EPILOGUE [23] RISD Apparel Design Thesis Show 2023

EPILOGUE [23]

APPAREL DESIGN THESIS SHOW 2023

EPILOGUE [23]

ALL WORKS IN THIS PUBLICATION BELONG TO STUDENTS OF RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN, APPAREL DESIGN CLASS OF 2023.

COPYRIGHT 2023

RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[00] INTRODUCTION

[01] EVE ADAMI

[02] EMILY ATANASOFF

[03] ALISA BOARDMAN

[04] VITORIA BYRNE

[05] DISCO AMBER

[06] SAHARA CLEMONS

[07] TITO CRICHTON-STUART

[08] ALEXANDRA ALESII DEBLER

[09] ZARAH GREEN

[10] CECILIA HABGOOD

[11] SEABASS IMMONEN

[12] YASEMIN EZEL KIRAÇ

[13] SAMUEL LEVY [LÉVY]

[14] ZOEY LI

[15] SILVIJA MEIXNER

[16] ANISHA MORE

[17] JESSICA OKELLO

[18] SARAH PARK [SDP]

[19] EZEKIEL SALLEY

[20] LUKE TEIGEN

[21] SOUR CITRUS

[22] PEICHEN ANNIE ZHOU

[23] YUE ZI

[+] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Apparel Design is thrilled to celebrate the Class of 2023 with EPILOGUE [23], the first in-person show of senior thesis project work since 2019. Created in community, this joyful presentation in RISD’s Fleet Library showcases a yearlong process of development and, through performance, runway, installations and film, activates the propositions seniors introduced this spring at the Woods-Gerry exhibition PROLOGUE [23].

The works showcase multifaceted forms of communication through clothing and adornment and initiate propositions that harbor inclusive perceptions of our diverse bodies. Exploring through sculpture, uniformity, materiality, performance and activism, seniors embrace physicality and bring experience and gesture to the foreground of practice. Their research processes, concepts and missions for their work include the emotional value of clothing, how the garments are made, what materials are used and why, and the life cycles or expectancies of a garment.

Using their manifestos as a starting point for their thesis projects, seniors reestablish what a “collection” constitutes in the context of their thesis projects while considering their positioning as artists, designers/creatives. Some projects live and breathe between histories, ancestral heritages and future imaginings; some engage sensorial experiences, rituals, spirits and presence; and other projects meticulously work within systems and structures and commit to finding presence or flow through sense-making, developing immersive processes that connect with time, labor and materiality. Then there are projects that utilize the language of fashion, clothing and the systems within the current fashion industry as a means to critique the very discipline itself. Still others hone in on one particular process or subject—exaggeration, imprints of beauty, celebrity culture, garments as primal reflections of fleetingness and the acceptance of love and hate as nourishment for change.

Finally, we have seniors whose projects are wholly collaborative. As they work against the notion of the star designer, they advocate for active listening and working in dialogue, and in doing so immerse themselves in responsive processes as a means to empower the wearer.

EPILOGUE [23] embodies the urgency of this time and offers new outcomes, specializations and hybridized or interdisciplinary models for clothing and adornment. As such, rather than presenting the show as a seamless whole, having lived through times of extreme closeness and separation during the pandemic, we are celebrating an exuberance of fracture alongside a deep dive into craft, materiality, process and context.

Apparel Design’s faculty and staff celebrate these 23 seniors who have demonstrated tremendous resilience, positivity and tenacity through pressing times. We have no doubt that they will all make significant contributions to a more equitable, thoughtful and joy-filled world. Enjoy the show!

EVE ADAMI

You have your bat right where women of the past grew chest hair, he said. It’s a sign of strength.

You have a special face, there’s a line that runs through the middle of it, exposing that you are made up of two different women. That’s why you are so strong, he explained; you are doubled.

Every day Lady Gaga is reborn as a sobbing baby (for example)

Made up of two people but hosting an ocean of them deep inside.

Like detectives who are haunted by the victims for whom they sought justice

Or the stories of your great grandma that stick in your head

You are a divine woman. The best artists are divine women.

