color scheme, asymmetrical shape, number of zippers (which ones to open and lock), fabric choice to literally every single detail till the very end. I am really grateful to have experienced what I did experience, since it has pushed me creatively in a way I didn’t think it ever could.
