presentation with shoulder piece

presentation with shoulder piece

Cooper Ducharme
1 / 29

Watch Your Back: A skirt and shoulder piece covered in eyes that explores the disconcertingly invasive aspect of social media. The model is aware of but cannot see the eyes they carry with them, much like the way users expose themselves to anonymous spectators when they use sites like Facebook and Instagram.


Watch Your Back is meant to highlight one of the negative sides of social media, namely unwanted attention from online followers. In today's society, people are expected to have an online presence, and may feel pressure even from a young age to make posts about their lives while thinking little about who might be able to see them. The inspiration for this project primarily came from a street mural titled “Follow for Follow” by the artist “I <3”. It features a woman smiling at her phone with an indicator above her head showing that she has two new followers. Two hooded people with unseen faces stand behind her, representing the new followers. Watch Your Back is intended to replicate the message of the chilling mural with a wearable art design. The shoulder piece holds an array of eyes that surrounds and stares at the back of the models head, representing how you don't see all the people who see your posts online. The skirt is a patchwork of eyes that hangs from a nylon belt and held away from a models legs with wooden frames, representing the mental weight of being stalked and how it follows a user wherever they go. Each eye is made with wooden frames glued to colored fabric and paper as pupils, as well as a reflective plastic material called rolex as the eye whites. The hope is that the creepy image of eyes covering and clinging to someone will prompt people to be more thoughtful when posting on social media.