REBRANDED PROJECT

REBRANDED is a fashion project designed in collaboration with formerly incarcerated individuals to redefine and reclaim post-incarceration identity.

Project Statement: The United States of America: the land of the free, where all men are created equal with the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, unless labeled as a criminal. After committing a crime, one’s debt to society is never paid. In the United states we separate those who have committed a crime from the masses, as an untouchable group. What affect will this have on the identity of an individual, who now bears the stigmatized baggage of being a criminal, a felon, or a public enemy? What does it truly mean to be a criminal, or punished for a crime in the United States. The United States, where you have the right to life , liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, until you are branded as a as something less than human.

My thesis challenges the ideas and foundations of the United States ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, when applied to the dissolve of personal identity within criminality and the prison system. For my thesis I have created a fashion collective called REBRANDED, which aims to redefine and reclaim the labels of post-incarceration identity. REBRANDED is a fashion collective made up of designers, artist, photographers, and dreamers working in collaboration to create prison reform. Our goals are to remove the stigma from those who have served time and break the cycle of criminality. By working in collaboration with formerly incarcerated individuals, REBRANDED aims to let those with the experience be the dominant voice and lead the conversation towards social change. REBRANDED meets to encourage ideas and dialogue between individuals with multidisciplinary backgrounds in order to effectively make change in prison reform and rehabilitation.

ART IS A LINE AROUND YOUR THOUGHTS

"Art is a line around your thoughts"- Gustav Klimt. Fashion Collection Inspired by a quote and the works of artist Gustav Klimt. This film acts as a visual mood board consisting of images and videos filmed by Joy Douglas. The video also ties in a few paintings from Klimt himself. Each items creates the inspiration for the various collection pieces shown throughout the film.
May 2015

For this collection, I have worked in collaboration with three formerly incarcerated-individuals.We decided to design with parallels to the fashion industry by using remnant, donated, factory second, and rejected fabrics & materials from various fashion brands and fabric mills. The brands include Alexander Wang, Rag & Bone, Jason Wu, Big Duck Canvas, and Parsons’ own fabric donations. We decided to keep the overbearing labels of criminality within the design process. We then reclaimed theses labels by adding positive alternative words to each letter. Text and typography became an important element to this project. We chose to use Verdana font, because of it important connections to the criminal justice industry. It is one of the dominate font used within legal courts, as well as the font used for many correctional facilities and prisons. We decided to call our collective REBRANDED, because we understand that we cannot change the past, we can only learn from it and use it to reclaim our futures.

Film by Joy Marie Douglas
Photographer: Tory Van Thömpson
Fashion designers featured: Joy Marie Douglas & Sean Terris
Stylist: Sean Terris & Carly Heywood
Film Assistant: Brayden Sorenson
Models: Luca Sierra, Dayana Jean-Marie, Amy Tang , & Jeana Lindo
Music: "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" By Gil Scott-Heron (1970)

Locations: Harlem, West Bronx, & Manhattan , New York

2017

DEFINING FEMININITY

This capsule collection challenges the idea of femininity and how it affected my personal life. It is a self reflection inspired project. Growing up society has taught me that in order to be feminine we must be delicate, sensitive, passive, pure, and weak. However, when I look at my mother and the women who raised me, they are often times the opposite. As a black woman I often feel that this particular idea of femininity was stripped away from me. My mother taught me to be strong minded, self reliant, aggressive, and to defend myself. She taught me that my great grandparents and those before them had to fight to have basic rights, and this is why we must be strong. She often would tell me that true femininity is a woman that is strong and confident in her own skin. When looking back at this story I start to brainstorm and connect the idea of being strong, self reliant, and aggressive to some kind of physical symbol. I immediately began to think of the poem by my favorite poet, Maya Angelou began to play in my head, "Still I Rise."

I decided to project my personal reflection directly onto the fabric. I played with the original idea of purity and delicate fabrics and juxtapose them with harsh images to send my message

October 2015

TRIFŪ: COLLABORATIVE FUTURISM

TriFū: Concept brand created by Joy Douglas, Cen Si and Esther Hong.

TriFū means tri-futurism inspired by three ancient civilizations: Egyptian, Chinese, and Mongolian culture. It uses traditional motifs found in these cultures and juxtaposes it with modern and futurist aesthetics. This video demonstrates our prototype garments.

Solar panel reflect triangle top designed by Joy Douglas. Cooling system mesh jacket designed by Cen Si. Reflective protective mask designed by Esther Hong.

Model: Serengeti Aliya Tall
Photography by Joy Marie Douglas

May 2015