The original idea for my collection was the idea and aesthetic of vaporwave and of planned obsolescence. From the aesthetic wiki vaporwave is defined as “Vaporwave, as an aesthetic and movement, has been described as a tongue-in-cheek commentary on modern consumerism and the soulless glamour of late capitalism.” And the definition of planned obsolescence from Wikipedia, “A policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of nondurable materials.”

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I believe I succeeded in communicating the ideas of these aesthetics and ideas in my collection. In my collection there is a lot of emphasis on print and pattern on my garments that are inspired by the look of the visual aesthetic of vaporwave. I also have many references to technology on my garments from the key board keys and the hanging CDs. That communicates the idea of planned obsolescence in technology and technology is also referenced in vaporwave a lot either in reference to 90s computer aesthetic or in technology consumerism. I also show some purposeful unease in my designs from the asymmetry of the sleeves and in one of the dresses skirts.

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Vaporwave was originally called sea punk and the element I chose for my collection was water. I wanted the flowing of water to be prevalent in my designs. In my garment with the dress cage, I wanted the side of the dress to look like a waterfall flowing down. I achieved this by making it asymmetrical and by making the different fabrics into tiers. I also didn’t want any of the bottoms of the garments to be too tight, so all the skirts have petticoats, and the pants are loose like harem pants. The flounces on the sleeves and bodice communicate the idea of flowing as well.

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I also used the styling of my garments to reinforce the idea of technology by using computer cursors and recycled motherboard earrings for accessories. And I also used some earrings that looked like the bust of Helios which is a popular image to use in vaporwave aesthetics. I used shoes from Demonia which have big platforms to bring some more edge to the looks. For the make up for my model I used dark green and shimmery purple eye shadow for the eyes, and I glued a few bits of broken CDs to my models face as well to tie the look into my collection. I use CDs in multiple garments and green and purple are reoccurring colors in my collection.

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My target market for my collection is transgender or gender non-conforming people from ages 18-35 of any ethnicity who are lower or middle class. People who are liberal and support LBGT rights and are interested in activism and keep up to date with internet culture and trends. My model who wore my garments is trans and I made this collection in mind for trans men who want to wear dresses but still want to be able to have a flat chest so all the bodices of the garments are very flat and one of the bodices I have a big flounce that can also hide someone’s chest if they are not able to bind. I would image that someone could wear one of these outfits to a club or pride event or in covid times, to the grocery store.

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I was asked to evaluate my self on how I think I did with the collection on a scale from 1-5 and I will rate my self a 4. I think I was very successful with the collection. I managed to make a 4-garment collection in about 6 months, counting both semesters, during a pandemic. And I managed to meet all the due dates and create garments that looked like my designs that also fit my model and relayed the original aesthetic idea that I had in mind. I was able to make a collection that I am very happy with even with the pressure of deadline and covid.

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We started developing our collections in the fall semester of 2020. We came up with inspiration boards and then made some starting sketches. We had a few requirements we needed to meet but, I didn’t feel like it was hindering the designs, it was useful to have some where to start. After the designs were approved, we cleaned up our sketches in Photoshop and made flats for them in illustrator. Then we started doing fitting for our first garment. I did a few fittings because I kept needing to change the skirt because it needed to be fuller for the petticoat I wanted to use. After the mock-ups looked like how we wanted the garment we started on sewing the garments in the final fabric. I was taking a couple of heavy classes that semester, so I didn’t have very long to finish the garment and at the hectic end of the semester I forgot to buy a zipper, so I had to turn it in unzipped.

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In the spring semester I made the other 3 garments. I started with the garment I thought would be the hardest and I’m glad I did. The fabric and the construction were challenges for me. The fabric had some spandex in it so I had to keep aware of that when I was making the patterns. And sewing the stretchy fabric was hard for my sewing machine at home where I did most of my sewing. I also got to make a tiered skirt which I didn’t have any experience sewing before so that was difficult but since I chose to do it first, I had enough time at the start of the semester to take the time I needed to figure it out. Then I focused on the garment with the pants that I had already started on around the end of finishing that garment. I had only made one pair of pants before this had I mostly sewed the final garment it at my house and I figured out how to do the fly front zipper on my own from YouTube tutorials.

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My fourth garment was my easiest to construct, but the application of the key board keys took me much longer than I expected. I melted holes into 2 sides of the keys and then sewed them on like buttons. It took me about 10 minutes a key. I think my biggest strength was in picking the order of how I sewed my garments well. With doing the most difficult one at the start of the second semester I had enough time to figure out how to construct it and also had enough time to finish my other 2 garments. I am also glad I chose my classes this semester so that I would be taking mostly light workload classes so I could focus as much time as I could on my collection. And I think my biggest weakness was underestimating how long it would take me to do something.

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I gained many skills from the creation of the collection that I think I will be able to use in any of the careers I have in the future. In general, I learned how to manage my time better and work in a project with many moving parts with many other people. And how to bring together sometime that I envisioned. In specifics for fashion, I learned how to pattern garments and fit them to someone’s body. And I have a better understanding of how to construct with different fabrics. And how to create and sew something quickly. I think my ideal career would be making cosplay commission so all of these skills would be very helpful for that, since I will need to create garments to fit one specific person and be able to deliver it to them quickly.