The Brief-Annika

Annika Hardy

Hurricane Dress: a wearable sculpture inspired by the shape of a hurricane. While the top and bottom of the design is busy, layered and mobile, the center of the garment acts as the eye of the storm and stays still, calm and stiff. 

Based on the mural Transcend painted by Cedric Douglas and Julia Roth, the main idea we explored in our wearable is calm in chaos. We saw this juxtaposition in the mural through the use of a vibrant, colorful, geometric pattern contrasted by a still, realistic black and white portrait of a woman's eyes. To us, the pattern seemed animated and moveable while the woman's eyes seemed calm and static, which caused us to think about how movement and stillness can play off each other. With this idea leading us, we began looking at hurricanes because they clearly displayed the idea we wanted to convey through our work. This is because hurricanes have a still center known as "the eye" located right in the middle of all the craziness. This inspired us to create a wearable sculpture that includes hurricane shaped layers on the top and bottom of the outfit and a rigid corset in the center to represent the calm eye of the storm. The Hurricane Dress displays that sometimes opposites can complement each other perfectly and make something beautiful.