Individual justification: I chose a shirt that looked the most like a traditional workman’s shirt. I then embroidered a name tag that says “Alex” in Russian, because that is the most popular boy name in Russia. I chose to do it in Russian because it represents the large immigrant/working class population in the East Village. I then hand-painted a vintage CBGB poster on the back of the shirt to represent the prevalence of counterculture throughout the East Village’s history. I surrounded it with safety pins to add another element of counterculture/punk to the outfit and make it look like the poster is being pinned to the shirt.
Collective justification: We chose to focus on the East Village’s history of being a place where working-class immigrants and people who initiated various countercultural movements merged. To do so, we created a jumpsuit because they are representative of the working-class. We then added details to make it look “punk”, and used these details as symbols for counterculture as a whole. Berek made a spiky, punk hat. Ye made a painted shirt that represents the mesh of cultures. Alexandra made pants with interwoven chains to create a punk feel. Ashante created a bomber jacket with patches that combine the punk/working class message.
