Jacob Brief:

UPROAR: A hood like structure designed for disabled dancer, Garrison Redd, to express his spirit animal in visual form.

Garrison is an Olympic powerlifter, model, dancer, TEDx Speaker, and nonprofit head of the @garrisonreddproject. In balancing all of these activities, he describes himself as a lion.  "My spirit animal is a lion. They are the strongest and most recognizable leaders in the animal community." Traditionally a lion symbolizes perseverance, strength, and leadership, and the king of the jungle. 

Using the lion as an inspiration, the wearable UPROAR consists of acrylic pieces assembled with a strap and 3D printed clips that when pulled over garrisons head create an abstracted profile of a lion.  The hood gives off the idea of a leader, and its implied lion profile aligns to show an almost warrior-like helmet. When Garrison pulls UPROAR the hood like structure over his head, he can let viewers feel his Roar as he uses the lion to symbolize power, strength, and perseverance. 

Stephen Ward Brief on UPROAR

          A wearable designed for Garrison Reed, a motivational speaker and USA powerlifter who also identifies as disabled. A wearable that visualizes his strength, leadership, and perseverance through an abstracted lions mane in the form of a hood. Garrison Reed has overcome many obstacles, accomplished professional and personal goals and has been a major influencer within his communities. One of the characteristics that is highlighted in the wearable created for Garrison is his spirit animal, a lion. Just like a lion, Garrison is a leader, who takes on challenges and perseveres through whatever stands in his way.

          Due to Garrison's spirit animal, the lion, the wearable includes a lion hood, abstracting the mane of a lion. The acrylic cuts are pieced together in a foldable hood, that arches into abstracted points simulating a lions mane. although the wearable is made out of acrylic and hard plastic, The wearable is comfortable, while also portraying his most prevalent characteristics. The hood gives off the idea of a leader, and its large arcing hood shows his strength, almost like a warrior. When Garrison puts on the hood, onlookers will be filled with the overpowering feelings of strength and leadership.

Alma's Breif

Through the Walls: A wearable sculpture that is created specifically for Jessica Hayon, a dancer from the Heidi Latsky Dance Company. It uses the concept of a soft material going through a hard material because Jessica constantly defies the assumptions and stereotypes people place on her.

Jessica Hayon is easygoing, determined and helpful.  She is constantly trying to prove to herself that she is capable of doing anything. For example, unlike a lot of the other dances she wasn't born with a disability and she didn't have an injury. It just developed over time.  She has been using a wheelchair since she was 13.  She is also currently training for her fifth marathon and she always lends a hand to her friends without them even asking. 

Through the Walls attaches to her shoulder and travels down her body and connects to her ankle.  It is made of geometric pieces of acrylic connected by straps of cotton woven through holes in the wood.  The cotton pops out of holes in the acrylic to relate back to the original concept.  

Abby's Brief: Unraveled is a wearable sculpture designed for Stephanie Bratley. Unraveled is composed of numerous spirals that represent her ability to stay in tune with her inner-self "spirals" outwards and affects her life in a positive manner.

Stephanie Brantley has overcome much adversity in her life. Not only has she overcome it, but she's powered through it using self-talk and motivation. The spiral is a representation of Stephanie talking to her inner-self and letting it spiral out and manifest itself into her environment. These spirals are tiny laser cut acrylic pieces dotted with holes to pull a string through. The pieces are strung together with braided white rope on the surface of the pieces. The final piece is a necklace made of laser-cut acrylic pieces strung together with braided rope to make it comfortable and to give structure. 

Anara's Brief: Unraveled, a wearable designed to reflect Stephanie’s personality and inner self. The wearable is made up of spirals that rest on Stephanie’s chest and comes up from her shoulders to represent her perseverance and love for others.

Stephanie went through the death of her family, her asthma, and having to use a wheelchair and she is still strong and happy because she focused on good things in life. She played D1 basketball in college and was and still is very passionate about it, now she teaches basketball to abled and disabled children. Stephanie also loves her extended family and wants to live in St. Thomas but the healthcare is not good so she lives in New York.

