Izzy Ramras: 

Guiding Shield is a wearable art piece inspired by the Medusa mosaics in the garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  Guiding Shield has been adapted from a previous project, Focal Point, which used similar shapes and concepts; however, Guiding Shield incorporates only the best parts of Focal Point in addition to many new elements. Guiding Shield includes four arm bands and two shoulder bands that incorporate mirrored mosaic tiles embedded into each frame. Additionally, the frames are all angular shield-like shapes. These design components parallel numerous aspects of both the original artwork itself as well as the story of Medusa and Perseus. For example, the original art is made of mosaics and the mirrored shield plays an important role in the Greek myth. Finally, no one can actually go into or touch the garden at the museum, so the arm bands are suspended away from the body so it's not touched by the model's arm. Guiding Shield has been featured on two different occasions: the first at a fashion show at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum alongside other art-inspired wearables, and the other at a book signing with the founder of Boston Fashion Week. The goal of Guiding Shield is for the viewers to enjoy its aesthetic as well as learn about where it came from and the story behind it. 

Izzy LaCava:

Guiding Shield is a wearable that allows people to question fashion norms and the boundary between clothing and art. The wearable was chosen to be worn in two fashion shows, one at the Isabella Stewart Garden Museum and another at the book launch for a book by the creator of Boston Fashions Weeks. The wearable is meant to evoke the myth of Perseus and Medusa, the sight of whose head of snakes turns all viewers to stone. Perseus was able to defeat Medusa using a mirrored shield to prevent looking directly at Medusa. Guiding Sheild is a later iteration of a previous project called Focal Point. Guiding Sheild includes similar concepts but extends them to connect the wearable to the inner garden in the museum, which is decorated with Medusa mosaics. For example, similar to  Focal Point, Guiding Sheild consists of assembled pentagons with mirror surfaces that increase in size to represent Perseus's growing shield, but Guiding Sheilds mirrors are mosaic to represent the mosaic pieces that create Medusa at the museum. Guiding Sheild is created out of acrylic rather than wood to give the project a more finished look. The wearable incorporates an element of obliqueness, in that the acrylic attaches to an elastic armband with strings so that the mosaic mirrors hover above the wearer, much as Perseus does not actually look at Medusa.