In this project, I used leather to explore the breakthrough of working through trauma, contrasting the pain of reliving wounds with the freedom of exposing them. Leather’s inherent toughness and fragility taught me to find beauty in imperfection and embrace flaws as part of growth. Inspired by Mooniq Priem's sculptural abstraction, Michelangelo’s detailed non finito works, and Alberto Burri’s innovative material experimentation, I aimed to capture the transformative journey of trauma and renewal.
I considered how this could be a zero-waste and biodegradable garment, where the whole dress could be made from itself. The bottom part of the dress is made from two full pieces of leather. Due to the use of patchwork, each piece I cut from one place, I would sew back on to another, part of the idea that we cannot remove the memory of trauma but can work with it to transform ourselves.