At 23 I am conjuring the strength of tween me—before shit got bad and boys meant anything and the first step onto the pink sparkly tiles of PINK Victoria’s Secret was enough to make me excited to be a girl.

@USER189189189 EVEADAMI.CARGO.SITE

EMILY ATANASOFF

“There is nothing more wonderful than being a scientist, no where I would rather be than in my lab staining up my clothes and getting paid to play.” [MARIE CURIE]

Achieving a dream takes commitment

It requires waking up early Working in a studio for long hours. It is often difficult to stay motivated Discoveries keep me going

A new textile manipulation I invented Or a modular system I draped on the body. Repetition of process is important It keeps me focused Limitations in process create a fun challenge

I am always learning. What a wonderful thing it is to be an artist.

ALISA BOARDMAN

What does it mean to be mixed race?

A challenge to one’s own sense of legitimacy and belonging within a culture. An affront to archetypes, categories and labels.

An inflection point in cultural perception. A confrontation between expectations and self.

A commitment to understanding and navigating dualities. Being half Japanese, half American. Who has the agency to ask and what does it mean to reclaim and celebrate this diversity of identity?

@ALISA _ BOARDMAN

VITORIA BYRNE

@VITORIA.BYRNE VITORIABYRNE.COM

I enter the portal, birth. To ground myself I meditate on the past. I am because you are.

I am a continuation of the women before me.

I meditate on what could have been. The missed opportunities. The void, the haunting. I meditate on the future. My future and those who will follow. I am full. I am ready to return to my body.

DISCO AMBER 小芳

We jump onto the green steam train to the Nation of the Absurd. Without misgivings, we are moving through the night. Our parents once warned us, the other side of the city, is strangeness, danger, the Big Wilderness. When dawn comes, we finally see— besides the rails are glorious golden fields of wheat.

After three days and three nights, we reach our destination, Queer symphony in Grey Major plays— A melody consisting of absurdity, rudeness, freedom and love. We dance barefoot in mud puddles, then new grass grows from the mud. There we believe in the genderless Bodhisattva, who has a giant Adam’s apple and plump breasts.

It can transform into any grain of dancing sand in this desert or into the vast Milky Way itself…

@DISCOAMBERR XIAOFANG.CARGO.SITE

SAHARA CLEMONS

TITO CRICHTONSTUART

@TITOCRICHTONSTUART TITOCRICHTONSTUART.COM

A compulsion

An obsession

A fixation

A mania

A fetish

A fascination

A passion

A desire

A craving

A rage

My Tito

My blue-eyed boy

My innocent trouble maker

My flowery faggot

You are afraid: You and the public who judges your curiosity

You are captivated: You and his body

You are upset: You and the battle with internal hatred

You are normal: You look for an answer You demand a climax You don’t understand You don’t have to understand

I don’t have the answers and likely never will. I am acknowledging the male body. I wish I could go back and tell myself that I don’t need answers and I shouldn’t seek them. I wish I could tell myself this today and believe what I was saying. A constant cycle that I’m stuck in, the lines and swirls wrapping me around his body over and over again. The constant desire to create work that will answer the question that I am desperately seeking an answer to. This work is the physical depiction of this cycle.

ALEXANDRA ALESII DEBLER

I am not just a designer; I am an artist and a craftsperson. I am a painter and a photographer and a mix of many things. In my life I will strive to stay true to the title of creator; I will find the beauty in the mundane because the mundanity makes life worth living. But what have I become?

I’ve become angry. In looking at my life and art, once one in the same, seeing I have spent so much time bending to the will of others. I caught myself doing it yesterday, today, now never again will I put myself aside. I create in celebration of all the things that make me and all the things that make humanity. I rejoice in the beauty of our bodies and the beauty in our elegance. Allowed to be pretty, rich, dazzling as we spin nearly out of reach. To never withhold from myself the permission to create the girly, the a, the princesses and the Gods.

