mourning dress

July 2025

Deadstock Wools, Copper wire

Fully fashioned knit dress made on a domestic double bed machine over three weeks studying at Central Saint Martins School of Art in Experimental Fashion Knitwear.

This look is inspired by victorian hairwork, mourning the offest of labor through the generations of my family in which the garment industry left the united states. This moved the hazardous and impoverishing sweatshop system, but also technical skills and an undersatnding of production/consumption overseas. I considered the reasons and ways my family members have made clothes, down to the privilege of studying at Central Saint Martins to build my own technical skill and passion today. This is mirrored in the politics and skills surrounding hairwork, the women who sold their hair out of necessity, the consumers of this jewelry, and the incredibly skilled makers. I am so grateful to have studied in London, learned how to knit on a double bed knitting machine, and to have been encouraged to experiment and push myself by everyone I worked alongside.

Model: Karrie Lou

Photos: Reece Owens, Ascend CSM Runway Show - July 2025