The Body is a House
Category: Accessories
Competitions: Fashion Competition 2025
My collection, The Body is a House, comprises dark, luxurious, Australian Jarrah accessories that explore the boundaries between product and fashion design, showing functional and aesthetic influence from African historical design, and furniture design from the mid-century modern era. I believe I was encouraged in these directions because of my parents. My father, born and raised in Zimbabwe, shares trinkets and art from his home country with my mother who, passionate about furniture design, finds ways to decorate our home with this African craft. My designs are multipurpose, existing on the body and beyond, belonging in a household environment and serving a functional purpose. Hence, I am taking an interdisciplinary approach, integrating theory and methods from both furniture and object design. My methodology and handling of materials involve using computer-based programs and modern software, such as laser etching. Generative AI assisted in creating shapes and patterns, like the boarder of my shoe etching design. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator helped me translate two- dimensional silhouettes informed by visual signifiers of mid-century modern furniture to three-dimensional design outcomes. In the contemporary context, technological advances are often used without intention, to create mass-produced, generic design for evolving trends. By thoughtfully using technology to reinterpret traditional techniques and motifs with new design elements, I can help authentic African heritage be appreciated by a larger global audience and connected to a rapidly evolving contemporary context. I contribute to the adaptability of traditions, ensuring that the storytelling value and quality of past African craftsmanship can exist and be maintained within fast-paced contemporary design.