Why? Why am I so furious? Empty promises, calls for activism until we point the finger at your issues and suddenly we are not educated enough to understand the innermost workings of it all, are on the wrong side because the side is against you. Are you able to separate my criticism of your actions from my criticism of your being? I don’t think so.

My anger is aged and has become stale and cold. I’m not really sure what to say to you anymore, voice rugged from screaming into the void with only the echoes from others to answer me. All I have left is to show you what I’ve made for myself and let your ideas burn off me like steam. I believe in this equality. You’ve given me nothing so I shall give you nothing in return.

Were my decisions a mistake? I believe in darker moments all I’ve accomplished was an egregious error. Many told me not to come to you but I came anyway. And now you’ve beaten down a part of me I must struggle to get back. From the ashes of you I must rebuild the girl who believed in the world.

I will go forward without you and never turn back, because that is what I would have once done, when I was art and art was me. Alone I will buff out my jadedness until I can reflect the hope you so distinctly lack.

Walk with me forward and never turn back, as I celebrate the end of our union. Celebrate with me the revival of the woman unafraid to create and achieve.

THE MOON LIO SKRAMKO

THE TOWER ISABELLA CHOI DEATH PAIGE LIND

WHEEL OF FORTUNE ETHAN HOSKINS HIGH PRIESTESS DREW LEVENTHAL

I would like to thank the models for their participation and excitement to be in this project. As well, I would like to thank Swarovski for sponsoring this collection, and The Morgan Library & Museum for greatly aiding in my research.

@ART_ PHOENIX _ / @ALEXANDRA.ALESII.DEBLER ALEXANDRADEBLER.COM

ZARAH GREEN

The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

“YOU ARE A SLUT” he yelled down. Desire can be a form of escapism. Escape and plunge through the wound that secretes bile liquids and chokes us with awkwardness.

The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

He was choking me to the fucking ground. I couldn’t breathe and I panicked and somehow slipped away from his clutch and I made a run for the door. My love for him, for them, is eternal but it is twisted and cinched to protect myself. You have to take what society uses against you and exaggerate it and turn it into style. People will organize things before death. After death those things get tucked away. You can’t really be a war hero unless you come back.

Countdown from five and take on your fear. Embrace the naughtiest parts of your mind but do not hurt anyone how they hurt you. The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. Love deeply and endlessly.

@ZARAHGREEN _ ZFG.CARGO.SITE

CECILIA HABGOOD

Sister, daughter, self, me

Be careful of who is thinking. This is what we believe. To stand for good and moral. No lying, no cheating, be honest, do honest work. Solve problems and first be SURE to identify them. Be funny be fucking jarring and hilarious. It can’t always land but when it does oh when it does. Not just the laugh though but the poignancy is most important. But be sure to use love. Mean well at your core. Point out errors with humor. Shortcomings with humor. Critique only where critique is necessary. Or if it is funny but you are sure it is not harmful. Or you don’t think it is. Who can be sure of anything? It is best to not be sure actually because if you’re waiting to be sure you will never say anything. But mostly oh dear god mostly never forget to critique yourself. Develop. Develop constantly and vastly. I mean like 5+ times over. You don’t know what you think of something until you’ve tried it 17 times. Text someone to apologize if you think about it again. Love strongly and carefully and imagine yourself in their shoes. Put yourself in their shoes where you can (when it will not cause extensive harm to you). But you will never learn more than their shoes and even then remember it is incredibly limited. So ask them. If you think they will be honest. Try to think as much as you can with that brain but give it rest. Never give IT a rest. Even when they tell you to. When they think you’re harping on. Say but is it different? And they will say no. Keeeeep harping on until you’ve squeezed the sponges bone dry. Remember what your little you said to you about Pink and Justin Bieber. And mostly remember that being a little girl is not inherently naive and stupid and incapable. It does not need assistance. It means that you indulge unabashedly where it feels right. It means you are meaning well from your core in the most genuine form. But also remember that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Because you can never know actually. And if you want to know actually (as close as you can) you must look with your own eyes and borrow the eyes of others.

