In an ongoing body of work which spans across many mediums, this project contemplates gender norms and how they exist in the contemporary world. Exploration of these societal constructs through fashion has been a prime mode of discovering how people take these ideas into their everyday lives and construct an identity. The goal of this work is to reestablish the connection and relationship between masculinity and femininity, rather than continuing to reinforce the societal conception of their separation.

A private moment exposed. An identity formed without facial connotation. These photographs act together to form an abstract body, which is described by only the garments which hang on it. Here, fashion speaks louder than the body itself. Our brains fill in the gaps of who this person may be, yet the mind faces confusion from the cues which suggest differing gender binaries. In an emerging cultural shift which discards antiquated societal rules of gender, the masculine and the feminine are together forming new possibilities for identity.

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The separation of the masculine and feminine began long ago, at a time when females were not even considered equal beings to males. This lead to extremely enforced estrangement of the activities that each gender binary was permitted to engage in. As time went on, these regulations became less intense, sure, but they really just evolved into modified versions of the last, telling people what they can and cannot do based on certain body parts they were born with. Girls Night takes a common and accepted activity for women, and places the male form in their place. Cognitive Dissonance tells us that this isn't right, and yet, here it is.

To grow up a girl, is to grow up with people constantly telling you who you can and cannot be, and what you can and cannot wear. More often than not, the regulation of clothing is indicative of the approved image that females are told they should imitate.
Wearing a tank top to school and showing her shoulders is not allowed, for it only "instigates" poor behavior from boys. A skirt that reaches any higher than the finger tips is considered indecent. And this is the females' problem? not the boys or men who behave inappropriately? These tropes of girlhood represent the double standards between women and men that are deeply rooted in society.
By depicting a man in women's clothes which hang in a way that would be unacceptable for a girl, while also adorning him in jewelry and stones, I am demonstrating the closed mindedness of traditional gender roles as they can be demonstrated through fashion. The very act of sewing fabric onto the canvas completes the process of transferring girlhood to the life of a male, while also pointing to the long-standing tradition of sewing being a "woman's chore."