Trompe L’Oeil en Corps
This work explores trompe l’oeil through sculptural garments, using material illusion to question perception while examining the shifting space between fashion and art. Rather than treating clothing as something purely wearable or sculpture as something fixed, the project asks where one becomes the other, whether any distinction exists at all, and how material can destabilize what the eye expects to see.
Each piece begins with details taken from the way clothing behaves, particularly wrinkles and drape, but is translated into hardened forms that preserve those fleeting qualities in a fixed state. Across the three pieces, illusion is extended through material transformation: one appears carved from stone, another suggests metal, and one takes the form of a plain white T-shirt. The T-shirt holds particular significance in its familiarity, using an ordinary garment to test how far something simple can be pushed before it becomes something else entirely.
The process began with an exploration of resin and fabric and gradually developed through experimentation with ceramic finishes and metallic treatments, as the work became increasingly focused on how surface can distort recognition. Together, the pieces form my own approach to trompe l’oeil in fashion, using hand-built forms to push familiar garments beyond their expected limits and into something less easily defined. The work remains grounded in craft, driven by the desire to make material behave unexpectedly so that what at first first appears recognizable shifts under closer attention.
Design Senior Thesis
Fabric and Resin
Piece 1/3
Piece 2/3