@CELYBEDELY CECILIAHABGOOD.CARGO.SITE

SEABASS IMMONEN

@SEABASSART SEABASSIMMONEN.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

Despite grand problems, personal choice is a commitment to living. Talking to others is the only way to know who they are, who you are. Friendships are bigger than you think; once community is made it is not unmade. Giving up on yourself is giving up on others.

Worth is given to yourself. Matter cannot be created or destroyed; respect material history. You are doing it right, you are doing it well, you are doing it now. Pay attention to moments of excitement. When the right lung swells, the left lung breathes.

YASEMIN EZEL KIRAÇ

@YAZELSTUDIO YASEMINKIRAC.COM

I am from the sky where the crescent moon and the shiniest star are side by side

The reflection of love and hospitality

Where cats and dogs wander the street

Yet some are freer than we are

Blood-red pomegranate splashed on a woman’s body

Nineteen years long agony

A flock of sheep and their shepherd

Burns my gum like a sip of thick brown Turkish coffee

I am from the intersection of turquoise coasts meeting the land

My name is the infertile soil that was granted by a hero

I thank him for my hair that blends with the wind

And all the books that I can read

From my grandmother’s vegetable garden to the streets of Beyoğlu

I want to remember the old times

Blending sounds of music and prayers

The breath of dancing figures at night

And a lentil soup to get rid of the rush

I am from the stories of Şahmaran and Rumi’s poetry

Aşk is how I describe where I am from With its beauty and ugliness

So much history

The dedication of an Anatolian woman

Reincarnation of Kibele

Her hands are worthy of a thousand kisses

But they bleed with a thousand blisters

It is the harmony of color on my tongue

The warmth of my mother’s hug

Millions of bodies moving as one

A quiet silence and a loud cry

I am from many, many stories and many songs

You have to be a part of it

To be able to sing with us

SAMUEL LEVY

LEVY.WORKS

Inchoate:

When facing unremitting regurgitation

Behaving in such a way

Switch back to your old handwriting

When face was face

And all you could feel

Now done

Save that Sanguine sapped wave

Find a crack in the wall

[study it]

Hunched over [glass corner to the brow bone]

Fantasize you forgot that bit

Humanize a few free of error

The honest point of recklessness

Make a mountain out of a molehill sound simple enough?

ZOEY LI

The computational and the generational have long been seen as something superhuman, maybe even inhuman. For decades we have used our advancements to create an industrialized, superhuman future.

But we have never ceased being anything but human.

I see futurism as the stretching and shrinking of human understanding. Technological advancements are only agents of how we understand. We are pushing against our present boundaries and are surprised to see what lies beyond and what has been left behind.

The process of creation is the same. A linear evolution of creation only means that there is an end to creation. We have an opportunity to use the newest of learnings to revisit the oldest, and to iterate freely to no end.

@ZOEYLULULI ZOEYLI.ME

SILVIJA MEIXNER

@SILVIJA.MEIX SILVIJAMEIXNER.COM

Make it fit

Make it for me

Stretch it

Cut it

Combine it

Slash it

Don’t be precious with it

Don’t add boring shit

Don’t rely on baggy shapes or stretch

fabric. No shortcuts

Work with bodies not dress forms

Bodies are not design challenges

Find the space and flexibility in your materials

Fuck flattering

Take the time to make it good Specificity and adjustment are key

Do it differently this time

Fall in love with making

Use the expensive materials

Your body will not be a static thing. change and growth is inevitable

Make it last

Take good notes and better measurements

It’s allowed to be impractical

Don’t be afraid of variety

You’re not going to get it right but try anyway

Start now.

ANISHA MORE

@MOREFROMANISHA

Once upon a time there lived a girl in a house of ten.

“Anisha..”

“Wake up...”

“Anisha did you find...”

“Anisha....”

Voices echoing from dawn to dusk, filling every corner of the house.

“I need an escape, I need to hide, I want my space,” thought the girl. She stumbled around the house trying to find peace and she finally did in the bathroom of her room. She filled it with lights, music and stories, transforming the place into her own little fantasy spot.

