Trust Your Senses

Tess Grant’s graduate collection ‘trust your senses’ explores their experiences of environments and clothing through the lens of sensory processing disorder. The cloth, the smooth, the rough, the weight, the warmth, the warmth, the fit, the noise, the light, the length, the tight, the loose, the seams, the busy, are all sensations that at the wrong moment can cause unbearable overwhelm. This is the feeling that is explored within this collection, as a way of showing and highlighting how some people navigate the world. Other individuals with SPD were also interviewed to gain wider understanding and reference points at the start of the project. Primary research methods of draping on the body with duvets and Tess’ own clothing were used to evoke feelings of cocooning, protection, overwhelm and discomfort. This aided in design development and visual references for the collection. Alongside this, Tess used secondary research from sensory installation artists like Ernesto Neto, Nacho Carbonell and Rosalie Monod. As the collection developed, strong silhouettes and considered layering became prevalent, utilising tailoring methods in unconventional ways alongside padding and wadding in response to duvet experiments and maintaining a feeling of softness. Elements of headwear and restriction are also repeated through straps and reduced visibility hoods. Fabric and colour choices are muted and soft through tonal greys, juxtaposed with an accent of rust orange to convey the discomfort and panic.