Unraveled is a wearable made to represent Stephanie’s inner strength, perseverance and love. The spiral also is supposed to show how she created her own family after she lost her own. There is one large spiral sitting on her chest above her heart to show her love for her friends and family. The second spiral is smaller and on her left shoulder to represent a guiding hand, self love, and perseverance. The spirals on her chest are made of acrylic cut into rectangles with braided rope sewn onto them so that the spirals are flexible and don't snap, the spirals coming off her left shoulder are also acrylic with rope but they are not cut because they don't need to be flexible.

India:

Uprising: A wearable that captures strength, kindness, and flight in an interactive piece designed for Sabrina, a dancer and wheelchair user. The structure of the piece has six half-heart shapes in different sized that are mounted, three to each shoulder.

 Many people with disabilities are ignored and not represented in the dance and performance world. Our piece is designed specifically for use in a wheelchair while showing the beauty and strength of the performer. 

Sabrina had tetanus that caused nerve damage, leaving her unable to walk. She works hard at physical therapy to reconnect the nerves and walk again. The wearable is designed to empower her and represent her journey from going to sitting to standing. The wearable highlights Sabrina's strength and power that she exudes every day. The three acrylic half-heart pieces are attached to 3D printed slots that stabilize them and have straps adhering them to the arm. The straps are located at the top of the shoulders and right above the elbow. The overall effect creates a light and uplifting feeling. The location and design of the project allow Sabrina to perform and dance with enhancers rather than restrictions. The location of the upper arms is used the accentuate her silhouette as she performs. 

Brenna: 

This wearable is meant for a woman named Sabrina, who is one of Heidi Latsky's dancers. She is in a wheelchair and has a very personal journey regarding her disability.  She is currently living in the Bronx and working as a peer mentor for those who are also disabled. She is kind, has a passion for helping people, and has an immense amount of strength that has helped her throughout her journey.

 Sabrina's Wearable is meant to show off her personal strength, resilience, and kindness. It is meant to showcase her journey and how she came to accept her disability. It showcases the struggles she went through, and how she was able to overcome them using her strength while still keeping her softness and kindness. It shows this by overlaying a mix of hard and soft materials, such as fabric and acrylic, as well as an abstracted wing shape to represent her as a phoenix. The shapes could also be seen as halves of hearts, which also showcases her kindness and her big heart. The piece It attaches to the arm using fabric straps and also uses many mechanisms that attach to the arm and stabilize the acrylic pieces. Sabrina will be able to bend it and manipulate it during the performance as she likes. It's perfectly bendable and manipulatable, due to it being split up and unrestricting. Sabrina's wearable is a piece of art that accurately represents and showcases her story while also being flexible and easily usable.

Bella:

Big, Bold, and Beautiful: a wearable designed for Corey, an individual who has partial spinal paralysis. The wearable resembles a peacock, representing Corey's big and bold personality.

The physical build of the project is multiple leaf-shaped pieces of felt fabric attached along the sides of Corey's crutches, with two more felt leaf-shaped pieces attached together around his neck, holding the two crutches together. The project goal is to help Corey be able to show off and draw attention to his "Here I am, world!" attitude, despite the fact he has a disability. The wearable is attached to his crutches. This not only enhances his personality but bring to light that his disability does not stop him. The project's leaf-shaped pieces of felt are held up by wooden rods and are very big, therefore cause attention. Corey interacts with the project by simply showing off as he performs with Heidi Latsky's Dance Company.

Siena:

Big, Bold, and Beautiful is a wearable design for Corey, an individual who has partial spinal paralysis. It attaches to his crutch and resembles a peacock, as Corey likes to show off with extravagant style. 

Six years ago, Corey was involved in an elevator incident and injured his spine. Before his injury, he was a fitness trainer and a Broadway dancer. Today, he dances with Heidi Latsky Dance Company. He uses both a wheelchair and crutches throughout the day, but Corey prefers to dance with crutches. The idea of this project is to draw attention to Corey while representing his inner beauty. Big, Bold, and Beautiful works by attaching a wooden joint to Corey's crutch, on that joint there is 15 abstract feathers and the feathers have a complex pattern.