Peace at last.

In this collection I am using apparel as a medium to bridge the gap between my fantasy world and the realities of everyday life by tapping into my Indian upbringing for inspiration. I view my senior thesis as a quest of self-discovery, finding little bits of myself under mountains of fabric and in between woven threads. This collection truly represents my transformation as a designer and as a person learning to live between both my worlds.

JESSICA OKELLO

Moyo na Nafsi I need history. In fact, we all do. Who, what, where, when and why do we come from…?

One of the greatest gifts to mankind is the fact that any group of people who find themselves together for a long period of time will develop some kind of common ground, and within the vast, yet extreme confines of geographical borders, a culture is born.

I am in love with the richness that human beings have seasoned the Earth with in the inadvertent quest to make sense of their relationships to one another.

In my eyes, the most important thing in the world is to learn the reason for our histories. The reason for our traditions.

I need the why.

This is how the spirit and soul of a people lives on.

History and culture manifest in hand-works. Here is a collection of my meditations.

And with this, I give you my heart and soul.

@JENOSTUDIO

JENOSTUDIO.CARGO.SITE

SARAH PARK [SDP]

@DASEULSARAH

SARAHDASEUL.COM

Dear Sarah, I’m breaking up with you, I’m breaking up with Sarah who [S]ought validation in others but me, [A]dmired others but me, [R]esponded to others’ needs but me, [A]imlessly didn’t know what to do with me. I’m breaking up with Sarah who [H]ated me.

Hate, Sarah Dear Sarah,

I’m falling in love with you. I’m falling for Sarah who [S]ought validation in others but me, [A]dmired others but me, [R]esponded to others’ needs but me, [A]imlessly didn’t know what to do with me. I’m falling for Sarah who [H]ated me.

Love, Sarah

EZEKIEL SALLEY

Batman is my dad making me into myself playing again. This is my dog who is naked with me in addressing aging ambition and sleeps with me in my aforementioned. Objects of sentiment documented and deconstructed.

I was little and now I am a little bigger but I used to be big and now I am small.

@ZEKESALLEY EZEKIELSALLEY.CARGO.SITE

LUKE TEIGEN

@LUKETEIGEN LUKETEIGEN.COM

When hyper-functionality becomes anti-functional Hyper-specificity renders specificity obsolete

Not to get bogged down In hyper-specifics But

Since when was the uniform put in charge Of rendering the body functional?

As life and labor mutate the uniform Uniform becomes an abstraction of the body

So I suppose Your uniform Is wearing you

Participation in uniform Is quite frankly Unavoidable

SOUR CITRUS

@SPIKEDORB SPIKEDORB.COM

European folktales are a lifelong inspiration to me, filling my mind with ideals and imagery that have expanded my understanding of the world while providing an escape from real-world concerns and helping me to process extreme experiences and fears. Full of wonder and magic, they describe times of upheaval, characters facing their most dire moments and universal themes such as honor, bravery, deceit and greed. They focus on the personal transformation of a protagonist, who overcomes great adversity to complete a quest.

Set in specific geographic locations or landforms—with heroes crossing paths with a magical creature either defending or bedeviling the land and its people— these stories communicate stewardship of the environment and provide valuable survival lessons specific to the region. Using powerful moral narratives, folktales demonstrate how to be receptive and responsible toward others and the consequences of cruelty and avarice. They help us understand that all parts of an ecosystem are interconnected, demonstrating that humans, animals, plants and even entire landforms depend upon each other for survival.

The threat of world-devouring creatures is very real: not a folktale creature but mankind’s insatiable greed for wealth, technical advancement and consumption of natural resources at the expense of caring for the planet despite the obvious, inevitable consequences. The oceans are choked with plastic, the atmosphere is filled with record-high carbon dioxide levels and many scientists believe that we are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction.

