For my final capstone project I decide to design an exhibit.

I knew I wanted to cover something to do with fashion history but couldn't find a strong point of view till as I was researching I found out fashion was the second most polluting industry behind oil. Then I knew I had to make an exhibit educating on how polluting fashion is but you can't just stop there. That wasn't why I was drawn to fashion in the first place. Fashion is unique to other arts because you live in it. You build your own relationship to your clothes and that's the main reason why fashion is so polluting, we don't respect it.

Researching Our Relationship to Fashion

I looked back at history to see how our relationship with our clothes has changed from roman times when you spun your own toga and only had a handful of options to the modern day with advancements in spinning, manufacturing, and sewing allowing for an explosion of productivity but directly distancing us from the construction process. 

I took inspiration from the often overlooked textile department of the famous Bauhaus school. Those women elevated fabric from an everyday item to art with their artful weaving. If they could redefining their relationship to fabric in a modern society why couldn't we?

My teachers advised narrowing in from all of fashion generally to one specific example as a case study so I picked the material of cotton due to its common everyday use as well as importance in American culture.

Design the Exhibit Identity 

Pulling visual inspiration from the Bauhaus movement and fashion illustration I also stripped the color from the exhibit allowing for the black and white facts of consumption to take precedent.

Designing the Layout

Due to displaying the information as a loose time line I laid out the signs in a linear format so as the viewers to not get confused by the order of information. 

Designing the Posters and Signs

For the poster I replicated the look of the cotton plant with a rotting fabric mesh to hint at the implications of what clothing consumption is causing.

For the actual exhibit signs I took inspiration from looms and found these similar wooden frames for the signs. I then printed on fabric and safety pinned them in place.

Final Exhibit Signs

Final Exhibit