White ladies : defining myself through the language of costume

As an artist who studies costume, I am fascinated by the way that people represent their personalities through their clothing choices. Clothing creates a sign system that indicates to outsiders details about self-expression, insecurities, and perspective. In this project, I studied my own self-expression through clothing by creating an art installation consisting of self-portrait photography. The self-portraits consist of four fictitious characters, which are each representations of four different versions of my potential future self. Each character contains specific characteristics derived from my own personality. The characters are named, “The Artist,” “The Hermitess,” “The Hobbyist,” and “Real Estate Mom.” Each of the characters was created using clothing, accessories, makeup, posture, expression, and physical location. Through the creation of each of these characters, I analyzed my own personality traits and how they express the way that I represent myself through clothing. Through this process, I learned to find a better voice and understanding for my artistic choices.