10 JUNE

INSPIRATION. 

The chronic rage of convenience. 

In an age of drive through dinner, constant reminders of the ease of online shopping - whether it be clothing, wellness or any other necessity and beyond. 

All of a sudden - the important elements of life are quickly ignored. Hard work is being shunned to artificial intelligence, patience is more of a rarity than a virtue. 

As a person grounded in the ritual of making a bed, cooking a meal, sewing and patterning and developing clothes by hand - the fast paced world is menacing and cruel. The rise of fast fashion and the rapid speed in which our earth is deteriorating at us as a humanities hands is the perfect cocktail for chronic rage. 

There is so much to be angry about. More to be educated on, more to protest and long for. In a world rooted so heavily in the click of the button, from a device gathering all your information, this garments intention is to delete. Rebelling against the climate of one click wonders - as we are all guilty of. Adding an extra layer of intention, intimacy and care as you enter the garment. 

The added discomfort of wearing, and perhaps to some looking at the garment, insinuates and reinforces my desire to discredit convenience. Although I appreciate the concept - I resonate more with direct thankfulness. Thanking the chef that prepared your meal, thanking the person who served you. Who took their time and skills to care for you. It seems to me the more convenient it becomes, the hungrier we find ourselves. 

Call me old school, call me pretentious, call me privileged. I am privileged. Privileged to live a life without a veil - with modern solutions to modern problems. I am privileged to have perspective and live in a country without constant threat of death. Gunfire and bombings. I am privileged to provide myself a meal,  utilising the ability to cook. I am privileged with the knowledge of where my clothes come from and how much less convenient they are than the click of the button, the swipe of a card. It is a privilege to know, to feel, to own, to grieve. Convenience is chronically making me angry, and this garment softens that blow. 

WASTE SOURCE; OVERCONSUMPTION. 

In an effort to cleanse my space of clutter I have found I have completely overconsumed. Tshirts I haven't thought about in years, socks in the bottom of the drawer riddled with holes. The waste source for this garment is ME. A product of my own habits of attachment and perhaps laziness, as a solution to the garments and odds and ends that perhaps would have never been loved again.

18 JUNE 

In an effort to think more about my topic of overconsumption, I began a thought process surrounding the feelings I experience in the aftermath. There's an energy of drowning - submerging into the puddle of clothes from the closet clearout. A guilt, heaviness in consideration. Consideration for the hands that brung those clothes to life, the effort put into each piece now strewn onto my carpet to donate. I think of those not fortunate enough to have the excess I possess. 

As I reflect on these emotions, my brain is drawn to my favourite book - fashion and the psyche. The title itself reflects back the emotion I feel, the sentimental value of the garments I own. Outgrowing phases, sizes, feelings attached. Fashion and the physical psyche, the growth of the human form and the attachment modern media and the body have. The restraint so many people feel to conform to a beauty standard, perhaps in the wake of cyber bullying. 

19 JUNE 

The thought of the straight jacket keeps compelling me. The physical restraint attached to overconsumption and again back to the thought of ‘drowning.’ I wonder if the Victorian era of dress ever felt so consuming? The layers and technical elements of their everyday dress - the patriarchy appearances could describe.