Property Of
My undergraduate thesis “Property Of” defines the uniform
as a device that establishes distinctiveness and uniformity
that works to indoctrinate conforming members of a group.
The thesis investigates how articles of clothing, particularly
school uniforms, become a tool for those with power to
impose their ideologies on the collective students to hold
power over and overly sexualize and dehumanize them.
This thesis redesigns school uniforms (for the US, Thailand,
and Japan) to make the argument that the choices we can
or cannot make about what we wear and the deliberate
designs of the uniforms result in the enforcement of power.
My project highlights how inequalities between genders
portrayed by over-exaggerating the given rules to make
it unavoidable or by denying the constraints given by the
institutions. The mediums of photography, collaging, and
model-making to juxtapose the sexualization of students in
an educational setting.
A format of a storefront, will be used to display these
redesigned uniforms to attract consumers in order to sell
a product or message within the society where ideas are
being spread through commercialized items. The storefront
window display becomes a collection of work, which will then
stand as a physical manifestation of the exaggerated ideas
presented, becoming a framed stage drawing the public to
dive deeper into the issues of sexualization within school
systems in the over-commercialized society. The storefront
window will be used as a way to draw people into the
discussion. The window creates a need for people to interact
with and interpret the project in their own way without the
message being delivered being stated to them as is.
“Property Of ” is meant to make people uncomfortable in
hopes of spreading awareness and starting a conversation
on feminism and the battle of women against the
patriarchal culture that has objectified them. The project
proposes uniforms as fashion and brings to attention the
commercialized aspect of fashion and the structure of power
reflected in the designs.
