For the Inhabited Abstractions project, I take inspiration from Balenciaga’s semi-fitted silhouette and combining it with the construction and style of motorcycle leathers. My dad used to race when I was young, and I absolutely hated it. It was terrifying; the bike was taller and larger than me, the leathers were hanging like a skeleton in the basement, the noise was anxiety-inducing, and additionally, the absent, aggressive father did not ease the fear. When my dad crashed and gave up racing, I became even more scared of the bike sitting in the garage, resentful of the Valentino Rossi photo hung in the stairwell, and frustrated when he would watch the Moto GP races and cheer louder than ever. However, I’ve grown to love the things that terrified me when I was young, and the fears of my father, motorcycles, and crashing and burning have slowly faded away with age. 

The jacket will be oversized, dramatic, and enveloping, with carefully placed seams to emphasize the proportions of the silhouette and abstract the figure of the wearer. The finished garment will feature proportions that resemble a child wearing her father’s jacket, with hanging sleeves that must be rolled up to provide function to the hands and excess fabrics disguise the wearer’s adult proportions; the jacket’s rounded form erases any curves on the woman’s body and visually shorten the legs to further these proportions. I want to play with dyeing, treating, and engraving the denim to represent a racing suit that had crashed and burned but still managed to survive and protect the wearer. Replacing the brand sponsorship of traditional racing suits, logos from my favorite childhood brands that hold shared memories with my father and symbols that add to the narrative decorate the jacket.