Outgrown

‘Outgrown’ is an autobiographical collection, taking inspiration from family photographs and feelings of nostalgia, displacement and growing up. Referenced to Rachel Whiteread’s flatpack house sculptures, initial experimentation questioned notions of ‘staying put’ through casting hands, which developed into ‘casting garments’ through the application of sheer organza. Documentary photographers such as Elliot Erwitt influenced a series of photographs capturing family members wearing grown-up clothes, in turn translating into oversized jumpsuits and dungarees that became the starting point for further garment development, . Digital and analogue collage alongside extensive construction and fabric development underpinned a considered and focused fabric story, embracing denim washes, sheer tailoring, jersey and contrast edging. A key component to the collection is the stigmatising of women’s fashion. By looking at childhood clothing, a difficulty emerged in defining men’s ‘childhood fashions’ - where women are given societal age brackets in which specific garments can or cannot be worn, men are happily encouraged to utilise the same garment silhouettes from infancy to maturity. Through its ‘infantile’ colour palette and obvious reference to child garments, my collection exists to do more than elicit self-reflection, it exists to redefine the negative definition of the term ‘immature’.