Valentine Mailis Benoite Déhan Valentine Mailis Benoite Déhan Hussein Chalayan Hussein Chalayan If you had a an overall joyful, careless childhood, have you ever thought about who enabled it, who made it possible ? I bet your mom peeled your fruits, picked you up at school, and researched which movie you could go and see together. Mine did. And my grand-mothers did, too. They made me feel at home. And I miss that dearly. But in parallel to living abroad and trying to build myself a home in new places, I have come to the realization of the amount of invisible work that has been restlessly provided to enable that feeling. For this reason I want to offer, through this collection, my version of recognizing, valuing and reclaiming women’s unpaid labour. To do so, I attempt to articulate my own écriture féminine, taking symbols of women’s alienation and claiming them as part of women’s culture and as part of what makes a lot of us identify as women or as non-conforming human beings. I searched through charity shops for typical, beloved pieces and made the apron into the centerpiece of my collection. It has been constantly manipulated and fetishized. I am claiming it back as the ultimate symbol of handwork, a piece of clothing that sustains and supports the household, protects the integrity of garments and is an overall object of care. I am twisting it, wrapping it around the body into a patchwork of a sentimental collection of thrifted curtains, bedsheets or table cloths. Every outfit comes on top of a catsuit or a tight tee-shirt that covers the skin in flowers inspired by glimpses of 70’s wallpaper and fabrics from my grand-mother’s photo albums. Under the flowers, the ultimate symbol of a marginalized femininity, I wrote my own kind of motivational messages, trying to switch from individualistic, straight-forward but impersonal sentences to intimate words that I wish are more open to interpretation and refer to a loss of illusions. P. S. : This is not written in third person because this is a highly personal and emotional topic and I wanted people to feel challenged in a very direct way. It had to be me addressing them. If you had a an overall joyful, careless childhood, have you ever thought about who enabled it, who made it possible ? I bet your mom peeled your fruits, picked you up at school, and researched which movie you could go and see together. Mine did. And my grand-mothers did, too. They made me feel at home. And I miss that dearly. But in parallel to living abroad and trying to build myself a home in new places, I have come to the realization of the amount of invisible work that has been restlessly provided to enable that feeling. For this reason I want to offer, through this collection, my version of recognizing, valuing and reclaiming women’s unpaid labour. To do so, I attempt to articulate my own écriture féminine, taking symbols of women’s alienation and claiming them as part of women’s culture and as part of what makes a lot of us identify as women or as non-conforming human beings. I searched through charity shops for typical, beloved pieces and made the apron into the centerpiece of my collection. It has been constantly manipulated and fetishized. I am claiming it back as the ultimate symbol of handwork, a piece of clothing that sustains and supports the household, protects the integrity of garments and is an overall object of care. I am twisting it, wrapping it around the body into a patchwork of a sentimental collection of thrifted curtains, bedsheets or table cloths. Every outfit comes on top of a catsuit or a tight tee-shirt that covers the skin in flowers inspired by glimpses of 70’s wallpaper and fabrics from my grand-mother’s photo albums. Under the flowers, the ultimate symbol of a marginalized femininity, I wrote my own kind of motivational messages, trying to switch from individualistic, straight-forward but impersonal sentences to intimate words that I wish are more open to interpretation and refer to a loss of illusions. P. S. : This is not written in third person because this is a highly personal and emotional topic and I wanted people to feel challenged in a very direct way. It had to be me addressing them. Container 2022-12-13T18:02:06.855Z 2019 Sommersemester summer term 2019