This has been a long time coming.
Finally, after what felt like endless months, my thesis collection has come together in completion. This is going to sound cliché, but it honestly feels as though I just started University yesterday... And yet the last four years have also been filled with such vast amounts of knowledge and learning that I know they have deeply and intrinsically changed me.
The real world of adult responsibility and careers always seemed like a distant thing that didn't apply to me, like a generalization that belonged to the world and that I could resist being a part of as an individual. But here it is, making itself announced as a singular experience that I am now a part of whether I try to resist or not - moving on from my life as a student.
My attachment to the academic life has been a strong one, I've been a student all my life and it's a role I know in and out. But since spending a summer in Paris (in school mind you), I started to feel my student self becoming unhinged. On coming back to school last September, I was unsatisfied with my courses, frustrated with stifling curriculums, and angered by the bureaucracy of the University. I guess I'd come to terms with the fact that I was moving on.
And in the midst of all this anger and frustration and long days of being underfed and exhausted, I'm happy to say that I turned out a collection that reflects my personal design philosophy, my love affair for creating clothes and my individual skills in crafting a garment.
The other night, our graduating class presented our collections to an audience of media and industry members. Here are some images of the night taken by Arthur Mola for Mass Exodus 2012.
And there it is! I hope you enjoyed the photos.
Note: The first image of the collection lineup was photographed by Katrina Cervoni, with makeup by Jake Ryan and modelled by Lauren Wood at Ford