What hero could defeat this many-headed beast? I worry that stopping man’s assault on the natural world is an impossible quest. Folktales offer a warning about the potential consequences of such myopic entitlement. Now, more than ever, we need stories that demonstrate how to fight exploitative monsters and reestablish our connection to and stewardship of the natural world.

PEICHEN ANNIE ZHOU

@PZHOU9

PZHOU78.WIXSITE.COM/MY-SITE-09

Ever since I was a child, I thought the world was boring

It may be that the tutor is rational and cannot learn to act emotionally

Maybe it’s because I always feel like I don’t belong in this world

Or perhaps it’s my brain and its soul telling me I don’t belong in this world

Medically it might be interpreted as a split

But to me, it’s not a split; it’s good to have two minds at the same time

But it’s not about being emotional

Soul and body are separate, right? Should be

Materialism and the fairy system can also go hand in hand

The same goes for metaphysics and physical theory

So I study Taoism in thought and do not believe in ghosts and gods in practice

Sneer at the rules and prefer traditional culture

Tangle and dislocation may be all I have

If you can’t find cognition in the known world, overturn it and start over. Life was formed by chance

It’s a blessing to have grown up to this point

Man proposes, and God disposes

Live according to your likes and dislikes, don’t love the world, and love yourself.

YUE ZI

I am currently suffering, however, my sufferings are chosen. Muscles must first be torn to grow stronger. Glass melts before being blown to a mantelpiece. The brokenness in strength. The brokenness in order to gain strength. Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in, and imagine it is your last breath ever.

Breath out. You won’t be able to. Self-imposed suffocation. Losing that breath, then finding it. My vertical relationship with the above. My horizontal relationship with you. My warp.

My weft.

Wild accumulation of growth. The weird foreverness wanes. Things quiet down, colors birthing. Stripped down and beaten. Once everything is killed off, a little bud spreads, it spreads and spreads until new life takes over the quietness. This is not a spectacle. Slow down, now really look, see with your eyes and then see with more than your eyes.

This is the foundation of everything. This is the residue of life.

@YUEZIIII YUEZI.CARGO.SITE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FACULTY

Catherine Andreozzi

Maha Barsom

Laurie Brewer

Hannah Carlson

Meg DeCubellis

Gwen van den Eijnde

JOFF

Mary Kawenski

Lisa Z. Morgan, Department Head

Jeung-Hwa Park

Jackey Robinson

Philip Sawyer

STAFF

Elaine Hetu

Thomas Szilagyi

CRITICS

In addition to the support and direction provided by RISD instructors, seniors benefit further from interactions with visiting critics Yufei Liu, Christina Moon, Lydia Rodrigues and Rachel Scott. Designer/educators Korina Emmerich (Puyallup) and Liana Sewey (Muscogee Creek) visited studios as part of RISD’s Indigenous and First Nations Artist Series, as did NYC fashion designer (and RISD alum) Marcia Patmos. Amy Rueckl, David Canedo Rivas, Katharine Gutauskas and Victor Bartash from International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) visited the seniors’ Woods-Gerry Gallery show PROLOGUE [23] and were able to review seniors’ scent/smell proposals on campus for the first time since 2019. Two graduating seniors, Alexandra Debler and Yasemin Kıraç, were sponsored by world-renowned crystal makers Swarovski.

AWARDS + SCHOLARSHIPS

Thanks to the generosity of donors, the Apparel Design department will award scholarships to sophomores and juniors who are excelling at RISD. We are extremely grateful to the dedicated supporters who make our scholarship program possible. The Bridal Council Award

Helen Byram Scholarship

Josephine & Bernard Chaus Scholarship

Raul L. Lovett Scholarship

Rebecca Mellman Henry Memorial Scholarship

Joseph Piselli Memorial Scholarship

Mary Bowen Polk Scholarship

Louise A. Shuster Memorial Scholarship

Esper A. Shwaery ’23 Memorial Scholarship

Textron Fellowship

DESIGN

Yasemin Sarıhan

Cover Image by Samuel Levy

FONTS

Nimbus Sans

ABC Diatype

Monospace Typewriter

PRINTER

TCI Press