Little Black (Death) Dress

Full description

Background
This research contributes to the fields of textile/fashion design, design innovation and sociology. Since the early C20th, prominent designers (e.g. Chanel, Dior, Rick Owens) have created iconic versions of the little black dress (LBD), a design classic reflecting changing cultural sensibilities. My project reimagined the LBD as a `death dress’ to provide new perspectives on design’s role in the universal experiences of death/bereavement.

Contribution
`Little Black (Death) Dress’ is a garment created for the grave, allowing others to engage directly with their loved one prior to burial or cremation. A white wool crepe shroud screen printed in black thermochromic ink is draped over a recumbent mannequin. Silk embroidered handprints, coated with liquid crystal ink, change colour when touched, suggesting a transient memento from the bereaved. An accompanying film documents the family and designer coming together to dress the dead. This distinctive approach to a fashion classic provides new insight and opportunities for discussion about death/dying, ritual/ceremony and fashion.

Significance
The work was commissioned by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture/Design, MoMA, New York, for the exhibition `The Items: Is Fashion Modern?’ Love Magazine (UK) referred to my work as `particularly thought provoking?, while Forbes Magazine commented that ‘it radically and really beautifully reimagines rituals around death, making them more inclusive of family, mourning, and emotion in a literally hands-on way (her garment encourages touch as part of the mourning process).’ The New York Times nominated the exhibition as one of 2017’s best art shows, and its book as one of the year’s best art books. Approximately 588,000 people saw the show. The work is featured in the `Design and Death’ episode of Samsung VRs `Design’. The research was developed into a module in MoMA’s Course MOOC, `Fashion as Design’, which has over 1,792,839 views.