Lucas 

Surreal Clash: A wearable that recreates the adrenaline of being in a surreal human environment through motion. This wearable creates an abstracted environment that Que can move through fluidly simulating the freedom of his experience in water, using paper and a 3D printed plate attached to his leg.  

Que is a person that pushes the boundaries of the human experience. Humans in nature are not supposed to exist in air, water, and on mountains, but Que exists in all of the above. Naturally he is a self proclaimed adrenaline junkie. But, in addition Que exists in Heidi Latsky's sculpture court dance. Through the motion of dance, Que has found an obscure form of finding adrenaline that still provides him with the same rush and freedom of swimming with whale sharks or jumping out of an airplane. Surreal Clash strives to simulate this connection and clash with the surreal environments that Que exists in by motion through our wearable. The wearable is a piece that connects to Que's leg, with three braces attached to it. Each of these braces has a flexible dowel that allows Que's arms to move through the wearable freely. These dowels hold up laminated paper abstractions of water that we created to replicate challenging human environments. We made these paper pieces to resemble water and also have the shape of a leaf resembling the environment. When the wearable is in use Que can dance passing through the flexible pieces experiencing a rush of adrenaline. 

Henry 

Surreal Clash: A wearable that is created for a man named Que who loves adrenaline and seeks opportunity despite being in a wheelchair. We decided to create a leg attachment that clashes Que's two worlds together; the adrenaline seeking junky and the 9 - 5 office job advocate for people with disabilities. 

Que is the chairman of the dance company and used ambitious, curious, and adventurous to describe himself. He pushes the boundary of what humans can and can not do despite the wheelchair. He was interested when the project offered the idea of finding adrenaline in the city. He said, "sadly every day I go through times square, it feels like I'm in a frogger game". This was one of our main focuses of the project. He also claimed he wanted to clash his two worlds together. The project identified as a seaweed, leafy type structure that stands in front of him. The wearable straps around his leg and uses claps to lock together. because Que is a dance he needs to have mobile movement for his arms. The seaweed structure is made to interacts with Que's mobility because the structure exits right in front of his eyes. The wearable has a spring that allows it to return to its place of origin when it is moved by Que's arms. The idea of the wearable brings an adrenaline rush to New York City. Que normally escapes the city to find adrenaline, from swimming with sharks to skydiving. When he breaks through the seaweed structure he also breaks through the stereotypes of what people with disabilities can and can not do. 

Exo-Lung Peacock was showcased as part of NuVu’s Fantasy FashionTech Collection on the runway at the Emerging Trends Show during Boston Fashion Week 2014.

Peacocks are a fascinating bird type with beautiful intricate designs. They are known to symbolize peace and have no body part made for attacking. Many people know of the multicolored Peacock but few know of the Albino Peacock. Being all white and the ultimate symbol of purity, The Albino Peacock was a large part of our concept for the Exo-Lung Peacock, a darker take on the Albino Peacock. The black laser-cut plywood "feathers" on the bottom piece have intricate designs based on Peacock feathers, while the dark "Exo-Lung" captures the strength, protection, and defence characteristics of the peacock's crest.

Our inspiration of birds helped us come up with our dress design.  Peacocks are a fascinating bird type with beautiful intricate designs.  They are known to symbolize peace and they have no body part made for attacking.  Many people know of the multicolored Peacock but few know the Albino Peacock.  The Albino Peacock being all white, was a large part of our idea.  We made our feathers all white and put fiber optic cables throughout the wooden feathers.  The feathers on our dress have many intricate designs based on Peacock feathers.  In Fantasy Fashion we were brainstorming different nature-related things such as, birds, bugs, aquatic animals, elements, and many other living and non-living things.  We researched and came up with many great ideas and thoughts.  Sayed decided on Peacocks.  After eliminating some ideas we were put into groups of three and the ideas started to form into actual fashion, which happened to be mostly dresses.  Our group had many struggles with laser cutters and 3D printers but we worked hard to make our moving Peacock feathers and the other attachments.