contamination
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest marine oil spill in the U.S. history Triggered by an explosion on April 20, 2010 that killed 11 workers, it released an estimated 4.9 million barrels (134 million gallons) of crude oil over 87 days before being capped on July 15, 2010.
The collection was designed to make the viewer experience the progression of the disaster from something beautiful and alive to something increasingly dark, overwhelming, and destructive.
The collection was selected for presentation during New York Fashion Week in 2020 and was awarded Best Senior Collection at Thomas Jefferson University.
This collection remains an important part of our design practice because it represents how we approach fashion: using clothing as a visual language to tell stories, explore environments, and turn real-world experiences into form.
The second look introduces darker, more versatile fabrics that begin to consume the garment. The shift in color, texture, and construction represents the oil spreading across the water and disrupting the environment around it.
Before the oil, there was blue, clean, endless, and full of life
The first look represents the water before the oil takes hold. Clean, pronounced blues and wave-like forms create a sense of movement, purity, and life beneath the surface.
The final look is a dramatic, elongated black silhouette that represents the oil fully overtaking the water. As the collection progresses, I incorporated elements of nature, wildlife, and environmental debris into the garments, creating a visual representation of the life and materials caught within the spill.
