Design Process

anthropomorphic pest; graduate collection

Inspired by the anatomy of insects and posthuman theories that disrupt human/nonhuman and male/female binaries,

‘ANTHROPOMORPHIC PEST’

presents monstrous silhouettes and metamorphosing creatures.

The garments conjure exoskeletons through a blend of handmade latex skin, leather articulation, and bulging denim. Praying mantis heads are reimagined into bodysuits, while the thorax of wasps dictates the structure of skirts, delicate seaming of pentagons produce armored forms that resemble hornet hives and cocoons. Insects are seen as natures

‘other’

due to the hybridity of their sexual difference and ability to transform. Transgender bodies go through their own physical metamorphosis and similarly disrupt sex/gender binaries. Subsequently, trans people are societally made to feel like pests in their own skin; positioned as nonhuman through their rejection of bodily binaries.

This collection symbolizes the process of trans transformation. By shedding the skin of expectation, one can be reborn into a material being that abandons limitation.