kids with shirts

This blog has begun a series of initiations to the world of fashion production for me. after my first blog post, i finished sketches for my first real shirt. My shirt will combine the notions of the historically fundamental functions of the shirt + comme des garcons' activation of the space between the body and its adornment + children in men's shirts. While the last part seems cutesy and unrelated, it actually directly corresponds to kawakubo's attempt with CdG to rethink clothing "from zero" and challenge conventional codes of beauty and style. children are relatively unexposed to cultural codes--they are dressed by their parents; they are walking simulacra of adults, dressed to mimic functionality. But when parents put shirts on children, a new shape is created that is both specific to the child's body and completely separate from it. The shirt is once again worn for protection (albeit against non-toxic fingerpaint). The child then adjusts the strange shape to their body to facilitate movement. This act thus re-appropriates function and sparks a pure, unmediated body awareness that cultural codes render impossible for adults.
I'm inspired by this moment of immediate simultaneous reaction between the body and the clothes, and strive to recreate it with my unavoidably static garment.