Negotiated Skin

Category: Apparel

Negotiated Skin is an ongoing bio-based textile project that develops wearable biomaterial membranes as alternatives to petroleum-based plastics, synthetic organza, and non-degradable transparent films commonly used in fashion. For this submission, I am entering one wearable biomaterial membrane look from the Negotiated Skin series. Images with installation views or multiple bodies are included to show scale, movement, and body activation, not as separate submitted looks. The work combines protein-based biomaterials, hand-reeled raw silk, wool, fruit waste transfer, natural plant fibers and natural dyes. Through repeated material testing and crosslinking processes, I develop soft membranes that can hold form while remaining flexible, responsive, and body-activated. The project begins from an experience of bodily rupture and moves toward repair. Healing is not only a concept in the work, but also a material action. The membranes stretch, soften, collapse, and return, moving between skin, garment, and installation. Instead of creating a single finished fabric, Negotiated Skin proposes a bio-based material system that can be worn, activated, repaired, and considered within natural cycles. The project investigates how fashion can move beyond the surface and become a process of care, transformation, and ecological return.

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