To be a woman is to perform as a spectacle. Her attraction resides in the masking of her feminine experience; instead she must enact as a supplementary object of exhibit to the ever watching male gaze.
This womenswear fashion print collection documents the prescribed performance by women to preserve their girlhood attraction. Purity and youthfulness serve as the foundations of the fantasies that the male gaze projects on to the female figure. Images of eroding chastity and the decay of the female performance depicts the transition from girlhood to womanhood, and the efforts to preserve such ideals as they naturally wither away.
The collection aims to chronicle the feminine struggle to conform to the role of the vision, and the performed manifestations of the male gaze. Through the juxtaposition of delicate colours and soft draping fabrics with moody hues and gritty textures, the collection displays the conflictions of masked womanhood.
Research
Concept board
Key visual research
Design development and fabric research