Hug Me
2022, Wearable Sculpture
Reconstructed garment using my significant other’s dress shirt and black sewing thread
Hug Me is a reimagined garment made by deconstructing and reassembling a men’s dress shirt. This shirt was given to me from a former significant other when we moved away from one another. This piece was intended to reinvent the garment into a wearable that alludes to the longing for touch and intimacy that is lost between long distance relations. I took the shirt apart separating the arms, torso, and collar into strips of fabric. In order to create a garment that mimicked a hug I connected the arm pieces together to make long strips that would wrap around the wearer’s torso. All of the pieces on these garments are connected by ties allowing the wearer to decide how tight they want the garment’s “hug” to be. Decorating the garment’s surface are thin black stitches in hand shapes to represent the ghost handprints that rest on the wearer’s body. On the left waist there are two hands making a heart symbol that are separated by the ends of the fabric to solidify the longing for love, touch, and intimacy. As a final touch I placed the original tag that reads, “Made in France”, on the wearer’s hip.