Need: Diagrams with Labels and Arrows//Title Slide

Jacob Creem: Exploding Shoulder is a fashion wearable created from a plain white T-shirt decorated with an intricate mix of media that envelop the right shoulder and left waist area of the shirt in a colorful frenzy. The inspiration for the wearable comes from a beautiful mural by Felipe Ortiz in Central Square, Cambridge. Ortiz's work plays with the contrast between dark and light colors and juxtaposes chaos and complexity with calm, simple motifs.

Exploding Shoulder was created to emulate the way a scene of chaos obtrudes on a calm setting, represented by the plain white T-shirt. On the top right shoulder and bottom left waist area, a great web of patchwork, trim, and hem creates a cacophony of textures and colors that seem to overwhelm the shirt. Ranging from felt to linen and velvet, the fabrics are handmade in multiple designs. Some reflect the curved lines of a dream catcher, while others are woven in complex patterns such as an Egyptian knot. In an effort to stabilize these fabrics and those protruding from the shoulder and waist, a melted acrylic mold was made to form around the body and hold the fabrics in place. In addition, cardboard linkages with fabrics draped and stitched around them give the wearable an element of motion. Paired with the intricacy of the stitched fabrics, the movement of the wearable immediately draws attention to the chaos of the shoulder and waist enveloping the white shirt. The hope is that Exploding Shoulder can serve as a memento to the immediacy and vibrancy that street art, unlike museum art, has to offer. Street art inspires and Exploding Shoulder aspires to do the same!

Exploding Shoulder's original look has been modified by the addition of a modeled acrylic cut that fits over both shoulders rather than just one. Unlike the 3d printed model that was made for the project's first iteration, the acrylic cut was molded with a heat gun to fit the exact contours of a client's shoulders. The new cut aims to divvy up the weight of the pillows to other parts of the upper body so that it is not solely centered on the shoulder. Further, the form of the pillows used on exploding shoulder has been reconfigured to be more linear! With more rigid lines, the wearable better replicates the mural it was influenced by. Exploding Shoulder is now Exploding Shoulders!