Chapter One: Chrysalis

May 2018, Personal Membrane of Translucent Silicone and White Silk Thread

The surfaces we select to protect our skin from the elements, have a bewildering ability to alter our persona and enhance our performance. Garments, at their root, provide shelter, but they have long represented much more. The communicative power of self-expression has been channeled through what and how we adorn our bodies throughout history. Architecture has always been more than shelter. Even in its simplest forms, every space tells a story, holds a past and future. But, not often enough are narratives constructed as a conscious part of the design process. My fascination with architecture's storytelling capabilities drove me to Chrysalis. 

Stepping out of comfort, I took my technical training in architecture and adapted it to design a narrative garment for the human body, my human body to be specific. As an especially personal exposé about my history of body confidence issues, Chrysalis responded to my discomfort and desires through design.

To achieve artifice of my body's proportions, I explored silicone's opacity through texture, patterning, density, contouring, bending, and joining. These techniques help shelter specific parts of my body, and are joined in contrast to the clear casted panels of silicone which highlight my body's most positive parts.

Chrysalis tells the story of my past, but also my future. It was constructed to illustrate the sheer power of design on affecting the human experience. From the duration of my time engulfed in Chrysalis I learned a great deal about myself. I learned to love and cherish the things that make me different, and ultimately grew into a better human being for it.